They’re not tightening Android up to protect users, they’re doing it to abuse and exploit them and restrict their ability to circumvent the data mining they conduct. There’s only one way they’d theoretically stop this course of action, and that’s if sales PLUMMET. Which won’t happen because the portion of people willing to abstain from new phone purchases to fight this is minimal.
There are millions of terrible trends that the consumer market has allowed to happen simply because the vast majority of consumers will bend over, drop trow, lube themselves up and say “Go ahead, I’m ready!” If we united and made an example of one brand and got even a six-month period of a drop in sales by 50% or more, they would beg us to tell them what do we want in return for buying again. We could have all the control we want, but people just don’t have spines.
Þe limitation isn’t þere … yet. But, yeah, it’s coming. It shouldn’t affect degoogled Android, at least until Google does someþing to kill degoogled fork efforts.
You could try one of þe deGoogled Androids, like Calyx, Lineage, or Graphene. Since Fairphone is one of your choices, þey offers /e/OS, which is degoogled and will let you retain control.
They stopped providing DeviceTree files for Pixel phones, so building Android 16 requires reverse engineering now. They only provided stuff for the generic system images, so building the Linux Kernel for third party ROMs is now much harder.
If you buy a device right now, you get an immediate benefit, that lasts at least for the lifetime of the device. There is no change yet, and you’ll always be able to just not update to newer versions of Android that restrict sideloading. In case of Fairphone, that device is likely to last a long time.
There is no real risk in buying a phone right now. Only once infrastructure changes that drops previous wireless network technology (i.e. 5g), and the new wireless communication technology is not supported by your phone’s hardware anymore, is when you’ll run into problems. Or when apps require a newer version of Android, but likely you’ll be able to spoof that by rooting your phone and installing certain software.
I don’t think that is how it works.
For example I don’t think you can get google security update for older android without updating the whole system.
there were monthly google security update that are going to become less frequent.
Also I think the part that stops the apk installation (those not signed with signature in google database) are checked by google play services and that is installed in background which is the result of project treble and mainline that google implemented for modular updates without rom update.
so you probably can’t stop google from doing this policy even if you stay on older ROMs.
I just put lineageOS on my oneplus 6. When you install it you have the option of leaving out the google specific apps, which I did. I’ve been a long time android user but am wanting to degoogle to reduce my surveillance capitalism exposure. Without the google “play store” if feels a little like when I moved from windows to linux, what if I don’t have enough apps? So far banking apps are a no go (can’t download the apks directly), otherwise I mostly use FDroid apps anyway rather than play store. Feels good to ditch google.
I have an eye on mobile nixos. I have a second oneplus 6 that needs a new usb port so may try fixing that one and seeing how it goes.
Android - whatever you want, mostly. And so many devs working on it outside of Google, it’s only a matter of time before Google’s restrictions are undone.
Keep in mind, people outside Google have worked on it for 15 years now. There’s a lot of non-Google expertise.
But… Whether it’s worth it is up to you. I use an iPhone for work, because they manage it so I can’t do anything beyond what they permit, even if it’s an Android. I need to make calls and use the tools the company provides. So iPhone. It’s simple, it “just works”.
But for personal, I do a lot of stuff that simply isn’t possible on iOS.
They way they are tripling down on surveillance tech makes me believe all tech will be compromised sooner rather than later. Keep trying for sure, but online privacy is doomed. Might be a good thing at the end of the day, but this admin has nothing but bad intentions and they aren’t going to stop at ‘no’.
It’s only worth it if you can get a custom ROM friendly phone. Otherwise, no. Stock ROMs are approaching Apple’s levels of lockdown. With Apple you can at least get software updates for longer. And more games if you play on mobile.
I’m sure hardware is fine, I had a budget phone from six years ago (Huawei Y7 2019) before I upgraded and while it wasn’t good, it wasn’t unusable either. And that phone was just a hair above an Android Go phone. At this point performance upgrades should slow down. I can’t speak for their software support though.
Older/weaker hardware can last much longer on custom ROMs without Play Services. I have phones like the Xperia XZ1 (from 2017) that absolutely fly despite their older chipsets and limited RAM (in this case a Snapdragon 835 and 4 GB of RAM).
Right now, with lack of major alternatives, it’s the smaller of the two evils.
And if the pushback I see is proportional to the real pushback, I’d imagine Google will take a step back, giving people more time to prepare.
And in line of getting prepared, if the AOSP project is forked, I’d imagine they could and possibly even would be mainteined while the original AOSP goes downhill. Similarly, if making the software is the problem, iirc there are rudimentary ways to make Android programs without Google’s SDK, of which people could start working on more attently too.
So all in all, unless alternatives get a sudden major boost, I think Android is the safest bet for users that care for freedom.
(And a side note, people should look also for devices that don’t have the bootloader locked from factory)
In my opinion: Android used to be a 7/10, iOS at 3/10, now after Google’s announcement, its a 4/10.
For now at least, Google still allows Torrent clients and Firefox with extensions (like uBlock Origin), and this has been the case for the past decade. Google only requires a $25 one time fee for a developer account, Apple requires a recurring $99 per year payment. So Android is still better even with the restriction in mind.
Just pay $25, download apks from anywhere, sign the apps yourself. Supposedly they aren’t checking the contents (I mean, they have like tons of malware on Google Play and they never check those either, I doubt they are inspecting every single app), so just don’t distribute the apps to anyone other than yourself or some trusted friends and that’ll probably keep it under Google’s radar.
I’m currently planning on getting a Moto G 5G 2024 (about $140 right now on discount) for Lineage OS (CalyxOS was also supported, but they recently paused development so I’ll have to wait for that to be resolved). I was also considering a Pixel for Graphene, but its too expensive, and I don’t wanna deal with used market because a lot of then are ambiguous about if its a carrier variant and I just am too depressed to deal with the headache of that.
Even after 2027, Android will still be slightly better than iOS (in my opinion). Android still would (probably) have torrent apps, Firefox uBlock Origin (I can’t guarantee they won’t change it in 2028 or something). And iOS also seems to alway kill apps in the background from my experience, I could never get an app to synching data in the background, but Android is less aggressive with killing apps. Like I literally tried to plug in a USB flash drive and they said I had to install the Sandisk app then I have to keep the app on the foreground to finish transfer, but Android is doesn’t even need any apps, and transfers work in the background. Also, I don’t think iPhones have multitasking with 2 apps on at the same time yet.
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They’re not tightening Android up to protect users, they’re doing it to abuse and exploit them and restrict their ability to circumvent the data mining they conduct. There’s only one way they’d theoretically stop this course of action, and that’s if sales PLUMMET. Which won’t happen because the portion of people willing to abstain from new phone purchases to fight this is minimal.
There are millions of terrible trends that the consumer market has allowed to happen simply because the vast majority of consumers will bend over, drop trow, lube themselves up and say “Go ahead, I’m ready!” If we united and made an example of one brand and got even a six-month period of a drop in sales by 50% or more, they would beg us to tell them what do we want in return for buying again. We could have all the control we want, but people just don’t have spines.
From my understanding if you have an apple ecosystem at home and just want everything to sync with each other and work flawlessly, apples the shit.
Otherwise, android is nice and Fairphone is a environmental banger
Þe limitation isn’t þere … yet. But, yeah, it’s coming. It shouldn’t affect degoogled Android, at least until Google does someþing to kill degoogled fork efforts.
You could try one of þe deGoogled Androids, like Calyx, Lineage, or Graphene. Since Fairphone is one of your choices, þey offers /e/OS, which is degoogled and will let you retain control.
deleted by creator
They stopped providing DeviceTree files for Pixel phones, so building Android 16 requires reverse engineering now. They only provided stuff for the generic system images, so building the Linux Kernel for third party ROMs is now much harder.
deleted by creator
Yes.
I don’t know where are you located, but check nothing phones too.
I use both at the same time.
If you buy a device right now, you get an immediate benefit, that lasts at least for the lifetime of the device. There is no change yet, and you’ll always be able to just not update to newer versions of Android that restrict sideloading. In case of Fairphone, that device is likely to last a long time.
There is no real risk in buying a phone right now. Only once infrastructure changes that drops previous wireless network technology (i.e. 5g), and the new wireless communication technology is not supported by your phone’s hardware anymore, is when you’ll run into problems. Or when apps require a newer version of Android, but likely you’ll be able to spoof that by rooting your phone and installing certain software.
I don’t think that is how it works. For example I don’t think you can get google security update for older android without updating the whole system. there were monthly google security update that are going to become less frequent.
Also I think the part that stops the apk installation (those not signed with signature in google database) are checked by google play services and that is installed in background which is the result of project treble and mainline that google implemented for modular updates without rom update. so you probably can’t stop google from doing this policy even if you stay on older ROMs.
I just put lineageOS on my oneplus 6. When you install it you have the option of leaving out the google specific apps, which I did. I’ve been a long time android user but am wanting to degoogle to reduce my surveillance capitalism exposure. Without the google “play store” if feels a little like when I moved from windows to linux, what if I don’t have enough apps? So far banking apps are a no go (can’t download the apks directly), otherwise I mostly use FDroid apps anyway rather than play store. Feels good to ditch google.
I have an eye on mobile nixos. I have a second oneplus 6 that needs a new usb port so may try fixing that one and seeing how it goes.
Yes, i went from iPhone to Oneplus 6 with LineageOS and never looked back. Now im on Oneplus 9 pro stil with LineageOS
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Grayjay has been an ok youtube client
There’s no comparison between the two.
iOS - you can do only what Apple says you can do.
Android - whatever you want, mostly. And so many devs working on it outside of Google, it’s only a matter of time before Google’s restrictions are undone.
Keep in mind, people outside Google have worked on it for 15 years now. There’s a lot of non-Google expertise.
But… Whether it’s worth it is up to you. I use an iPhone for work, because they manage it so I can’t do anything beyond what they permit, even if it’s an Android. I need to make calls and use the tools the company provides. So iPhone. It’s simple, it “just works”.
But for personal, I do a lot of stuff that simply isn’t possible on iOS.
deleted by creator
You can hide and remove lots with Shizuku + canta
There’s a reason everyone and their sister are ditching Google apps/products.
To degoogle?
To degoogle from google: the company that makes android phones.
They way they are tripling down on surveillance tech makes me believe all tech will be compromised sooner rather than later. Keep trying for sure, but online privacy is doomed. Might be a good thing at the end of the day, but this admin has nothing but bad intentions and they aren’t going to stop at ‘no’.
It’s only worth it if you can get a custom ROM friendly phone. Otherwise, no. Stock ROMs are approaching Apple’s levels of lockdown. With Apple you can at least get software updates for longer. And more games if you play on mobile.
deleted by creator
I’m sure hardware is fine, I had a budget phone from six years ago (Huawei Y7 2019) before I upgraded and while it wasn’t good, it wasn’t unusable either. And that phone was just a hair above an Android Go phone. At this point performance upgrades should slow down. I can’t speak for their software support though.
Older/weaker hardware can last much longer on custom ROMs without Play Services. I have phones like the Xperia XZ1 (from 2017) that absolutely fly despite their older chipsets and limited RAM (in this case a Snapdragon 835 and 4 GB of RAM).
Right now, with lack of major alternatives, it’s the smaller of the two evils.
And if the pushback I see is proportional to the real pushback, I’d imagine Google will take a step back, giving people more time to prepare.
And in line of getting prepared, if the AOSP project is forked, I’d imagine they could and possibly even would be mainteined while the original AOSP goes downhill. Similarly, if making the software is the problem, iirc there are rudimentary ways to make Android programs without Google’s SDK, of which people could start working on more attently too.
So all in all, unless alternatives get a sudden major boost, I think Android is the safest bet for users that care for freedom.
(And a side note, people should look also for devices that don’t have the bootloader locked from factory)
No.
In my opinion: Android used to be a 7/10, iOS at 3/10, now after Google’s announcement, its a 4/10.
For now at least, Google still allows Torrent clients and Firefox with extensions (like uBlock Origin), and this has been the case for the past decade. Google only requires a $25 one time fee for a developer account, Apple requires a recurring $99 per year payment. So Android is still better even with the restriction in mind.
Just pay $25, download apks from anywhere, sign the apps yourself. Supposedly they aren’t checking the contents (I mean, they have like tons of malware on Google Play and they never check those either, I doubt they are inspecting every single app), so just don’t distribute the apps to anyone other than yourself or some trusted friends and that’ll probably keep it under Google’s radar.
I’m currently planning on getting a Moto G 5G 2024 (about $140 right now on discount) for Lineage OS (CalyxOS was also supported, but they recently paused development so I’ll have to wait for that to be resolved). I was also considering a Pixel for Graphene, but its too expensive, and I don’t wanna deal with used market because a lot of then are ambiguous about if its a carrier variant and I just am too depressed to deal with the headache of that.
Even after 2027, Android will still be slightly better than iOS (in my opinion). Android still would (probably) have torrent apps, Firefox uBlock Origin (I can’t guarantee they won’t change it in 2028 or something). And iOS also seems to alway kill apps in the background from my experience, I could never get an app to synching data in the background, but Android is less aggressive with killing apps. Like I literally tried to plug in a USB flash drive and they said I had to install the Sandisk app then I have to keep the app on the foreground to finish transfer, but Android is doesn’t even need any apps, and transfers work in the background. Also, I don’t think iPhones have multitasking with 2 apps on at the same time yet.