This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I wonder how much of this is about cracking down on Newpipe, ReVanced and other unauthorized clients.
My suspicion is that it's because the playstore has become so awful that google is seeing the effect in their earnings. If customers get burned one too many times on a crappy app with fake reviews, then they're not going to spend any money on anything else in the store anymore. So now Google tries to sabotage the possible alternatives, rather than try to fix their product.
I'm curious, how does this affect EU users? Isn't this against our rules?
It's trying to squeeze through a legal loophole. They have to allow apps from outside their appstore. But law does not explicitly say they can't require them to be verified by google first.
Ordered a Jolla phone with their SailfishOs (linux based). Time to leave android
Would these work outside of Europe, say in the U.S. or Canada?
They will work outside of Europe according to their website. Also it says on the website:
The initial sales markets are EU, UK, Switzerland and Norway. Entering other markets, such as the U.S. and Canada are to be decided due course based on potential interest from the areas.
We will design the cellular band configuration to enable potential future markets, including major U.S. carrier networks.
does VoLTE work? Basically all carriers in the us use this and we knocked down all of the old tech towers. My understanding is the EU still has all the old towers up for just voice calls and don't need VoLTE to work.
Quick web search suggests it is a "beta" feature at best currently :(
In the EU VoLTE seems it works with most providers but there are issues with some providers. I think the sailfish OS forum has a compatibility list. Not sure how the situation is in the US as, this does depend on providers.
Ironically, this may be a catalyst for better Linux Phones
It took 6-10 years for Android to take shape.
On Linux, every app has full access to your browsing history, clipboard (passwords), photos with geo-tags, music, list of other installed apps, contacts. Unrestricted battery and network access -- it's a tracking paradise. And all it takes is one supply chain attack on npm install with typical 4000K dependency packages
Thats why flatpaks exist for those kind of apps and sandboxes are very much possible on linux (even if not widely used for normal programs)
Flatpack is only a piece of the puzzle. I remember in early Android version, an app could increas gyroscope query frequency (i.e. a racing game demanding precise phone tilt), then crash and the gyroscope would drain battery within hours. And again — this is only one example.
The ecosystem must grow — to this day, I cannot set Immich as my default gallery app on LineageOS. So I take a photo, and can't immediatelly look at it. And Android is already mature. There must be a standard and secure way of exchanging calendar events, notes, photos. Developers must adopt this new ecosystem — it takes years.
The best option we have right now is to pressure Google to allow alternative to Play Services and also sponsor AOSP development outside of Google. There are numerous Linux distros, including commercial ones, I don't see why we can't have numerous Android flavors.
Just in time for them to be practically outlawed, if my gut can be trusted. I hope not.
Dark times ahead...
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.
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...
Hard agree. If I'm forces to only run barely used FOSS apps, then I might as well buy a linux phone.
This is my #1 concern with this bullshit.
I can't see this move by Google as anything but a power grab to reduce competition. If someone wants to bear the "risk" of installing software that hasn't been vetted by Google, why does Google insist on being a nanny that makes it more difficult? Money, that's why. Google is acting to try to enforce its monopoly over android apps. GrapheneOS, which is more secure than android, doesn't make a fuss over this issue. No, this is only an issue with the company that hoovers up all your data in breach of your privacy.
I can’t see this move by Google as anything but a power grab to reduce competition
It locks down phones. Without sideloading the elite controls which messenger services can be used. They most likely can also secretly update apps and replace them with versions that leak the encryption keys.
With Google not being threatened by a competitor this essentially tells us that the elite is serious about moving to fascism.
It's frightening to me that the comment has 85 upvotes but no reply that points this out.
I only hope that manufacturers respond to this kind of behavior. Motorola deserves full credit for adopting grapheneos. I think some of the Chinese manufacturers have their own forks too?
How? The TOS for selling phones with Google services is that they can't sell phones with an Android fork outside China. Even the ODM is affected, meaning nobody will ever think this.
I saw in Italy that selling phones without Google services is a death sentence, Huawei crashed from 25% marketshare to 0% basically overnight even if they already had a "plan B" where they made "new" phones using the same specs and codename but in a different shape to buy time and when they launched their fork they had a 1:1 replacement for GMS called HMS so devs could still embed Google Maps and it will be replaced automatically by petal maps. Devs could upload their apps with a single click and users could install Google services unofficially installing an "unofficial 😉" APK with all the right signatures. Nobody did that. One click = too much work = nobody touches the default
At least they can leave the bootloader unlockable for us, but fucking Xiaomi really needs to make 200 new fucking models a year with lots of proprietary bits and abandons them after 6 months so it's impossibile for the community to make a well supported custom ROM. They copy everything from apple except the part where they should only make 4 fucking models a year. Basic, standard, pro and pro max. Don't need a "Xiaomi Redmi note 29T pro 5G wideband edition"
To be clear, GrapheneOS or any other fork of Android is not a long term viable solution as it is still dependent on Google. We need to break the Google/Apple duopoly. And of course, Linux phones are an option but people need top get behind it.
Nobody (for now),/as it can be easil, bypassed
