Privacy

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Cirrus app dev informing the app will stop working on certified android devices in '26/'27 (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Akip@discuss.tchncs.de to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Opening my weather app this morning I was greeted by this warning:

Google has announced that, starting in 2026/2027, all apps on certified Android devices will require the developer to submit personal identity details directly to Google. Since the developers of this app do not agree to this requirement, this app will no longer work on certified Android devices after that time.

It's the first time I hear about this, seems to be about:

Tech crunch article from august, "google will require developer verification for android apps outside the play store"

Cirrus app: Github

Was this a big thing I somehow missed? I hope more devs will follow suit.

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[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

How easy is it to convert an Android app to a Linux mobile app of you're the developer? If it's written in JVM languages it shouldn't be that hard right?

[–] nomadjoanne@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Just use a custom ROM. This sadly will affect app developers. But if you are on a custom ROM without GMS it will continue to work just fine.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Google is trying to kill custom ROMs too. Also I thought the majority of modern phones aren't bootloader unlockable.

[–] MML@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

You can unlock the bootloader on just about every phone, just depends on how much effort you want to spend.

[–] nomadjoanne@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Ehhhh... sorta maybe. Ultimately they can't, but they can make development more difficult.

Also Google has nothing to do with whether or not you're bootloader is unlockable. Get a phone that is.

If you rally want to go down the whole FOSS path it does ultimately become a bit of a lifestyle.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago

End-users can use e.g. waydro.id to run Android apps on Linux.

I'm not deep into Android development, but I doubt it's possible to just port an app without basically a complete rewrite. Android has an own layer on top of the JVM, called Zygote, and there's presumably lots of system libraries which the Android apps implicitly depend on, for handling graphics and whatnot, which make tons of assumptions about running on an Android device.