cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/49144491 > Google is quietly rolling out its Gemini AI tool as the default assistant on Android, even on devices where users never explicitly enabled it. In many cases, Gemini replaces Google Assistant by default, making it increasingly challenging to disable fully. > > This deep integration means Gemini can still be active in the background, accessing your apps, system features, and personal info. > > Here's what Gemini can access: > > Gmail > Google Calendar > Google Drive & Docs > Maps, Keep, Tasks > Messages, Phone, and even WhatsApp > > Even more concerning: > > Your data is used to train Google’s AI. > Human reviewers may see your chats. > Data can be shared with 3rd parties. > As of July 2025, Gemini stays connected to apps even when activity tracking is turned off. > > 🛑 You can’t fully disable Gemini, but you can limit it: > > How to limit Gemini on Android: > > Turn off activity tracking > Revoke permissions > Uninstall it (if possible) > > Further options, if you’re privacy-conscious: > > Reduce your reliance on Google services or fully de-Google > Consider a privacy-first OS like GrapheneOS or CalyxOS > > ⚠️ Google is making Gemini the default assistant for all Android devices by the end of 2025. > > Choose privacy over AI surveillance. > > If you want tools that respect your data, ensure you use encrypted email, a private calendar, and a secure cloud, with no AI training or human review.

I now reside in Germany and my current employer pays 50% of this so called Deutschland-Job-Ticket. There is no physical card but travel information you download to an android wallet, but apparently google wallet is the only available option. See the picture:  Google is a company I don’t trust with my data, neither do I expect your regular public transportation authority employee to care about his privacy (he looked at me as I was asking if 2 + 2 equal 4). I am not aware of non google based wallets where I can download the travel information. I tried some f-droid and droidify options but it turns out they’re pure crap. The site: https://abo.ride-ticketing.de/app/ I log in with my username and password, get my travel information and on the bottom the picture I uploaded. Any workarounds? This being Germany, shouldn’t there be an alternative to those who refuse google? Don’t I have that right as a consumer? Another question: I screenshot my logged in session on the link I provided where you see my qr code and my billing data. The public transportation employee told me that’s not allowed (wtf?). Can anyone here provide a rationale?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/49140008 > IronFox is Firefox ESR-based, completely de-Googled, has zero telemetry, and comes pre-hardened for privacy. > > > IronFox is a fork of Divested Computing Group's Mull Browser, based on Mozilla Firefox. Our goal is to continue the legacy of Mull by providing a free and open source, privacy and security-oriented web browser for daily use. > > [Version IronFox v140.0.4 released, .apk available for download here.](https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox/-/releases) > > [More discussion about the browser here.](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/ironfox-a-new-mull-fork/23638) > > Unfortunately, not available in FDroid yet. > >

I played Dragons Quest Tactics on and off for about a year but I never thought it was very good at all and there were a lot of annoying aspects I hated, recently the game decided to delete all my progress and characters so I'm done with it for good. Is there anything actually fun to play on Android in the same vein?

I don't use Google account on most of my devices. I have an older phone on LineageOS 22.1 that I use mainly to test apps. It has GApps installed but I never sign in. I have faced a couple apps that on startup are launching the PlayStore app and ask me to sign in, I guess for "security". Is there a way to bypass that ? I don't want to link my Google profile and would love to use this app offline like I should. Is this something that could be done with LuckyPatcher ? Is there easier methods ?

Google released a new version of its design system, a kind of extension kit, in alpha version: Material 3 Expressive, more energetic, positive and expressive. #Android #androiddev #designsystem #material3

Just posting a quick and easy reference https://brainfucksec.github.io/android-foss-apps-list#android-based-operating-systems

Hi all! I'm taking a look at some phones for ~400€, and these are the two that I like the most, based on availability. I need dual sim that can work at the same time, which is why I'm upgrading from my Huawei Mate 10. But I'm having a hard time trying to decide between a brand new A54 256GB (410€) or a refurbished S21+ (400€ in "excellent state"). I care about software updates/quality, which is why I've discarded Xiaomi and lesser known brands, and why the 2 additional years of updates from the A54 are appealing. I don't care much about the camera, but the S21+ seems to have a similar battery (which is also very important to me), with a slightly better CPU. Any tips? Thanks! (also, first post on Lemmy, whoo!)

I need to ask a small favor from the good people of Lemmy.ml Community. In short, I accidentally wiped the `metadata` partition on my `Poco F3` and now I can't boot into the OS and access my data. I have a lot of pictures, videos and other stuff that I would hate to lose, because of a mistake. But all that is still on the phone, I just can't boot the phone to access it. Thankfully, there is a way to fix this by creating a full backup of the phone with `adb`, then using a **HEX Editor** to manually look through that gigantic file and try to find the files that were in that metadata partition. A huge thanks to [bluet33th](https://xdaforums.com/m/bluet33th.12929753/), a user from [XDA Forums](https://xdaforums.com/m/bluet33th.12929753/), without whom I would be helpless and couldn't do any of this. It might be a bit complicated and manual process, but it is possible. He explained everything in great detail here, so check it out, especially if you are facing the same problem, this will help you tremendously: https://xdaforums.com/t/how-to-recover-data-if-metadata-partition-was-deleted.4686789/ In order to find these files and put them back where they belong, I need your help, because I have to know their names, exact sizes and at least part of their content, so that I can search for it. Because I'm searching for a specific text in a text file that is 128 GB in size. I have already tried this on another Xiaomi phone, to make sure this procedure works on Xiaomi phones and it does, but that phone had `HyperOS` with `Android 14` and since every phone and android version is probably different, in order to be sure, I need this information specifically for `Poco F3` with `Android 13`. It doesn't take long, but if you don't have the time to look inside your `metadata` partition and tell me which files are inside of that partition and their sizes in bytes, you can just make a backup of the `metadata` partition and sent it to me, and I'll do the rest of the work. Here are the steps on how to create a backup: 1) Turn on your phone and boot into `TWRP`, then connect your phone to a PC, type `cmd` inside Windows search and run cmd, then position cmd into your `platform-tools` folder (if you flashed your ROM, you should already have the necessary drivers installed for the next steps to work). For example, if your `platform-tools` folder on Windows is inside `C:\platform-tools`, all you need to type into cmd is: `cd C:\platform-tools` You can also just go inside your `platform-tools` folder and type `cmd` in the address bar and the cmd will start already positioned inside that folder. 2) Then type `adb devices` and you should see your device, if you do, that means that all the drivers are successfully installed and your phone is detected.  3) Type `adb pull /dev/block/by-name/metadata`  4) After that, you should see a file named `metadata` inside `C:\platform-tools`. That is the file that I'm looking for and as you can see, it takes just a few minutes to get it. You can skip the next steps (5 and 6), but I'll explain them, just in case someone wants to extract these files for themselves, so that you have them in case something like this happens to you. Of course, you can also proceed to extract the files and tell me their names and sizes. Here is what you need to do: 5) Extract the content of the `metadata` file, you can use a software like `7-Zip`. Go inside that extracted folder, then into `vold > metadata_encryption > key` 6) Inside of that `key` folder, you should see a few files. These are the important files and save them somewhere safe in case you ever need them. Since I don't have them anymore, in order to recreate them, I need to know their exact names and sizes in bytes. You can check the size of every individual file by right clicking on the file and choosing `Properties`. Then look under `Size`, **not** `Size on disk`, and in parenthesis, you should see the size in bytes.  Please, if you could check the size of every file and write down which file has what size. I would really appreciate it. I'm specifically looking for someone who has a `Poco F3` with `Android 13` and `MIUI`, because I'm not sure if `HyperOS` changed something, so maybe the number of files or their size is different. But feel free to post the information even if you have `HyperOS`, but please mention that, so that I am aware of it. Thanks a lot for your help, it really means a great deal.

Wish there was an \*\*Android Studio Lite\*\* version of the IDE that is targeted to low powered devices and has only bare minimum features to develop an app. [\#AndroidDev](https://fosstodon.org/tags/AndroidDev) [#Android](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Android) [#Jetbrains](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Jetbrains) [#Google](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Google) [@[email protected]](https://lemmy.ml/c/android) [@[email protected]](https://lemmy.world/c/android) [@[email protected]](https://lemdro.id/c/android) [@fossdroid](https://social.fossware.space/c/fossdroid)

Similar to the very random Share suggestions this has been a pet peeve of mine for ever: How in god's name does Android decide which 3 devices to display in this screen? Two of those I have not connected to in ages and one of those only maybe once or twice ever. Is there any way to change this? I would so love to have my most used devices there to save me a click and searching through the long list of saved devices. Any ideas? If not, that's fine as well, I'm also happy to just have ranted a little.

This has started showing up for some reason, suggesting that instead of updating my apps in the background, Google Play is waiting until I open an app to check for updates. Is there like a setting somewhere I need to change?

(Sure would be nice if I could post this on GrapheneOS's unofficial sublem, but anyway . . . ) Using Graphene, I made a local Seedvault backup on my phone that I would like to upload to the cloud, specifically with/to Filen, but I can't seem to do this, and I'm not aware of any of my other files having this issue. Is this a permissions issue with Seedvault, or is there something else going on?

Hey all, so I used Blokada (5, I think) for a long time but then when they forced an upgrade I moved on to AdAway. AdAway is great, it's not perfect, but it gets the job done. I decided to give ProtonVPN a try, due to recent state legislative website laws. I like it, it's cool but it doesn't block ads in the free version and AdAway can't run at the same time, afaik. I've heard lots of people talking about how great FF with ublock is and I only recently switched back to Firefox so I'm considering giving that a try but I'm getting overwhelmed. What is the right combination to block most ads as well pretending to be from another state?

Currently using htop on termux but would ideally like something similar to the system monitor on KDE, that can show a graph of individual core usage as well as memory usage. Does anything like that exist that's open source?

## Leaving lemmy[.]ml Just wanted to make others aware that the main admin of lemmy[.]ml and lead developer of the lemmy open source project, Dessalines, actively spreads disinformation and suppresses anyone he disagrees with - see this post [1]. Granted lemm[.]ml is **his** platform, but that doesn't mean we have to support or continue building community here. My advice is to join existing communities on other servers and unsubscribe from anything on lemmy[.]ml and block the instance. Stop giving power to those who seem to support Putin/Russia [2] [3] . For more evidence against lemmy[.]ml, lemmygrad[.]ml, their admins or its userbase (Dessalines, Nutomic, Yogthos, etc), see the links below. Lots more evidence over at [email protected] Thanks for coming to my ted talk. ### Alternatives for this community - Community: [email protected] - URL: https://lemmy.world/c/android - Community: [email protected] - URL: https://lemdro.id/c/android ### Sources [1] https://lemmy.world/post/31368129 [2] https://lemmy.world/post/30663428 [3] https://lemmy.world/post/31090903

I recently discovered F(x)tec Pro1 X, Cosmo Communicator and the upcoming Astro Slide. Anyone having these devices? Wondering how it performs, how battery life, how the keyboard. I know about supply issues, but I saw a few options on e-Bay. Also looks like only F(x)tec Pro1 X supported by LineageOS.

I've been unable to use it for weeks now, anybody knows if there's something wrong? Or is it just on my end?

Enough shit about reddit. Get back to work folk. Tell me a phone with no bloatware at all, or no app pre-installed at all.

I use basic Google Pixel Camera app that forces me to have Google Photos installed so I can view my photos. My workaround is just going to the gallery directly. I don't use GrapheneOS's camera as I've seen worse quality when comparing two. I heard of modded Google Camera's for specific devices. Any suggestions?

Back in 2007-ish I told my Mum all about how you could jailbreak iphones and unlock them to make the phone with other carriers. I helped alleviate any concerns by convincing her and myself that if there are any problems after the procedure, nothing physically has been changed on the phone and as long as I made a backup first, we could always switch back. I jailbroke the iphone 3g she had and it didn't take long before she began to notice a lot of problems, it got hot all the time, the battery drained way fast and animations were juddery and slow and sometimes apps crashed. I restored the backedup image of the phone from before thinking I'd fix everything, but although it improved the situation somewhat, the heat and battery dissipation remained permanent and the phone became useless. Ever since then I've been pretty scared of doing anything of that nature to any phone. I really want to install Graphene OS on a pixel phone but... well, I also want to be sure I can go back if I change my mind, especially as the phone is expensive. Any risks associated with doing this? Is there any way to screw it up so bad that you permanently brick the phone? If the USB cable breaks or gets yanked in the middle of it or something like that can I always get back to square 1? Is there any known way for things done in the installation of Graphene OS to somehow survive having stock android flashed on to it?

Thanks to HertzDevil you can now natively install [@CrystalLanguage](https://fosstodon.org/@CrystalLanguage) on your [@android](https://lemmy.ml/c/android) device's [#Termux](https://ruby.social/tags/Termux). Before you had to use [#asdf](https://ruby.social/tags/asdf) or [@homebrew](https://fosstodon.org/@homebrew) for that. [https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/pull/17428](https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/pull/17428)

> That’s why later this summer, we're launching a refreshed Find My Device experience that makes it easier than ever to locate your devices and belongings quickly and securely by ringing compatible devices or viewing their location on a map in the app – even when they’re offline. The new Find My Device network will harness over a billion Android devices across the world to help you locate your missing belongings like headphones, tracker tags, or even your phone via Bluetooth proximity. This earlier announcement about a joint effort with Apple to work out how stop stalkers and other criminals from abusing these networks now makes a bit more sense: https://security.googleblog.com/2023/05/google-and-apple-lead-initiative-for.html

*(cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20476024)* After more than two years FlorisBoard (an open-source keyboard which respects your privacy) 0.4.0 is finally released with many new features including MDY support, addons store, incognito mode, major smartbar rework and many other bugfixes and improvements. Regarding the spell checking (from GitHub release notes): > Word suggestions/spell checking are not included in the current releases and are a major goal for the v0.5 milestone.

Is there any solution to configure termux to use system default theme instead of what i setup using termux styling app? Even a basic option to set different themes for different modes will help l, so that i can configure it to switch to zenburn when system is in Dark mode and Google light when in light mode.

So, like it says on the tin: I want to try GrapheneOS on my next new-to-me phone, which practically limits me to the Pixel series. And my price point will likely limit me further. Anybody got thoughts on the Pixel 6a vs Pixel 7, those exact models (e.g. not Pixel 7 Pro etc)? I currently have an old phone with Snapdragon 845 and 6GB of RAM which still performs well enough under LineageOS with microG to keep me happy. Fears: that I'll miss the microSD slot; that the 6a's battery life might suck even on GrapheneOS; that the battery on a Pixel might be hard to replace. Nice-to-haves: a camera that works well in low light. Thoughts?

App for location based reminders/alarms? I'm looking for a nice app that can trigger reminders or alarms when I reach a certain location or connect to a certain wifi network. I tried "Wifi Reminders" on [#FDroid](https://ma.fellr.net/tags/FDroid) [https://f-droid.org/packages/ru.glesik.wifireminders/](https://f-droid.org/packages/ru.glesik.wifireminders/) but it didn't work. Ideally, it should be either open source or a one time purchase. Thank you for any tips. [@[email protected]](https://lemmy.ml/c/android) [@[email protected]](https://lemmy.world/c/android) [@fdroid](https://lemmy.ml/c/fdroid) [@[email protected]](https://a.gup.pe/u/android) [\#android](https://ma.fellr.net/tags/android)

Is there an Android ROM that has the ability to provide the app with fake camera stream, location, microphone stream, gallery, storage files etc...? It would be incredibly useful to allow apps to work while giving no info / no access to private informations / permissions.

Hello! This is my list of my preferred open-source apps for Android. Tell me in the comments what are yours and I will add them. - 10 000 sentences : Learn new vocabulary in many languages - Alarmio : A alternative alarm clock - AnkiDroid : Virtual flash cards to learn faster your courses - Audio Recorder : A simple audio recorder - Aurora Store : Get access to play store apps without the official app - Briar : Send messages in peer to peer way, using bluetooth, current network or remotly. - Camera : From the simple app list. A simple and easy to use camera - CameraRoll : Alternative gallery app with a beautiful UI as a camera roll. - Chubby Click : Metronome - Counter : Explicit name, just counting stuff - DiskUsage : Scan your disk to find the biggest folders and apps in a advanced way - F-Droid : A app store with only open-source apps - GitNex : A Gitea client for Android - Goodtime : A pomodoro app - JitSi meet : Alternative to Skype or Zoom - KISS : A cool simple launcher with only a search bar and a history - Lightning : A fast and lightweight web browser - Loop Habit Tracker : A very cool and handy habit tracker with statistics - LTE Cleaner : Like CCleaner, but easier - MAPS.ME : OSM client that I think is better than OSMand - MasterPassword : A sync-less password manager - MoneyWallet : A budget manager - NewPipe : My most used app so far, you can download, listen in background, popup or fullscreen for MediaCCC, Peertube, SoundCloud or YouTube. - Open Note Scanner : Detect papers to scan them using your phone, unfortunatly there is no export to PDF so see the next app. - PDF Converter : Convert images to pdf - OpenFoodFacts : Scan codebar of food products to get simple and easy to read nutrition facts. - OpenRecipes : Add your own recipes - Markor : A simple note taking app - Red Moon : A blue light filter - ScreenCam : Record your screen (no root required) - Shattered Pixel Dungeon : A dungeon RPG - Signal : Alternative to whatsapp but you can also use it as SMS **Not available on F-Droid** - Slide : Reddit client (oopsie) - Tasks : The best todo app I found - TrebleShot : Transfer files to other devices through the same network. - Tusky : Mastodon client - Vectorify da home! : Create your own wallpapers using simple SVG - Vinyl : Music player - Yaaic : IRC client - AnySoftKeyboard : A simple and powerful keyboard - AfWall+ : ip tables based firewall **Require root privileges** - Otter : front-end music player to Funkwhale instances - Aurora Droid : Alternative F-Droid client - Firefox Preview : Future version of Fennec on Android, support 6 privacy-related extensions and has been re-written with Firefox's new GeckoView - Mattermost : Beta client for Mattermost - FOSS Browser : Simple browser based on Android's WebView. The intention is to provide a simple and light weight but powerful browser with a nice looking user interface. - Rocket Chat : Rocket Chat client - Delta Chat : ??? - Mumla : Voice chat on Mumble servers - RadioDroid : Browse internet radios - Conversations : Encrypted, userfriendly XMPP instant messaging client for mobile - Exodus Privacy : Exodus Privacy helps you to know which trackers and permissions are embedded in apps installed on your device.

Hey y'all. Like the title says, I'm looking for an android sms app. I used to use signal, but they removed support for it in October last year. I switched over to qksms which has been great, except it doesn't support video, only pictures for MMS. The default app that came with my phone doesnt support group chat titles, and sms messenger from f-droid says it supports video mms, but it keeps failing to send video (despite the size being 1.4Mb). Y'all got any other suggestions?