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- With regard to the implementation of the hybrid approach, two possibilities are conceivable. On the one hand, the extension of the original OSN client (app or web front end) as an addon. On the other hand, the development of a completely new client.
- When the OSN is extended by an addon, the conventional functionality of the OSN does not have to be taken care of. Therefore, the development can be completely focused on the addon. At crucial points, the addon ensures that the interface is extended by additional elements that enable secure data exchange. The service providers usually do not offer developers an interface to extend the OSN with such own functionalities. With web front ends it is possible to manipulate the website content using browser add-ons. One example for doing so is FaceCloak. Since such browser extensions manipulate the Document Object Model (DOM), knowledge about the document structure is necessary for the successful function in order to make changes in the right places. The short release cycles of OSNs and the associated frequent changes to this DOM structure make it difficult to keep up with the changes. When consuming the OSN via the official apps on mobile devices, an extension or manipulation is not possible.
- The alternative to the extension approach described above is an extra hybrid client app. The entire functional range of the OSN must be implemented and kept up to date. As already mentioned with the restrictions, the functions are usually not provided completely via an API and the crawling of the content also brings with it some challenges. By having complete control over the development, the additional protected, secure communication can be added at the appropriate points. In the best-case scenario, at least one hybrid app is available for every operating system for which an official OSN app exists.
- Both approaches can be combined by displaying the (mobile) web page of the OSN in a WebView in a separate app and executing DOM manipulations via injected JavaScript code. For example, there are some alternative clients for Facebook (e.g. \enquote{Friendly for Facebook}\footnote{https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.friendly} \footnote{https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/friendly-for-facebook/id400169658}, \enquote{Metal Pro}\footnote{https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nam.fbwrapper.pro}) that use this approach.
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