I have been steady researching this and I have stumbbled upon what lloks like an unfinshed doc for the [Developer Verification Progra](https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/limited-distribution)m Key notes - still no rollout schedule - Fee can be found in FAQ. Says it will be $25 - That you will have to provide a state-issued ID even for the now free "Limited Distribution" that has a 20 device maximum - In the FAQ it shows that this is covering all devices Android 7.0 and up and admits that the Advanced Flow in Google Play Services. - still does not address how they are justifying this at all They have stolen a free product and are now activity locking out the people who built it. [ASOP does not belong to them it belongs to us](https://disintermedia.net.nz/android-time-to-stop-hunting-the-replicants-decker/). Time to get it back I think.

Is anyone familiar with the specifics of how Circle to Search (linked) works? I was looking for a FOSS alternative to the google circle to search tool and came across it. It seems to describe its implementation in a clear way on the GitHub page, but I have not validated that it does actually operate using that architecture, or that it keeps to its promises about not caching info that is pulled from its third party OCR tools. On android it asks for "advanced permissions" which I presume are needed to take screenshots and share these with the third party OCR service. Since I havent validated how it works though, I wanted to check if anyone else has before I provide it those permissions.

Starting in August, installing APKs from unverified developers will require a new procedure called Advanced Flow. It involves enabling developer mode, rebooting the device, and waiting 24 hours with biometric verification. After that, you choose: allow the APK installation for 7 days or indefinitely. The procedure is a one-time process and applies to all versions of Android. Will the 24-hour wait stop you from installing APKs outside the store?

Over the years I've tested out pretty much all the Android keyboards, but swipe typing always kept me on GBoard, even though GBoard did not support voice typing for anything except Google, so I had to switch keyboards for that. Recently I learned that HeliBoard has support for gesture typing with the Google library. But I couldn't find any instructions on where to get the necessary files or how to do it. Well, someone posted a link to the file elsewhere so I'll [share it here](https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/blob/46fdf2b550035ca69299ce312fa158e7ade36967/app/src/main/jniLibs/arm64-v8a/libjni_latinimegoogle.so). And it works! Extremely well. I can also pin a button for voice typing and then select Transcribro for that (which uses OpenAI Whisper locally and works super well. Another gripe I had with GBoard was the cursor moves way too fast when swiping on the space bar. Not so with Heliboard. You can also swipe backwards from the backspace key and it will highlight text and then delete it when you let go.

If you haven't seen this yet, Google is planning to require mandatory developer identity verification for all Android apps, including apps distributed outside the Play Store, taking effect September 2026. This affects every independent and open source Android developer directly. This is not just about the Play Store. After September 2026, on any certified Android device, applications from unverified developers will be blocked by default. The only proposed bypass, the "advanced flow", exists only as a blog post and has not appeared in any beta, dev preview, or canary release. No one outside Google has seen it. The community has been fighting back at keepandroidopen.org: - Read the full breakdown of what this means - Sign the open letter (organisations only) - Contact your national regulators — contacts listed by country on the site - Add the countdown banner to your project September 2026 is closer than it looks. The time to push back is now.

I just updated my 2025 Moto G Stylus 5G to Android 16 only to discover the only feature I updated for doesn't work on my device thanks to Qualcomm.

Quote from Proton VPN: > Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background. > > If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it. > > We first reported this bug to Google in September 2025. > > Others like Mullvad and Wireguard reported it even earlier, in August. > > Google's response? "I don't see anything unusual." > > The bug corrupts Android's network stack at the system level after a VPN update, causing users to blame their VPN provider. > > Restarting the app doesn't help, with the only fix being a full device reboot or VPN app reinstall, something which most users never figure out. > > This affects several VPN providers on Android 16, and only Google has the access to diagnose it properly. > > After 7 months of waiting, we're now asking publicly: Google, when are you fixing this? > > Issue Tracker Links: > > https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/441315112 > > https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/4474331

Trust me, I push Signal _hard_ and even donate to it monthly. As I'm sure many of you know, there are always a few contacts who unfortunately refuse to use it. In this case: do you prefer to use insecure SMS in something like QUIK SMS or Fossify Messages, or do you prefer to bite the Google bullet to get end-to-end encrypted messages (even if the metadata isn't encrypted)? I can see good arguments for both sides, so I am curious what Lemmy's take is.

Hi all. I recently got a Pixel 8, and it's my first ever Android phone. I'm loving it so far and glad I switched over. One thing that's honestly driving me crazy though is the photo picker. On iPhone it was easy to pick a photo directly within the Messages or any other app, either a recent one, a favorites one, or one from an album, with just a few taps. When I use the photo picker from within the Messages (or other app) on my Pixel, though, it feels incredibly convoluted. First it pulls up a grid of 5-ish recent pictures, followed by rows and rows of seemingly random pictures from the past 20 years. To get to my favorites, for instance, I have to tap on the folder icon, then tap the three dots, tap browse, tap Photos, tap Photos again, then tap favorites. Is this really how it's supposed to work, or is there a setting I can change somewhere? I've double checked that Messages has permission to access all photos and videos. Thanks in advance for any help!

> Right now, some camera apps on Android aren't able to capture RAW photos, but that's set to change with a new version of the CameraX library.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/236194 > Title. Looks like a really interesting plugin, has anybody had any experience using it in production?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40722488 > Hey all, > I've been looking for an app to replace [Flatastic](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flatastic.app) as it's a convenient way to track shared expenses, shopping lists, chores and notes. However, it has ads and basic features locked behind a SaaS model. Ideally such a replacement would be free and open source, but as long as it works and doesn't sell my data, I'd buy something for a few euros. Suggestions are appreciated!

I am greatly displeased at the smartphone industry. I think it's time for a heavy handed crackdown about all the spying they're doing. The smartphone industry and in particular the company qualcomm I find an intolerable company in their practice, I believe they should be smashed, their equiment liquidated and their intellectual property destroyed. The smartphone industry is a festering cancer on general computing, a persistent and pernicious assault on human rights. An invasion of our private spaces. A colonization of our lives. I think it is past the point of reform, not that there are any regulator with to intelligence figure out what is wrong let alone the wherewithal to do anything about. For those reasons, I think global thermonuclear war is our only realistic option for setting back the clock on this travesty. I am willing to hear your alternative, I don't believe anything short of that has a snowball's chance in hell to change anything about this.

Sandboxed Google services on grapheneOS. The mark of the beast. (Also, when do we do a google antitrust again?)

I am observing this on xperia 10 IV

I hate shareit. It's full of ads and nonsense, but it's much faster than any other alternative?

I've got a few accounts on my phone, and the calanders are set up to sync. When I look in the outlook app I can see the outlook events as expected. When I use the Samsung Calender app (preferred), the Google Calander app, or any other Calander apps the outlook Calander has issues. Some events appear, others don't, some seem to disappear etc. I think it's to do with android and the syncing of the Calander, but I'm not sure what. I've used the reset account button in the outlook app, and deleted and re-added the account. _Written with dyslexia._

You cant. They just shut down the server and removed the unlocker app from their site. Maybe, just maybe, they will release a "rewritten version" in the coming months according to some guy on xda who asked them. This shit is the last asus product Im buying for a loong time if ever.

I imagine certain features like Google Maps' different busyness indicators might be missing because otherwise that would require telemetry?

I hate how every phone uses biometrics as a bypass to a pin/password instead of being used in conjunction with a pin/password. With biometric + pin, someone needs both your pin and fingerprint. And there can be a prompt for a longer "fallback" password if there is X number of incorrect attempts or at restart. Is there such a thing in Android?

First of all, yes I have gone through droves of posts on XDA and frankly it’s a mess, but I can tell you that after following a few threads that just refer to themselves in loops, there’s no actual solution. I have an LG US730 which was rooted and everything was great. I must have toggled something in SuperSU - I think maybe the option to be rooted during boot. Anyway, now all I get is Security Error and it shuts off. None of the recovery power on switches will work. The only thing I could do is VOL+&- power while the usb is plugged in and it goes to a download in progress screen. Of course nothings happening and I need to remove battery in order to get this powered off at this point. Anyway, I’d love if anyone has a tool to repair this. LG’s utilities all do nothing at all I think they’ve purged the back-end of older stuff so the programs that should download something and proceed simply wait forever.  

Before we start, let’s be clear. I am not a developer. I am not selling anything. This is merely just an idea based on my own insights as a creative writer. I would love to have different opinions on this one. **Problem:** It’s really inconvenient to write long-form content on a smartphone. When the phone is in portrait mode, there’s enough room to see all the text, but the keyboard is too tiny for extended writing sessions resulting in fatigue. When you turn the smartphone to landscape mode, two problems arise: the keyboard takes up two-thirds of the screen, making it hard to see what you’re typing, and reaching the keys in the middle of the keyboard becomes difficult. Thumb mode isn’t a satisfactory solution either, as it leaves a sad stupid wasted space in the middle of the split keyboard. When writing on a smartphone, screen real estate is precious. Tablets offer a split thumb floating keyboard mode, but they are bulky, heavy, and not comfortable for long-term typing. Carrying a tablet everywhere isn’t practical. **What’s available:** I’ve tried a dozen writing apps (even Joe’s Termux with its high-condensed text) combined with several Android keyboards, but none come close to the experience of having a real keyboard (I prefer ortholinear split keyboards btw) attached to a smartphone for travel. So, how can we fix the typing experience on a phone? [Check these mockups](https://imgur.com/a/DpeIXER). **Solution:** The ideal solution would be to have a split keyboard that occupies the two top sides of the screen, with the text editor displayed in the middle. Full-screen mode to get rid of the status bar would be a plus. You would hold your phone like a Steam Deck or, even better, like the Nokia N-Gage (I know that there have been phones closer to what I’m describing, but the N-Gage is the most well-known form factor). **Additional benefits:** This layout would be more comfortable to hold, similar to how you hold your phone when playing PUBG. Your index fingers would rest on the phone, and the bottom corners of the phone would fit into the palms’ cavity. Achieving this would be possible since the keyboard would be positioned closer toward the top corners of the phone (remember, the phone is in landscape mode). **Some other thoughts:** Perhaps combining a keyboard with a text editor is excessive. It’s possible that a new type of keyboard that splits and allows you to view the text you’re typing in the middle would suffice. However, it’s uncertain whether this would work with every app. **Disclaimer: **Please note that the following mockups provided are intended solely for illustrative purposes to convey the concept and potential user experience.

> ## [Qualifications](https://grapheneos.org/hiring#qualifications) > > - Prior experience working on one or more of Android/AOSP-based operating systems, the Linux kernel and its hardening, memory allocators, or Android app development > - Strong programming skills in relevant languages (in order from most to least common: Java, Kotlin, C++, C, Rust, JavaScript, TypeScript, arm64 assembly, Bash, Python) > - Need to have enough experience to be comfortable to self direct workloads and submit finished features and fixes ready for review > - Commitment to privacy and security principles > - Ideally prior experience contributing to free and open source projects > > Salary and remuneration will be commensurate with experience and aligned with industry standards. You will be employed as an independent contractor

~~I accidentally removed a MicroSD card from an Android device running Android 12 while it was being ejected. This happened because it took longer than usual (less than a few seconds), and I pulled it out without looking at the notification. Now, when I insert the MicroSD card into any Android device, it tells me to format it to use it, as a problem has occurred. It also gives me the option to format it and extend the internal storage. The third option is to skip both and do it later, which keeps the SD card unreadable by the system. The MicroSD card contains a lot of data that's important to me, and unfortunately, I had no backup, as I always considered my MicroSD as an external storage medium for such data. I would really appreciate any help on how I can resolve this issue and make the SD card data accessible again by Android. Thank you for reading! 🥲~~ **Edit:** Don't ask me why or how. But I put the SD Card into a phone running Android 14, and booted it. The SD Card could be actually read by the phone after it finished booting. I turned the phone off again, pulled the SD card out and put it back into it's original running Android 12 and magically it works again! My theory is that the Android 14 recognized and automatically fixed what was wrong and this made the card readable again to older Android versions. Thanks to everyone who commented!

It's a very long story but ultimately all you need to know is, i have to make sure an unknown app isn't sending an assload of traffic through port 25 on any network im connected to. How can I confirm this on my android device without an external PC?

I have encountered a problem where all calls I take are routed through my louder speaker as if I'm always on speaker phone. My OS is a custom ROM called /E/ OS. If anyone has a solution I would love to hear it!

Not exactly "news" but the recent Samsung Galaxy Ax6 phones (A26, A36, A56) all does not have the MicroSD card slot, only the Galaxy A16 still has it. I fucking hate this. I love having a mini-TV with me. I can load up a Terabyte of TV shows I love rewatching. You know, maybe you travel or something. Also, good for recording like a lot of videos. Now, new Samsung phones cannot do that anymore. Sorry for the rant, but honestly, I have to vent: Fuck Samsung. Fuck this capitalist bullshit. I'm thinking of stop buying Samsung for the future, but honestly, other manufacturers might follow suit, so it ultimately might not matter. I hate this bullshit. I will carry a portable SSD if I have to, I ain't buying your stupid cloud. I'm broke AF and I don't got no money for subscriptions. (Also, they could hold your data hostage and refuse access for random "ToS" violations) What are your thoughts? What's the future of MicroSD card slots in phones? (future looks so bleak)

It's a Moto G 5G 2024 (Model XT2417-1) Factory Unlocked (Costed me $140 for the phone) Done via a Steam Deck* running a Linux Mint on a (Live OS) USB Stick (USB Hub needed in order to plug in keyboard and mouse, the Boot Stick, and the OTG Cable to the phone, and the hub also needs to be powered.) As for the unlocking, just look up the website and follow instrucion. Phone needs to be connected to the internet for about a week (6 days for me) to get the OEM Unlocking thing Un-Greyed so that you can toggle it on. Seeing all those command lines feels like hacking :P (*Who needs a computer when you have a steam deck as a computer xD) (Yes I know about Graphene, but didn't feel like getting a used phone that might not unlock, and definitely don't wanna spend $500 for a new one) I hope this is the inspiration y'all need to attempt this yourself. Because I'm a total noob and idk how command lines work and I did it by simply copy-pasting. Anyone can do it.

Hello everyone! Is there any alternative to android auto for a degoogled phone running microG? I mean, one that can connect on " android auto ready” devices.

I feel like there hasn't been enough fun shenanigans in our community recently (and I love shenanigans.), so, we are doing a mini-contest to replace a word for our sidebar description.(Because I'm bored with it). As usual, post your entry in the top level comment, and the entry with highest uplemmy (within reason) wins. No time limit on this.

I'm curious if anyone's come across a list of "power" or "professional" apps for Android. I mean things like Termux, Audio Evolution, or PowerDirector, which provide functionality that you would normally need a computer for. I'm being purposefully broad so that I can discover more cool apps, but generally I mean things aimed more for power users (like PowerDirector vs Premiere Rush).

Anyone know any good, preferably open source, download managers for Andorid? I'm sorry for asking this here but, I really can't find any good ones. Any help is appreciated EDIT: I choosed to use Aria2App. Thank you everyone that replied

Hello 😊 Do you have in mind an android app that allows you to make diagrams? Even something simple that lets you edit and view text graph like mermaid.js.org or other text format. And if it's possible to integrate these tools with markdown notes that would be huge!!!! 🤗🤗🤗 Thanks for your boosts and answers! ------ For exemple on desktop I use draw.io or zettlr.com

I've used notification cleaner for years but it's dead. Anyone recommend alternatives? This has been difficult to find online

From time to time I got the need to trim intros/outros or silence from downloaded audio files. I'm currently using Super Sound, but I find it a little silly that one of the last closed source, filled with ads app I still have installed is for such a small functionality. On desktop I use ffmpeg for pretty much anything, so if there is some wrapper for it over android it would be ideal.