For your security we’re going to block your access to FOSS and apps that let you avoid our ads. This is totally not a business decision. Pinky swear.
for the greater good
This good is gonna be so great after we lose everything to the worst of us.
and avoid our datamining capabilities, and the intrusive AI we keep pushing on unwanted customers. we knew thier android core app(spyware) was the first step. they probably want that to permanantly installed into everyones phone.
Google says it’s no different than checking IDs at the airport.
You’re not a fucking airport, Google!
Also we bought and own the fucking plane! Don’t tell us where we can fly to!
Better. We bought the airport. Google was paid to pave the runway and maintain it for a couple years after. And now they try to dictate that only planes they approve may start and land.
While stealing and selling all the data from the passengers.
i dont need to show id to fly domestic…
Ah, but Google is never flying domestic. They sell your data internationally.
No one talking about how this could completely annihilate open source .apk development? First off the lead dev has to get identity verified to get a key, which will reduce the number of devs willing to push through friction to start a project. Then when the key is issued and it is posted to the repository, what keeps anyone from grabbing it and using it for another repo? We’ll they have an official app registration of some kind, ok, what about version control? Does every new version have to be registered before it can be loaded and tested? Same for forks?
This is about to be a terrible mess, Google is assassinating FOSS with this.
You distribute the code without your key and a built package that is signed. This isn’t exactly rocket science.
Anyone who forks the code will have to use their own key to install a package they built.
It’s just unnecessary red tape.
It’s just unnecessary red tape.
Which will reduce the number of people using foss apks, which will in turn, reduce the motivation, and then the number, of foss apk developers.
How will fdroid work
Fdroid itself and every package they host will have to be signed.
Maybe there are still workarounds, like enabling dev mode on your phone, but still tedious.
It will kill everyone that is playing around with the phones. I have done a couple mobile projects where I just sideloaded the package I created to quickly test it and to demo it to people. Now that I can’t do that why would I develop for your platform by choice.
If they end up blocking f-droid I’m bombing them
How can that be legal?
Because Apple does it
Fuck.
Wasn’t it made illegal on Europe?
they saw how apple is profitable from being completely walled in garden.
The current trends and direction of tech is making me want to become Amish…
I’m getting so fucking sick of everything turning into shit, what’s even the point of fucking point anymore? This is borderline kernel level enshitification
The Amish that I grew up near were big into shunning, child marriage, sexual abuse, not talking to the cops, and lots of drugs.
I’m just saying it might be easier to switch to open source or something.
not talking to the cops, and lots of drugs.
TIL I’m 2/5ths Amish
Go outside and touch grass.
So Android is pointless now?
No, really. If I’m gonna be dragged kicking and screaming into the walled garden, why would I go with Google’s joke of an ecosystem instead of much nicer and better integrated Apple garden?I might as well start carrying one of those weird branded ultra-tiny laptops from AliExpress and some used, older iPhone for the 2 apps I need.
Fuck it. Throw out the baby, the bathwater, the bathtub, the whole damn thing. Fuuuuck it.Google has been been cracking down on installing .apk’s on your phone for years and they’re getting more and more aggressive about it. It’s not a question of if they’ll disallow it completely, but when.
It’s already extremely tedious. Back in the Android 2.3 days (oh, good old Gingerbread) you could just get an APK and install it, but those times are long gone.
Years ago they threatened the developer of Total Commander to remove his app from the PlayStore unless he patched out an APK install feature, so he was forced to do that.
Now another example: Try to install eBay on a phone that is not passing device integrity. It is not listed on the PlayStore because your device doesn’t pass safety checks. You can grab an APK and install it, but the OS will check if the app has been installed through the PlayStore and if it hasn’t, it will complain and close itself.
GrapheneOS has patched that bullshit out, btw.
And this behaviour happens with all apps where the developer has enabled the “App Integrity” option, which is heavily pushed as a super-great security feature. So developers might just enable that feature, not being fully aware of the implications.
As you can see, it’s one method at a time, slowly but surely, until Google fully controls the ecosystem. The intention behind that is pretty clear: They don’t want people to have AdAway and Revanced, they want money and user data. And they also want you to login to the PlayStore, get hooked on their stupid daily points challenges and spend your hard-earned money on virtual crap.
This is textbook enshittification, it will only get worse from here on.
AdAway can be easily emulated using a DNS server…
Yeah I carry that DNS server around with me in the other pocket /s
Oddly enough your phone is more than powerful enough to do that.
Idk why you’re meming, it’s easy as hell to run it on device, or you can just use dns.adguard.com instead
To be fair, unless you’re using a private, controllable DNS with a frontend interface (like NextDNS, Pihole, etc) – DNS ad blocking is “all or nothing”. Those apps let you control which apps and services and domains come through.
I’m aware, I choose to use the adguard one but I’ve used the on-device ones in the past
only malware i have read about on android have came from google’s oh so safe store.
Time for a hard fork.
Yeah, need them hardware manufacturers too.
We would have plenty of Linux phones if drivers were open sauce or even just available closed sauce.
It also becomes no different than iPhone, so… what’s keeping me to android if they do this? Or hey, maybe I’ll commit to de-googling. I have CoMaps, I’m planning to setup nextcloud soon… Hell, I don’t even buy anything on Google play anymore since it’s so shit, i have no purchases tying me to the OS. Maybe I’ll buy a cheap old iPhone so I can finally use imessage with everyone that’s been bitching about me and use other tech for everything else.
(I’m not going to iPhone, but the point stands)
I’m wondering why I even need a smartphone at this point. I’m tempted to go back to a flip phone.
I guess the next question is, which of those is actually better? If those collect data too, then how do we get out of this damned mess.
I left iphone because of a walled garden issue, was thinking about working with my parents off of iphone so I can actually assist with them because I’ve been off of it for decades.
Instead may be the other direction because at least iOS has a modicum of privacy by at least telling the US government to make their own back doors instead of just licking the boot like google does. I’m not a fan of apple by any stretch of the imagination, but at this point of the falling apart world fuck it, I gotta figure out what the least evil is, even if it’s only marginal.
I’m not a fan of Apple either (I have mostly Apple stuff except for a Linux gaming machine). But they are the lesser of the two evils. At least in my opinion. Google is openly selling your data and making them richer in the process. At least Apple says they don’t sell your data. I don’t know if they do. But I’d doubt it tbh
The only reason I still have Android is work apps in required to have that won’t work properly without the Play Store. I guess I could carry two phones but I am definitely not that guy.
That is precisely one of my main lines of reasoning; I’ve thought about this for a long, long time, and I’m switching to Apple iPhone. I’m keeping a Oukitel Titan for Android stuff ((Grayjay)). But I’m getting the 17 Extra Pro Max Plus Plus or whatever for a main.
So I guess my next phone will be a Chinese phone. Even if it spies on me, I’ll have the freedom to install whatever I want from anywhere.
The Chinese have a golden window of opportunity. Let’s hope they don’t mess this up.
LOL. Chinese phones are way worse, they simply block installations of “unsanctioned” apps with no workaround.
My wife is Chinese and I used to live there for 7 years, it’s an absolute privacy nightmare.
I have a Xiaomi 14 pro, I just have to tap the correct button to install an outside app. (It’s in Chinese, even though the phone is set to English, so i have no idea what it says but it gets me there).
If you bought it outside of China that might be a thing, for Chinese phones it shows a cancel button only. There is a confirm button, but it’s greyed out and not clickable.
So I bought it from giztop, they take the Chinese version of the phone, get the Google play store on there and get it set to English, plus a couple other things, so that it’s easier for you to get started with. I bought this because I had thought they’d make a global version and I could flash that rom when that happened, and only deal with some Chinese sections of the phone for a short while, but for some reason they didn’t with this specific phone, they did for the 14 ultra.
I busted the phone out again to see the popup I was talking about, but actually one of the (semi) recent updates made it so the buttons are english. I am allowed to just install things with a few pop-up warnings and the phone does some kind of check. I wonder if it’s because it’s an “unlocked” phone (I don’t know if it’s the same in China where a carrier locks the phone to their network and has their own shit installed if you buy it from them) or what.
Either way, interesting.
So many people don’t understand this at all. China is still the same as when the tanks were rolling over college students.
As someone who uses a Xiaomi phone, that’s not true.
It was a faff getting it to install any random apk I found of off the Internet, but it was possible. Did involve holding down a graphic for 10 seconds as part of the unlock procedure.
But for now at least, you can still install any unsigned apk without going through a store.
Way easier to install a custom rom
Apart from Xiaomi and OnePlus, which are released for international audiences, I’m not aware of a single Chinese phone with active rom development.
Honor, Huawei, Poco, Oppo, …the list goes on.
Oppo = OnePlus
Huawei bootlaoders can’t be unlocked, so absolutely no custom ROM there.
Honor bootlaoders can’t be unlocked, so absolutely no custom ROM there.
Poco seems possible for now, never used one of their phones, but well good that there’s something possible.
If you dont want to put a custom rom on it (which is becoming increasingly difficult), you’re can buy a HK version off taobao.
I guess if GrapheneOS finally gets spoken to by a manufacturer interested in filling this market gap, that would be awesome too.
Hell, maybe it could be a chinese manufacturer.
GrapheneOS is currently actively talking to a major Android OEM in order to help them reach the security requirements for a subset of their future devices. If that succeeds GrapheneOS will be able to run on non-Pixel devices.
Oh please let this work out
Timewindow 2026, perhaps 2027 for release of such devices. Talks have been going on for a few months, if it wasn’t working out at all that probably should’ve been clear already.
I am very happy with my One Plus 13 phone. It has better hardware and was at a better price than Samsung’s S25.
Samsung used to be good. I used to always buy samsung but since I can’t affort a “high end” device, I go with the medium end ones, and samsung medium end ones are terrible for the price. So instead of getting a medium end samsung, you can get something better and cheaper on another brand
Samsung always seems to have the paradigm of good hardware with shitty software, and with their recent phones they seem to manage to enshittify both.
So you either need to put a custom/global rom on it, get the hk version, or pay like 20% more for a global version.
Bonus problems, AT&T in the US kicked off the international phone versions a while back. They worked fine. I have a bunch of leftover G4 international versions that they up and banned one day around 2020. The terrible US version remained allowed.
They can’t even handle the apps on their store…
The android dream is over. It was fun while it lasted. My next phone will be linux
