This is what happens when you don't have strong competitors. We need to promote more independent OS platforms for smartphones like Linux distros.

Graphene os announced a partnership with Motorola. My next phone will be a Motorola with Graphene OS.

The situation has changed recently.

Google backed down from this being mandatory this week. There will be an option to allow side loaded apps but it will require a 24h delay to enable.

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-android-sideloading-unverified-apps-new-rules-3650343/

Grotesque

I get that you can get around this but there are 2 major problems I see.

1. Google now has a flag on my phone they can control remotely to keep me from accessing the apps I want to use.

2. Alternative app stores like F-Droid will never be any more popular than they are today. This raises the barrier to entry so much that we can effectively consider the open source phone app movement to be dead in the water.

I don’t get it… Google‘s main appeal over Apple is that you can install anything on Android. It runs worse, is less stable and sometimes just does dumb stuff. That’s like if Nintendo would get rid of Mario/Pokémon

Start moving to LineageOS or GrapheneOS now. Plan your next phone purchase on a model supporting one of these. eBay a used phone if you have to. Get out.

So much for their “don’t be evil” policy

It just occured to me what this is all about: shutting down the ICE tracking app. They won't carry it on the play store, but its still being shared.

https://antifreeze.app/

With this, you can't get it on your phone. And, given how much Google is sucking up to tRump, they want to help him shut this down along with all the other evil.

Fuck them. I hope open source / de-googled android can somehow survive this.

Regulators won't be any help - Apple has always been even more locked down than that, and no one forbade it, so how are they gonna stop Google from doing the same? IMO the only way out is to leave Android and turn to Linux completely (that means Linux hardware adaptation layers, no more Android anywhere). Some phones have already been made like this

Fuck Google.

They're really working hard at distancing themselves from that "Don't be evil" motto.

Google: "Only I can make malware apps!"

They were supposed to fight evil, not join it.

Never owned an iPhone

Currently on android purely for alternative os's

Next phones for my family will either be Linux, if they hold the line, or iPhone if no one does

Why would anyone pick a garbage Android device if they're as locked down as iOS and costs as much?

Make it shitty, Google. I hope companies that behave as yours are get the same enshitification ending

google can eat shit.

the moment I see a viable linux phone, I'm out.

I thought they just rolled this back?

The whole tech world is just so frustrating. (in before reply pointing out that it's capitalism causing the frustration - yup)

Some of these "features" and "safeguards" might make sense coming from a trusted entity. Even in the real world with evil Google the changes might help some users who use Google everything and might benefit from being blocked from doing stupid things.

But it's not even close to worth it. They cannot be trusted on their own, and now the influence and access of the US government seems 10x worse than it already was.

Banks, government apps and main apps (Whatsapp, etc.) are on Google Play. It's clear governments will stick with Google. What is left to know is how seriously democratic governments take civil liberties.

I'm gonna stick to pre-owned devices with alternate ROMs like Lineage, Cyanogen, RR, Havoc, Bliss, cr, Viper, AOSP, KP, ISP, etc. or any of the other hundred brews. I don't anticipate getting a phone that runs android and is not able to be modified EVER. Eventually if the time comes that the tech changed so vastly that they're not usable anymore (like 3G now) by then hopefully there will be full Linux phones or some other varieties. Maybe many.

But the thing is the mainstream masses just don't give a shit. Their rights and liberties have been getting chewed away at for decades and they just can't seem to care. As long as they are entertained enough and the culture like ours - ie geek subculture / hacking community continues to be mocked and vilified, they're certainly not gonna listen to us.

But what's new about that? Nada.

We are forever going to remain a fringe community and I just accept that. When a family member has Alexa devices and I show them all the analytics and tests and records from all the various sources that provide empirical evidence of constant surveillance and spying and uploading of eavesdropped audio and the folks just go eh oh well eh yeah but ah useful eh I have nothing to hide ehhh urrrgh .. I start to see them with sunken eye sockets and protruding brow ridges. They are the fools and the suckers and the sheep. They're the ones who will line up to be implanted with a chip, they're the ones who will pay to have their brains mapped and catalogued. You can't cure fucking stupid. Meanwhile people like us will remain the fringe "undesirables" as long as our hearts beat.

There actually has been an update on this. The advanced flow has been revealed and it's like a 24-hour wait and a few prompts to go through and I'll reboot and enabling developer mode... Bit of friction but all in all it's better than nothing I guess.

The dev verification is "optional". With the condition that if a developer doesn't then users can only install after jumping through a few hoops.

Lol imagine if Microsoft had succeeded in controlling the development and distribution of all software used on Windows. We'd all lose something.