this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Can't we do anything as google is killing AOSP and custom ROMS (programming.dev)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Timely_Jellyfish_2077@programming.dev to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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It feel like we’re losing to Google, day by day. They aren’t killing AOSP directly, but they are making it useless step by step.

Now it’s Google Play Services, Play Integrity checks, installation source checks… more and more apps just refuse to run without GMS. Banking apps? Most of them don’t work. And it’s only getting worse. I run vanilla AOSP on my main profile, no Play Services. I keep GMS only in my work profile for the apps that absolutely need it. But now even some regular apps that don't need any play services won’t work on my main profile anymore. They simply block your from running , like le chat.

Maps is google's most important app there is no way to run without play services. Sure we can use webview or gmaps wv, but they don't provide turn-by-turn directions. Earlier maps used to work without play services, but two years ago, an update stopped it from working. Now that old version is out of date and no longer works.

Google is slowly making GMS very important to run. The problem with GMS is they require to run as system app and has to have all the permissions by default.

Hope EU puts pressure to make google allow apps to run independently without GMS or atleast install them as user apps(like graphene os sandboxed play services).

If we keep going on like this, AOSP can only run fdroid apps in the future.

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[–] vas@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I'm not sure what the point of the post is? Is it to share frustration? Searching for a solution? Sorry, I may be not good at inferring this, but I don't get it.

IF you are in solution-finding mode, then there are a few things that you can do.

  1. You can use those banks that work without google. I've found 2 in the Netherlands, for example. One of them stopped working a while ago, I've wrote about that to their support and had to discontinue, withdrawing all my funds using a Dutch procedure for full withdrawal from a bank. After half a year or so I've noticed they've fixed it and work without google again. I've returned as well (it's convenient for me to have 2 banks). I'm sure as hell banks watch for their usage statistics and wouldn't like seeing people leave their bank if it can be fixed with a simple reversal of whatever the dev team did lately.
  2. You could try Linux phones such as PinePhone to see which use cases can it already cover. 30%? 70%? 90%? You'll know what to even wait for in the Linux landscape to be able to switch. You'll get a bit of power or mental control if you acquire this knowledge.
  3. Funnily, you can expect some good news coming from all those fights between US and China, because that makes a LOT of devices ship without google services. And some people in your county (I assume it's not China, otherwise you wouldn't have these problems) may have phones bought there, so you won't be alone when pushing for such changes.
[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

point 3 is is also some leverage google has over chinese export phones, if the scales tip their direction. play ball or get dropped by everyone automatically.

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Can you elaborate which banks those were? Or you if there is a curated list of banks that work on custom ROMs?

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Dutch banks working without google are: BUNQ and ASN Bank (EDIT: and Triodos).

BUNQ has the built-in QR scanning functionality broken (the one for iDEAL, if you're living in NL you know), but that's acceptable because it works to scan the QR in Binary Eye, which in turn opens the bunq app and the payment can be made easily.

ASN just works, all features that I've tried I think. (This one is only in Dutch though.)

Banks that I've tried few years ago and they didn't work: ING, ABN AMRO, Rabonbank, Tridos, possibly few others that I forgot.

Also, lately I've started using some of those "international" ones, not so focused on NL. I've found that Wise (pure web, haven't even tried their app) and Revolut (app) seem to work well on my de-googlified phone. Hope that helps!

EDIT: re-worded the first line of my message to be indexable by search engines, because that may be useful for future readers.

[–] woland@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hi, I can add that Triodos works like a charm for me on a completely ungoogled /e/os And shoutout to @vas for actually telling banks and presumably other institutions that they need to be platform neutral or lose their custom. That's my preferred way out of this mess. Goog luck ungoogling, everyone

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Good to know! I was really eyeing Triodos back in the day, due to what looked like a good ethical stance, but it didn't work out at the time. Nice that they've fixed it! (I've updated my message above as well to include the bank.)

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Thanks! I'm on ING now and every time i look it up for ING i get conflicting answers, Probably because it differs for each country they operate in (and people don't always specify). I'll look into the other ones.

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

(And noteworthy that ING has a million of different apps)

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

I've re-tried ING now, the app starts fine and the first steps to create an account are fine (I went up to the phone number and email). However, IIRC they used to break on further steps such as ABN AMRO breaking when wanting to scan my ID card for verification. But then again, you may not need it if you already passed that verification. Anyway, just letting you know if you're curios; I'm aborting here.

[–] sylphio@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks for the useful feedback.

Wise requires me to use the app as 2FA in order to log into their web interface. How do you log in without the app?

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

You can use andOTP if you want a FOSS app on Android. If you're a hardcore no-Android-at-all user (or considering), you can use KeePassXC on the desktop. This kind of defeats the purpose of 2FA, but on the other hand people with KeePassXC tend to have strong passwords due to ease of their maintenance, so you don't need 2FA as much to begin with.

TL&DR; use andOTP on Android or KeePassXC on Linux Desktop.