- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Starting next year, Google plans to require all apps installed on certified Android devices, including sideloading, to come from developers it has verified. Many Android developers see the move as a power grab and have started a movement to “Keep Android Open.”
The petition, organized by software developer Marc Prud’hommeaux, seeks to rally support to challenge Google’s plan and to rouse regulators to the antitrust implications of allowing Google to oversee the verification of all Android developers working with Android Certified devices, but does not affect alternative Android or ASOP builds like /e/OS, LineageOS, or GrapheneOS.
Stop using original roms and start pulling apps from F-Droid.
Yes, that’s something we all should be doing, but that won’t stop this from effecting you.
Google is trying to make a change so that all apps will have to have their creator show their identity to Google so they can be installed. This specifically applies to sideloaded apks. That means it applies to everything from sketchy random apks, to github, to F-Droid.
There’s no way to work around it (if it even can be) until Google rolls it out so custom ROMs can reverse engineer it to offer an option to disable.
Even if it can be disabled on the phone’s end, that now cuts your potential userbase so dramatically that it’s going to gut the open source software scene on android. Either give in to Google (so goodbye high school student devs, people from not ok countries, or people making shit Google doesn’t like), or enjoy your potential userbase of maybe a few thousand people who have the custom rom(s) with a workaround, resulting in an actual userbase of maybe one hundred.
If you stop using original roms this isn’t an issue as it’s part of Play Services.
Not using Play Services is the key.
Lineage and Graphene don’t have Play Services by default.
That’s the tough part, and why FDroid is pushing hard on this too - basically all phones have Play Services.
Damn few of us flash Lineage or Graphene and run without Play, and damn few phones allow flashing anymore.
Fortunately Graphene is working on their own hardware. Looks like it’s time for me to stock up on every kind of flashable phone I can find.
The lack of backwards compatibility is a major issue too. Many of my apps are fine - I don’t need updated versions despite everyone screaming “you’ll get hacked using old software”. I have some stuff on my phone from 2010, and far older on my PC. This “hack” is just repeating the party line for orgs like Google to keep pushing us to newer devices.