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From F-Droid to emulators, here's who's hit hardest by Android's new verification rules
(www.androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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Thank god I run /e/OS. I just hope this won't hurt the popularity of sideloaded apps too much, as this might mean FOSS apps becoming stagnant because they don't receive as much attention anymore
For /e/os have adblocker? How’s the learning curve?
They have a tool called advanced privacy that tries to block in-app trackers. Adblocking is more a browser thing but the preinstalled browser does have it (although I use uBlock on Fennec, a Firefox fork). Theres really not that much to learn most things just work. The only thing you need to know is that some apps that rely heavily on Google Play Services might not work properly. For example Google Maps does not work (but the Webapp does or you can just use CoMaps or Osmand, something OpenStreetMap based). Generally I found the switch to be pretty easy. My banking apps all worked fine but I've heard some people have trouble with theirs. The App Launcher is kind of iOS inspired but I didn't like it that much so I just swapped it out with Kvaerisito.
Hard agree. If I'm forces to only run barely used FOSS apps, then I might as well buy a linux phone.
I also use /e/OS. I'm not too versed in these things, but if I understand correctly from your comment, this decision by Google won't directly affect us right? Only in the sense that it discourages developers to not support FOSS apps?
Yeah, it won't affect you really. /e/OS is based off of AOSP and Lineage and the devs can just choose to keep it like it currently is. I haven't really found a source for it but since theres like no official play store, and the lineage community would just patch out whatever google introduces (If this even reaches AOSP) I don't think this will ever bother neither of us. The real threat comes from FOSS projects dying bc most Android users still use proprietary android
Alright, thanks for the confirmation! Yeah, hopefully this won't affect FOSS projects too much...
This is my #1 concern with this bullshit.