My gym forced a social media down my throat. So I reverse-engineered its app

willcate

Wow. The QR code changing every 15 minutes... that's like trying to get into a rock concert. Well done

MattDamonSpace

I find dissonance between “I hate these products” and “I’m going to freeride by eg blocking their ads” I know the effect is negligible but isn’t that just stealing

Drupon

>However, I’m super aggressive about social media and feeds I don’t control. Any app that shows me a feed I can’t turn off, sort, or filter—I take that as psychological warfare against me. Is it just me or are people getting too stuck in a Manichean mindset about this kind of thing? This reads like an alcoholic complaining about a work happy hour or something. Just, don't use the social media stuff. >For the longest time, my LinkedIn bio was “I HATE LINKEDIN.” OP kind of just seems insufferable. Touch grass.

b800h

This person has too much time on their hands.

trevithick

The bigger issue is that to use this gym, you must own a smartphone and you must bring it with you and carry it around while you work out. We're just counting down to being unable to exist without a smartphone on your person at all times. What a dystopia.

otter-in-a-suit

What's with all the negative comments here? I thought this was a reasonably interesting article about _actually hacking something_, whether this person needed to or not. You know, like in "HackerNews"?

blue_green_maps

This is the future of software with AI: everyone can have hyper-personalized software to solve very personally-specific problems.

smusamashah

Another solution could have been to run something like Tasker or Automate to launch app, take QR from current activity (this is the main part) and display just that and once you are done, dismiss the rest of the app.

throwaway89201

Somewhat relatedly: did you know that the "RSA Authenticator (SecurID)" app only tries to detect Frida / ptrace hooks for the first few seconds of its runtime, after which it loads the symmetric OTP secret into memory? Now you do.

alistairSH

Does Android not have a "wallet" feature? My gym does the app-based QR code for entry, but on Apple, I just add that app to my wallet and the QR appears there, I only need to access the app proper to check class and pool schedules.

elAhmo

Just change your gym bro, not worth supporting this behaviour.

nancyminusone

>it prompts you to post a story of your session An excellent portal to accept a fictionalized ai slop version of "your" experience. Make it long, and maybe put a recipe at the bottom.

eterm

This is dated today but I could have sworn I read a similar story here a few years ago about hacking their gym's QR code, but I can't now find it on algolia. Update: It was hard to find because it was titled, "I accidentally became PureGym’s unofficial Apple Wallet developer" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44910865

drnick1

I like that you took matters into your own hands, but here my preferred approach would have been to approach management and request an alternative access method. I do have separate profiles on my GOS phone for this kind of situations, but I have been on a crusade against phone apps for years now, and ultimately this is a social problem. I similarly reject apps and QR menus in restaurants, airlines, etc. If you can't be bothered to give me a paper menu, I can't be bothered to eat in your establishment.

QuercusMax

Building your own AES implementation is pretty insane and obvious a bad idea...

joshstrange

Years ago when I went to Planet Fitness I didn't like their app and it was slow to load the barcode I needed to scan to get in. Thankfully that barcode didn't rotate so I was able to just make my own Apple Pass and set it up to be geo-fenced on the gym so as I walked up it would pop up as a notification I could tap to open my code. I love being able to do things like this and rip out the crap being forced down our throats.

hk__2

> To be clear, I’m leaving out some details to keep the gym and myself anonymous For the last part, it’s maybe not the best idea to put a link "GitHub & CV" at the bottom then ;)

SoftTalker

My gym issues an NFC keyfob you scan at the turnstyle (and at the door, after hours). I keep it clipped to a lanyard on my gym bag so I don't forget it or lose it. They review video and deal with friends sharing a keyfob pretty harshly. Membership revoked.

lifeisloving

I have deepseek hooked up to a couple rooted phones REing android apks basically 24/7. Its quite useful. One of the few things I think llms are genuinely useful for.

dasil003

I guess it's good to know this gym is explicitly leaning into the meat market aspects of the gym, and maybe there's nothing wrong with that. But over time won't that subtly turn off the clientele that are not attention-seeking narcissists? The idea that a gym is a place where you will likely meet fit, attractive people is something that I think has a broader appeal as long as it remains subtle and unspoken. As soon as you make it explicit with social media it seems like it kills the vibe pretty fast. Or maybe I'm just old and the youngs will just take it in stride like the rest of the world that software has eaten.