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?

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.

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.

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.

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'm using e/os and I want to be sure that, when connected to my local network, my local dns server is used, however, no matter what I do, my phone always use google's one. Is there any way to fix this?

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

Screenshots:  and Gesture navigation is now enabled by default

Link to the app: <https://f-droid.org/packages/com.jksalcedo.librefind/>

Trying to remove the FRP on my phone, but so far just able to get it to load google.com cannot sign in, or install any apps. https://i.imgur.com/Pa1pRkR.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/AHXKLAy.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/U9vnMII.jpeg Any tips

Edit: I found the culprit! It is an app I've been using for years called "Notification Toggle" that has sadly been abandoned, and that seems to have a bug on Android 14 where it's icon will be stuck at 1 instead of showing the current date. I completely forgot it even had this function, because it was a default on all my phones for a looooooing time without me ever opening it or fiddling with the settings. Sad to see it abandoned, with no hope of getting this bug fixed, but what can I do... I switched phones recently, and am very satisfied with my Xperia, but there's this one useless icon in the taskbar that annoys me a bit and that is like to hide, but I can't identify it, could someone help? I tried SystemUI tuner, but it doesn't list it as one you can blacklist in the list of toggles, and I don't know how to find it's key to add it as a custom one. Tried turning off calendar notifications, but that's not it - it still shows. Does anyone know what it is and how to hide it? It's a minor annoyance to be sure, but it's completely useless, and I'd like it gone if possible. Thanks in advance for any help!

Wanted: * large screen * good battery life * great camera * long device lifetime, i.e. repairability, software and security updates, swappable battery, ... * enough RAM (8GB) and built-in storage (256GB) * SD card slot and 3.5mm won't hurt (but we use wireless headphones all the time) The competition are (from my POV): * Samsung S23+ (or similar) * Motorola Edge 40 Pro (or similar) * Google Pixel 8 Pro I ruled out all other vendors due to disappointing update promises. Motorola with 4 years security updates promised (out of which the first year has already passed if the model is not brand new) is the minimum. All phones are stretching the budget; must be really good to justify the expense. Benchmark for "great" is better than the previous generation (S10).

> Google Messages gets a new animation for sending and receiving messages, making your conversations more delightful. Check it out!

> After previewing last October, Google Wallet will soon let supervised kids access NFC tap-to-pay on Android phones...

> Google appears to be preparing support for "time zone change" notifications on Android which may end up coming with Android 16.

> A small change to Google Messages settings moves where you can find who's providing your Rich Communication Services (RCS).

This is my first post on here, and the title tells it all, I have debloated my phone but I kinda wanna go the extra mile. And if there is no custom rom or way to install roms I might sell my Galaxy for something else (like a pixel 5 or something.) Or maybe a Thinkpad.

so I finally got the motivation to install lineage os to my phone after thinking about it like year. and now that I finally modified this phone I started thinking about ricing this phone a bit. I'm looking for a launcher that isn't too minimalistic and with a decent amount of customization. kinda like kde bit you know... stable. any suggestions?

I'm looking for a file manager or gallery app that will let me browse to particular directories easily (prefer a file manager interface for this), look at images I find in them, and (this seems to be the really hard part) easily rename them _while I'm looking at them._ I don't want a conventional gallery app that just presents one huge list of all the folders it found anywhere on my device, as there can be several with the same name, and it's tedious to figure out what directory each one is under. I need to be able to go to a particular directory, look at the images within, and rename them while looking at them - the quicker & easier the better. Help?

I just connected to my home Wi-Fi and got the notification, "Google play has switched off your Wi-Fi." It hasn't done this before, but after a while it connected again with no complaints. First question: Why? Second question: How to prevent it from doing that again? I don't like it that "Snoople" can choose that my home Wi-Fi should not be used. They have no right to making that decision. **Network details.** I have pi-hole running as a DNS with a lot of block-lists active (haven't added a new one since 2021) All are up to date. Wi-Fi uses WPA3, and up to date.

Previously this would be OnePlus, but it looks like their newest phones aren't rootable. I used to have a Xiaomi phone for this also, are they still good? Ik you can root smartphones from a lot of brands but I'm looking for one that has good ROM support and doesn't try all kinds of tricks / to prevent you from unlocking the bootloader

> The Google Play Store has a Nearby Share-powered method for sending apps on your device to others, but this is now going away...

> Starting on June 24, Google will start showing your movie and TV reviews, as well as Search notes, in a public profile.

Hi everyone! I'm happy to share my app, Octopi Launcher, which I've worked on for quite a while now. Octopi Launcher is a launcher for Android, built with the latest trends in mind, which includes visual and haptic effects, and support for foldables. **Features:** - App drawer, dock and homescreen - Different homescreen for different screen layout/ orientation/ size/ foldable position - Widgets and (autoscrolling) widget stacks - Home screen folders - Fine/ free positioning of home screen apps and widgets - Big home screen icons - Swipe actions for icons - Display drawer items as icons or tiles (or single list); sort by installed date or updated date - App search + instant launch - Icon pack support - Wallpaper blur when opening app drawer (on supported devices) - Work profile support - Fun animations, reflections and haptic effects **Screenshot album:** https://photos.app.goo.gl/8xiXqSABV7Rhad139 Firstly, join the Google Group to gain access: https://groups.google.com/g/octopi-launcher-alpha-testers Then, use this link to download the closed beta: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.otp.octopilauncher I'd love to hear your feedback below, and have a nice day!

Hi everyone. You can easily add a website shortcut to the home screen through a browser ("add to home screen"). However, if I change browser or if I need to clear the browser data, these links disappear. Maybe I'm using too unstable of a browser, but I'm tired of having to recreate my shortcuts. Is there any way of adding a website shortcut to the home screen in a browser-agnostic way?

I love FOSS apps that are made for for everyone to use and help improve lives. But I also love apps that someone clearly made to address a very specific problem that they were solving. I love to imagine the person struggling and thinking, "someone *must* have already made an app for this. I can't be the *only* one who needs help manually counting the transportation percentage at a series of crossings!" Then finally doing the [Thanos](https://d2thvodm3xyo6j.cloudfront.net/media/2017/01/9f57282815be53dc-600x338.gif) thing and just knocking out an entire app to share with the world.

I tried acode, quickedit, markor, squircle CE, and numerous others. Isn't this like a basic thing, to sort?

I am looking for a way to encrypt flash drives so that my computer and phone can both use it. The only thing I have found so far that works is Veracrypt/EDS but the app is buggy and slow. Are there any good apps that can encrypt drives such that my computer can also open them?