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Google is Killing Open Source Android Apps (Here's Why)
(techlore.tv)
Here's why:
they are a greedy company
Money is the reason. I don’t need to read the article to know.
It's a video...
Enjoy your clickbait
Yeah, I only watched it, because it's on PeerTube.
Thanks for the heads up, now I know not to open it
Its always the reason. Why is this thing shit? Because money greed.
I read somewhere that GrapheneOS devs have a strategy which they believe will work -- they strip out something or other about app/device attestation (?) from APK files before installing occurs, or the enforcement code itself from their spin of the OS, so sideloading (ie., user-controlled installation) can still work.
I sure hope so... I think everyone in their respective country needs to scream at their local regulators about this.
Of course, this will only help those whose devices GrapheneOS can run on.
The GrapheneOS team is already in communications with an Android OEM to see if they can make a device that meets their specs, hopefully that bears fruit in a year or two.
Do you have source to this?
Just check the project's X account. The OEM partnership is mentioned very regularly.
Hope it's a Chinese phone
Hope it's Fairphone.
It's a bit of telephone, I originally heard it from this user.
Wdym a device that meets theur specs, as in a replacement for the Pixel? Or straight up a GrapheneOS device, standalone?
A device that meets GrapheneOS's requirements to be installed on. I don't think it will be exclusive or anything.
Google has already shared how apps' developers will be verified. They're adding another app that will have access to block installing apps or disable them. That won't work on GrapheneOS because 1. the app won't be installed and 2. the app won't have that kind of privileged access.
ROFL we got redstarOS on mainstream phones before gta6
I think the issue is new hardware and google starting to close source android, so that Graphene devs don't have the open source to work with. They'll probably get binary blobs
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And how long is it going to work?
Do we really want to play cat and mouse with Google? I don't.
The way Google will block apps with unverified developers won't work on GrapheneOS. The change won't be part of AOSP. On the stock OS, the functionality will be handled by another Google app that has privileged access. GrapheneOS won't be affected directly.
I hope so as well. This debacle with RCS not working on GrapheneOS has been a real dick-punch. I really don't want to go back to a stock OS.
I have accepted no RCS. I miss some of the features, sure, but until I can get more than one person to use something like signal I'll stick with insecure SMS thru a FOSS provider I guess.
I have like 40 people on Signal and regularly chat with a dozen of them there. Some people see the benefits, others don't. I am lucky.
That sounds great! So far, after five years, I have won a single person. Even back when Signal worked as a more regular messenger. Happy for you 🙂
Hopefully we can all get more people on it. I adopted Signal almost ten years ago, so that helped. Keep spreading the word and it'll grow.
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It's my understanding that RCS was fixed for most users after this update: https://grapheneos.org/releases#2025092700. You may need to grant permissions to Google Play Services first, then clear Google Messages' storage, grant permissions to Google Messages, then try setting it up again.
It was not. I have been on the Discord #Testing channel working with others to troubleshoot. Those steps do not work.
It seemed to be fixed on the 20251003 release, a lot of people got it working for a while, including me. It died within 24 hours.
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I thought the RCS thing was also happening on stock Android? Wasn't it more of a carrier thing?
It's been largely fixed for stock with select regions still being affected. RCS is failing on GOS because the correct device ID isn't getting reported and the verification services won't authenticate the OS.
It'll work for about 24 hours, give or take, from a fresh installation, but after that RCS dies and no longer works. Any groups you were in will see you as departed and you will lose any future messages to that group.
It's pretty fucked.
Thanks, I had no idea of the severity. I wonder if they'll be able to fix it.
I convinced my fiance to switch over to GOS because I've had moderate success with it for about a year now. So of course this happens as soon as she made the switch. Now she's talking about getting an iPhone.
Ain't that how it always goes? Best I could do with mine was to get her to use Signal. Better than nothing, I guess.
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This will face legal hurdles, especially in the EU and China. It reminds me of the time Microsoft played shell games with Chrome and Firefox and then lost eventually. That being said, it will kickstart a new mobile OS arms race, not necessarily to beat Android but for choices.
This will definitely not be challenged in the EU. It's the whole basis that makes chat control possible on a technical level.
The markets authority and antitrust offices are different people than the chat control people, they aren't a unified organisation, they will probably argue about it.
would love it if some viable linux based alternatives came out of this.
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Android can be forked at any time
Above all, the organisation behind it must be or become sufficiently robust, like GNU/Linux, in order to take up the torch, but that requires a lot of financial backing.
It's not impossible, but in my opinion it won't happen right away and is likely to take time to implement. Once that's done, the only issue left will be installation (for users, that is).
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... except for the binary os blobs, that'll need to be reverse engineered to run it on... well... any real hardware /s
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HarmonyOS already exists in China as a fork of android, I wonder if something similar may spawn from the EU
I'm surprises at how SailfishOS has a limited presence. This could be that moment. HarmonyOS is sick. I've seen it in action and it is on another league.
sigh and here I was looking forward to switching back to Android since I missed being able to install APKS...
Timestamp 07:00-18:30
Couldn't f droid in theory request their own key?
This is a terrible situation, but surviving for a few more years isn't a bad idea
The f-droid team spoke to that in a recent post. They can't do that for legal reasons. The post basically said that if that change isn't stopped on a government level there's no way for them to continue working. They didn't mention roms.
Edit for the link: https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html
Here's the relevant quote:
The F-Droid project cannot require that developers register their apps through Google, but at the same time, we cannot “take over” the application identifiers for the open-source apps we distribute, as that would effectively seize exclusive distribution rights to those applications.
I think that last sentence is saying that it would work, if developers decided to exclusively distribute to F-Droid and effectively gave up control over the app to the F-Droid team.
I'm thinking there might be a possibility to register the same app under two different identifiers, one controlled by F-Droid, the other by developer.
But yeah, this makes some things more complex and might be deemed malicious behaviour by Google.
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this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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