I am surprised that Google spends so much time tackling custom ROMs via it’s Play Integrity API. If only they paid that much attention to say, curating the Play Store more, it had be much better for everyone
The Play Integrity API is less about security and more about Google asserting their monopoly.
They do not want truly open source Android platforms to gain popularity, because there would be a high chance people would want ad blocking, which is a direct threat to their profit margins.
I hope EU takes regulative action to force Google to allow GrapheneOS, LineageOS etc. to be able to run the same apps without issues.
Some of us like to tinker. We really get satisfaction of having a weird niche filled and even if it comes at the cost of stability and other issues. Heck my Custom Roms used to be more up to date with security updates than phones that were older than one year.
I could use kernels that undervolts my processor to give me better battery life. It allowed features that even 5 years ago were on the custom ROM scene still very absent from modern phones.
But the most important part for me was learning, discovering. If I tried a new ROM I would spend hours going through certain roms settings. If there is a glitch, learn how to diagnose and try to fix it, or learn to send a logcat to the developer.
It was like a fun hobby. I learned how to fix some of my old phones, like screen replacement, and learned how to cure uv reactive glue. So many other things and I was just a noob.
But it gave freedom. I understand iPhone and the other high brands are easy to use, have gimmicky features and all, but dammit I have freedom to have my weird niche phone, with multiple breaking features and I loved it because it just worked.
If Google truly did hold security as its main concern, it would have opened the play Store, yet we know now they only wish to protect their monopoly
I think the main reason third-party ROMs aren’t more popular is that Google and certain app developers fuck with people who use them. The article addresses the difficulties later on, but comes up short in my view on just how much of a hassle it is for someone who isn’t a tech enthusiast who wants, for example to keep an older phone up to date for security reasons.
I think the main motivation for Google is limiting user control over the experience. More user control leads to unprofitable behaviors like blocking ads and tracking, which is also the motivation for recent changes to the Chrome web browser that make content blocking extensions less effective. In all cases, companies that try to take away user control claim the motivation is security, usually for the benefit of the user.
Got so tired of google pay breaking on crdroid that I got a credit card just to use my watch instead.
Still rocking a op7 pro on android 14.
There should be some safety net bypass hacks for magisk
There are different types of workaround but every single one of them is playing same cat and mouse game with Google. It works for a while, then it doesn’t, workaround is updated, it works, then it doesn’t, rinse and repeat.
I’m using a custom ROM but it’s so fucking tiring if I want to keep Google Wallet working. Fucking Google.
I just keep my credit card with me at all times. It doesn’t occupy much space, and google pay can go pound sand.
Custom ROM gang :)
“This is why I <lukewarm take> in <current year>”
Didn’t read the article, but I hate this style of headlines with a passion. Using custom ROMs isn’t even something controversial, yet they go out of their way to make it sound like they’re breaking some social taboo or something. Why not a simple and concise title like “Advantages of custom ROMs” or “Consider installing a custom ROM”. It sounds like a meme speech pattern straight out of 4chan, except they’re using it with zero self awareness or irony. How about an actual hot take: journos who write like this are pretentious pricks that deserve to get replaced by chatgpt.
You slammed his article with your reasoning.
Randomgal BLASTS the article by pointing out that renzev SLAMMED it with reasoning
This is why I brush my teeth in 2024. This is why I still wear jeans in 2024.
So radical, man
This is why I still prefer public restroom glory holes in 2024.
I don’t think they do it actively. There’s just not a big enough issue for them in custom ROMs to even bother doing something about it.
Rather, they got other issues to tackle and custom ROMs are so off their radar, they get swept up simply because nobody cares (either way) to check.
Google doesn’t want distributions of open source Android without Google services to be a viable option for mainstream users because that would reduce their ability to extract profits from the Android ecosystem.
While the focus is surely more on OEMs than end users at this point, I’m sure Google wants to keep the difficulty level for end users high enough that it remains niche.
I’m sure Google wants to keep the difficulty level for end users high enough that it remains niche.
I really do not think they need to. We tech communities massively overestimate the desire and even contextual awareness (and desire to have such awareness) of regular users to engage with these topics.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of Firefox users - a browser inherently more used by tech-savvy people! - have 0 addons installed. And probably 0 desire to change this. Or to even waste thought seconds on considering whether to change it.
To users, smartphones are tools. Like hammers. If it stops being a useful hammer, do you take the head off and re-forge it? No, you buy a different hammer that does what you need it to do.
I’m still using LOS and still fight with google over Play integrity from time to time. there’s a fairly new patch that spoofs the fingerprint of the phone and fixes the issue entirely for me (play integrity fix by chiteroman) as long as it’s updated, my gPay still works. I prefer using custom OS because it’s much more customizable and has little to no bloatware. any unwanted apps can be removed. I can route my VPN to my WiFi hotspot, in order to get full speed tethering. (I’m a T-Mobile user and they throttle) I have a system-wide ad-blocker that uses the hosts file. I have the ability to allow root to only some apps, and deny it to others.
To me, its worth doing. I have no internet at my house, so I primarily use this to get online. The stock T-Mobile firmware is laggy and loaded up with their apps you can’t delete. You’ll get the “3g speeds” hotspot and their annoying branding on everything.
Going back to that would really suck!
This is offtopic, but fuck it, might as well.
Why do you use a digital wallet? For me, money is one of those thing I literally can’t allow to fail; growing up poor means it’s still a touchy subject. A digital wallet adds extra risk of payment failure everytime it is used.
So, what does a digital wallet add that makes it worth not just the effort of setting it up in a stock system, but also in a custom ROM where it is actively broken by the app developers as a form of “security”?
For reference, I still keep cash on my person in case my cards (or their machine) fails.
I know I posted this on your comment, but I would love to hear everyone’s answer to this.
This is a very complex topic that is very hard to draw the line on.
As a technical person who follows hacking and security news i can understand google introduced the api and warnings, as phones are getting hacked and unlocked bootloader or root can be abused to keep your malware going, and has been abused in the past.But as a user of fairphone/lineageOS, who tells google, apple, meta, … all of them to fuck off when i can, this scares me. The lockdown of devices can and is going too far. Hell, i even consider samsung’s android ui changes to be going too far, as it changes a shit ton of stuff and really is not a stock android experience. It locks users in their environment…
Can you cite examples of rooted smartphones leading to significant data breaches or financial losses? When the topic comes up, I always see hypotheticals, never examples of it actually happening.
It seems to me a good middle ground would be to make it reasonably easy (i.e. a magic button combination at boot followed by dire warnings and maybe manually typing in a couple dozen characters from a key signature) for users to add keys so that they can have a verified OS of their choice. Of course, there’s very little profit motive to do such a thing.
If the day comes when LineageOS (with microG) becomes unusable for me, I will just switch to iPhone. I hate Apple, and I’ve been using custom ROMs since Cyanogen in 2010, but there’s no way I would raw-dog a Google device.
Luckily there’s GrapheneOS for the Pixels. I’m thinking about buying a refurbished Pixel since my Poco X3 Pro with Lineage OS is having ghost touch issues. The only thing holding me back is less screen real estate.
