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What’s your escape plan when Google locks down android on 30/9/2026? (piefed.ca)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [M] to c/linuxphones@lemmy.ca
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I will be switching to Graphene OS🇨🇦 full time to keep my access to f-droid.

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[–] 24 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (9 children)

Graphene for my Pixel 7 Pro, I guess. I have like 20 F-Droid apps. Google can fuck themselves. The masses won't even notice a difference, sadly.

Update

Okay, I've been doing research instead of just listening to the buzz on Lemmy. Nothing is meaningfully going to change. You are free to use Obtanium or F-Droid to install any app you want, and FOSS developers don't have to do a thing.

There's just a roadblock that's going to be introduced. You have to go through a little wizard that asks you if someone is pressuring you to enable side-loading, and then even when you say "yes, I want to move forward and enable side-loading", you have to wait 24 hours, one time, and never again. And that's only to install new apps. It's not going to affect any ones you already have installed.

https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/faq#advanced-flow

The video linked in this FAQ was very clear and demos the process.

I can't believe the Lemmyverse let me believe that F-Droid and Obtanium were effectively going away for normal Android users, and that I must install something like GrapheneOS. 😑

I still might! Google can suck my asshole, but reinstalling a phone OS is a big deal. Not that it's hard or particularly error prone, but I have to reinstall everything, and set everything back up, because I'm not gonna buy a new phone to put Graphene on it, and then do the standard Android migration process. I would have to wipe my phone and redo everything. That's a chore that I probably won't do if nothing is meaningfully changing for me. I can deal with "the advanced flow".

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  • [–] 14 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

    F-Droid and Obtanium are going away for normal android users.

    It is deliberately difficult, and this whole thing is absolutely about Google making more money by tightening control of the ecosystem, not about security.

    A nice summary from https://keepandroidopen.org/

    Nine steps, 24-hour wait, buried in Developer Options, delivered through a proprietary service that Google can revoke whenever they want. That's not sideloading. That's a deterrence mechanism built to ensure almost nobody completes it. And since it runs through Play Services rather than the OS, Google can tighten or kill it silently

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

    F-Droid and Obtanium are going away for normal android users.

    Sure, and normal users haven't even heard of them, so nothing's lost.

    It doesn't sound like that website's up to date.

    this whole thing is absolutely about Google making more money.

    F-Droid has like 4,000 apps on it. Let's say all 4k are made by different developers. The $100 registration fee would net them $400,000. That's a drop in their bucket. That's like 1 second worth of their ad revenue. They would not cause this much of a community uproar for $400k. This is absolutely about preventing scam apps.

    What's really happening, I'm guessing, is Android gets a bad rap in other countries because of all the scams and people switch to iPhone. That does a lot more damage to their bottom line.

    It's also way too easy for some dumb 70 y/o congressperson or business executive to install spyware on their phone, and they are putting a speed bump in front of that.

    I hate Google, but come on. They're not trying to squeeze pennies out of open source developers. The fee is another speed bump to stop scammers from simply making another free developer account to spread they're malware after they get banned.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    It doesn't sound like that website's up to date.

    That site is absolutely up to date.

    Google absolutely aren't trying to make money from developer registrations, that's just removing administrative burden.

    They're trying to make money from closing the platform. Google have been gradually working over the last few years to close Android, and this is just another step. It definitely won't be the last. They have made it much more difficult to get up to date source of AOSP security fixes. Commit history is squashed. Play Integrity API changes are a ruse to secure the platform, that just happens to lock apps out of GrapheneOS, the most secure Android variant.

    Google realise that there is a real threat from an open Android platforms giving users a choice and that will eat their profit margins.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Believe whatever you want, but this is a quote from Google:

    Sideloading is fundamental to Android, and it's not going anywhere. Our new developer identity requirements are designed to protect users and developers from bad actors, not to limit choice.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    And you really think Google are the pinnacle of honesty and you can take their word for everything?

    They tried to block side loading, then relented after enormous pressure, and now are using corporate spin to make it sound like they care.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    Sorry for my snark, if you saw it before I deleted it. I thought you had replied to a more recent comment from me where I included the instructions and the video link.

    I understand you now, and no, I don't necessarily trust Google when they say side loading is never going to go away, but it's not going away right now.

    And yet certain people on Lemmy are still saying it's going away very soon, and downvote me when I say it's not.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    I can't believe the Lemmyverse let me believe that F-Droid and Obtanium were effectively going away for normal Android users

    I mean, that was Google's original plan, until the backlash led them to introduce this option for "advanced users"

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