Wtf is this
I honestly wish for the responsible people to die. A natural, painless death, but let it be quick. All of silicon valley is so evil it would be deemed unrealistic for a movie villain. They are selling out our freedoms and planet for what? They are already stinking rich.
Last I checked, unverified software didn’t run the risk of making my phone fly itself into, and bring down, a skyscraper.
You haven’t seen the way I write code.
Well. They will try anyway.
The phone I have now is half way paid off… I will say it. It is a Samsung S23. I didn’t want it. It is just my other phone literally died from a single drop of water! I won’t get into the details. But I want grapheneOS or the most private OS I can.
Right now I have been carrying my phone less than before. I used to take it even to grocery store trips, but I am just getting sick of the endless monitoring, even if I am a terminally online person. I literally cannot leave my apartment without being on camera since my landlord has all the corridors and exits/entrances on 24/7 surveillance.
I know that a phone can be tracked even when on a private OS. And the EU’s rules on wanting a copy of every single message sent out from all messaging apps (including signal) will still affect non-EU people, too. It fucking sucks.
The Android ecosystem has been feeling more like an invasive chaotic advertisement machine the past few years. The play store is a cesspool, the weather app switch was poorly executed, Google Podcasts went to the graveyard, and Google pay getting shut down meant I had to switch back to vomits Venmo.
I still have Android gaming handhelds, but why wouldn’t I just get an iPhone the next time I go to replace my phone? I can’t believe I’m even saying that after being so die hard Android so for years.
why wouldn’t I just get an iPhone
Jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire.
I’m sure we all have a different perception, but my current view is that Google sells you a phone that they need to push ads and harvest vast amounts of data from you in order to make money on the phone, and Apple somehow needs to do this less.
Which company do you feel takes privacy more seriously? From what I understand, Google primarily makes their money from advertising.
Exactly this. Just left iOS and got a pixel8a and flashed grapheneos on it. Apple is doing the same shit. GOS might be a pain in the ass sometimes but I feel much better knowing that Tim Apple isn’t reading my texts and monitoring my bank apps so they can target me with ads.
I can’t do Graphene because of work. I am an IT manager, and one of our guys did graphene and had a host of issues with the work apps. I really can’t risk any issues.
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too. Android’s only advantage over the Apple ecosystem is being able to install apps. If that goes away there’s no reason for me to stay.
Google pay being shut down is news to me. I still pay contactless with Google pay and also for paying on websites…
https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-wallet
They migrated people over to the wallet. What was shut down was the app called “Google Pay”
Yes, sorry I should have clarified. The biggest loss was the person-to-person payments are now gone. I never understood why they had multiple apps that did the same thing. I seem to also remember a time where there was a Google pay and gpay app that lived side by side, so there were a total of three apps when there should have been one.
They also managed to remove a feature from the fucking clock app. It’s not much, but seriously, it’s like a headless chicken running toward a cliff from the business end.
Google pay is being shut down?
Seems like Curve pay could be an alternative
Sorry I should have clarified. Google pay moved the payment features to Google wallet, but the biggest loss was the person-to-person payments are now gone. I never understood why they had multiple apps that did the same thing. I seem to also remember a time where there was a Google pay and gpay app that lived side by side, so there were a total of three apps when there should have been one.
oh, I didn’t know this
Google Pay is different in America, right? To me it’s just contactless.
uh, not sure, I’m in Europe as well
I was thinking about NFC payments, yea
Fuck Google
I hope they fail.
Google says it’s no different than checking IDs at the airport.
Fucker, if I own the airport, own the planes in the airport, am the only person using my own planes in my own airport, then nobody is asking for my ID.
Our phone, our software choice.
Fucker, if I own the airport, own the planes in the airport, am the only person using my own planes in my own airport, then nobody is asking for my ID.
Okay, but what if Google owns the airport, the planes, and thinks it’s entitled to own the people flying on them, to boot?
Our phone, our software choice.
There it is, haha.
Gave me a good chuckle as i’m with you here.
I have a similar sentiment when it comes to ads, my device, i pay for the internet and the device is inside my home. I’ll decide if you get to show me ads.
For ads at least the argument can be made that the content you consume is not yours and as such you should not be allowed to choose how it is monetized.
Google unilaterally deciding this is like Firefox or chrome adding ads to websites. Which is like no… They’re the medium through which content is consumed.
But what if you owned nothing and were happy about it?
The minimalist in me would love that. But while I am paying for this shit, it’s mine to do what the hell I damn well please with it!
so no modded apps, no emulation, no unauthorised chat apps. hopefully some root mod will make this irrelevant.
I wouldn’t be so sure they will allow you to do it. First they implemented chrome restrictions for adblockers with manifest v3, then restricted AOSP sources. Looks like they are pretending to be Apple now.
sudo apt-get remove google
Nice timing for chat control!
Lets build a Raspi phone
I am toying with the idea of creating a PDA of sort from a raspberry pie, touchscreen and a powerbank. Case can be 3d printed, it would be bulky af and equipped with Tails or some other secure OS.
https://lilygo.cc/products/t-deck
only problem is it’s just an esp32, but you can add GPS
Why not just get a PinePhone?
Or FairPhone??
Neither sell their phones in (or ship to) my country.
Because they are cool and build phones from scratch
Got it, you want a project more than a finished product. I can respect that. :)
Well, sort of…
Two things especially worth noting from the article.
If you have a non-Google build of Android on your phone, none of this applies.
This means that at least GrapheneOS will be unaffected for now. Other ROMs without gapps will be unaffected only as long as you don’t install gapps. Since Graphene has a sandbox for them, I’m assuming it’ll be fine. That is, unless Google decides to lock the bootloader entirely.
In September 2026, Google plans to launch this feature in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The next step is still hazy, but Google is targeting 2027 to expand the verification requirements globally.
So most users worldwide still have at least 1.5 years until it’s implemented. Plenty of time to get a Pixel and install Graphene on it. Or to figure out some other plan.
Don’t get me wrong - this is insane, unreasonable and horrible news for everyone. We should push back as hard as physically possible against it. However, at the very least we still have some time to figure things out before the policy rolls out.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Google stop allowing BL unlocking soon… Following Samsung and Xiaomi (although Xiaomi technically can be unlocked, in reality you’ll not be able to do so nowadays unless you pay someone to do it via remote USB shit for you)
I’m getting Huawei
Consider a Volla Phone with UBPorts.
UBPorts can also be installed on Fairphone.
Literally just as bad lol
Yes. Would be a protest buy.
I would spend more money and get Chinese os to just not fund Google.The way I see it this is the last drop in the bucket for android openness anyways.
Fair enough- at least you’re not under any illusions that they’re less restrictive and scummy.
EU: How often do I have to teach you, old man?
EU is moving full steam ahead toward the end of “private” computers and mandatory state surveillance on your devices. They’ll be delighted with that. The funky “hey, we’re consumer friendly” times are over.
EU: Thank you Google for complying with the DSA.
This is a a huge part of it, the whole “prevent illegal” parts.
- “easier reporting of illegal content”
- “less exposure to illegal content”
- “level-playing field against providers of illegal content”
The EU isn’t going to punish them for this, they will hold this up as the golden standard.
The EU waltz.
One step forward.
One step to the left.
Two steps to the right.
Three steps back.Repeat.
Inside the EU’s chest there are two wolves.
Just as they did with Apple when they forced them to allow sideloading? So yeah, the EU will push massively against this if its implemented there.
You mean when they forced Apple to implement the “trusted trader” scheme.
No, i mean when they forced apple to open their IOS system to side loading custom, unverified apps.
Here, have a read:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/117767
The trusted trader scheme only applies if you want to distribute your app via the official apple iOS app store.
The DSA requires people offering apps (“traders”) to provide certain information. For example: address, email, and phone number must be made public. When Apple introduced that, this also caused some outrage and calls for EU regulation. Despite the fact that this was exactly the regulation called for. Hence, why I mentioned that trusted trader scheme.
Google may be legally required to do this. I’m not sure how the DSA is to be interpreted on this. It’s certainly not a stretch (see Article 31). It’s out of touch to believe the EU will push against this.
Where does it say that Google is blocking all side loading?
It says they are blocking the installing of unsigned apps. This is the macOS Gatekeeper being the only option on Android. You can still download and install apps that aren’t in the Play Store. So the EU will still love this as 3rd party apps can still exist, but at the same time anything “illegal” can be reported to them immediately.
It’s effectively becoming the gate keeper in the same way apple only allowing app installs through its app store only is a gate keeper.
The Cyber Resilience Act may also have something to do with this.
Where are all the open source phone OSes? Where are the OS agnostic capable hardware phones? Technically some do exist, but I don’t think they have any significant market share. Hope I’m wrong though.
They are in the same room with all the third-party support for them, ESPECIALLY from state-built applications that are increasingly being required to do administration stuff and mandatory banking apps that are required for online payment and even opening their websites these days.
That room does not exist.
Google slowly suffocated all the 3rd party rom vendors.
Essentially every browser that’s not Firefox or Safari is reskinned Google chrome for a reason. Because it’s insanely expensive to build and maintain browsers. Mobile operating systems aren’t much different in this regard.
That’s not exactly true. There are several FOSS mobile OSes, such as PostmarketOS, Mobian, Ubuntu Touch, and the various Android ROMs. Once it’s compatible, keeping that OS updated is relatively simple.
The issues with mobile OSes are:
- many phones lock their bootloadersl, and every phone mfg seems to do things a little differently
- so many different phone models with different hardware includes, none of which has manufacturer support in Linux
- closed firmware for cell modems, which have their own little OS that needs to work with the main OS; trying to touch this runs into regulatory issues
Basically, supporting a new phone has a lot of upfront work with very little ongoing work.
Web browsers, on the other hand, need to stay updated with constantly shifting web standards, they’re a huge malware target so they need to keep up on CVEs, and pages are getting more complex causing performance and rendering issues, and everyone blames the browser. Supporting a new platform is generally trivial, but the ongoing work is immense.
They’re very different beasts.
Not to mention just about every “serious” app (gov’t, banking, etc) check safetynet before even turning on. (Hell I’ve had a gov’t app refuse to start because I had developer options enabled, on a completely ‘clean’ phone)
So emulating them isn’t gonna work and websites do not always prioritize working on mobile anymore (“just install the app”)
Ok this needs harsh pushback, because phones are affordable, computers are not. There needs to be a massive project dealing with making phones platform agnostic.
Have you shopped for those items recently? You have 200 buck computers and 2000 buck phones.
Also I live in a 3rd-world country
ahh give em a bit, most of the first world ones are trying to head that way ;)
My current phone, a Pixel 7a, cost me around 350€ (let’s say it’s roughly the same in $). There is definitely cheaper options. And most of these options will give you a decent phone.
A $200 computer will bring you to basic office stuff and playing facebook games.
Yep but also 200 buck phones.
