Eh, if you are still on a Gservices Version of Android you are lost anyway
So I just urge y'all to step back and watch at this clownshow.
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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That sounds illegal.
Depends. Are you from the EU or not?
I am, that's why it sounds illegal. :D
Purism is sketchy btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKegmu0V75s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IjUryQOlgk
(Louis Rossman videos explaining how a customer was denied a refund for a "pre-order" and then they tried to coerce Louis to take down the video.)
Edit: typo
As a person who experienced the customer support regrading preorders I can confirm this firm is extremly sketchy.
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In parallel, Google has rolled out its Play Integrity API, which allows developers to limit app functionality when sideloaded, effectively pushing users to install apps only through the Google Play Store.
All of this while EU forbids Apple to do the same, what is the idea here? Measuring how EU reacts?
...did you read the ad...? It quite obviously answers your question and calls out the difference. The large, glaring one. The one that probably even a first grader would grasp.
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Yikes this really doesn't look good. Is there any reporting on it from independent journalists (or anyone else who isn't also advertising their own competing operating system)?
Not that I've seen and I'd take what Purism say with a grain of salt: they've acted like pretty shitty gatekeepers themselves. Nothing they mentioned in the article seems too egregious in truth and they're exaggerating the scale of it: Play Store app DRM exists already, and the restrictions on browser-downloaded apps they mention can be bypassed (albeit by having to go into settings) and don't apply to apps installed through other apps stores (F-Droid, etc).
Nothing they mentioned in the article seems too egregious in truth
Doesn't it? To be honest, if the article is telling the truth and not exaggerated, I find this pretty egregious. How you installed an app should be irrelevant, so the idea of an API to say "did this come from the Play Store" is fucking shit. And the ability to block installation of apps that call certain APIs entirely is even worse.
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In Singapore, lots of boomers are downloading scam apps from facebook lured by promises of discounts and free gifts, handing out accessibility privileges, and they'll even argue vehemently against loved ones and bank staff when confronted. When it all inevitably blows up, they blame absolutely everyone except themselves, including praising Apple for some reason.
Being the largest voting block, they managed to get banks responsible for reimbursing their losses and there was even an idea floated of getting everyone to contribute to a shitty scam insurance fund. Many major banking apps are paranoid af and block usage from simple things like usb debugging turned on.
Absolutely stupidity. And there's nothing we can do about it when the politicians love them so much.
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effectively pushing users to install apps only through the Google Play Store
I wonder what this will mean for Aurora and Fdroid etc.
This is my immediate first thought seeing this. This fucking sucks. Part of the whole benefit of something like LineageOS or e (OS?) was being able to use Fdroid to stay away from Google as much as possible. Now this is going to potentially make things weird.
I hope f-droid has nothing to do with Google play store, thought they are their own store without connection to Google.
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From the article it sounds like the limitations come for some app types downloaded directly from a browser. I think this doesn't affect alternate app stores like f-droid where you are effectively delegating approval to their process.
I have come across the other limitations mentioned with the Home Assistant companion app which I could only get matter registration to work with the version downloaded from the Play store.
It's funny because one browser I use is downloaded from the browsers website which I then use to install the update to said browser.
Google needs a Luigi.
Well, but where do you get F-Droid? Or stuff like ReVanced Manager.
Or Epic's stuff. Wasn't Google just now sued for this shit and nobody understood why Google lost and Apple didn't because you can easily sideload on Android.
I completely agree. Unless Google is forced to install more than one app store by default, or forced to have multiple app stores downloadable on Play Store, three is no realistic way to install a third party app store on a phone. In both cases, Google's cooperation is required.
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Maybe for the Singapore thing. For the play integrity thing, it applies to apps from anywhere except the play store directly. I use Aurora to install apps that say "not compatible with your device" for no reason. But a week or two ago ago, they started blocking access and saying I needed to install from the play store.
Fortunately I was able to downgrade and they kept working, but I don't know how long that will last. At some point the server side will change the API.
So you can't use banking apps, or you mean like you cant even use F-Droid FOSS apps at all?
Fortunately I haven't had to do this for anything like my bank app or its multifactor code app, but yeah it would be like that. For apps not published on the play store, they continue working.