Was this a big thing I somehow missed?
It's one of the many small things that hide the big thing. In 2027 android will be fully locked down, unnecessarily.
The big thing is whatever the lockdown is for.
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Privacy
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This news makes me actually sad. I have had high hopes in the last years in the FOSS world, having myself and three other persons move to use Linux as daily driver on Desktop/Laptop.
My phone has FOSS apps only except for banking, health, transport tickets and 2/3 work rekated stuff. My messaging, files and pictures are handled by FOSS apps installed from third parties (F-Droid, Obtainium) on selfhosted servers... I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
This news sound to me like the tunnel ahaead is collapsing.
I got the same alert on Gmaps WV (google map wrapper found f drood) Google is giving us more reasons to switch to a custom ROM
They're not "pulling" the app from anywhere, it's just simply not going to work on "certified devices". This is the end of Android as we know. It's been a good run.
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Yes, you must have missed it. And so it begins.
Google is moving to make Android less open source. I'm not sure more devs following suit is going be good for them or their users. The G doesn't give an F.
What we need is an OS fork that gets maintained. If not that, some other workaround that fools the Google servers. Because you can bet money that nobody made from flesh and blood is going to look at this inside Google.
Maybe devs can band together and form Middle Finger Corp. and designate one willing person as their contact to serve as registered dev for a gazillion apps. Follow the letter of the law, not the misguided spirit of it, in a manner of speaking.
If you are sitting on a mobile OS and you were afraid to fail like Windows, maybe now is the time to give it a go?
GrapheneOS
are you kidding? only available for google phones. are we supposed to give money to google for this situation?
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Hopefully this leads to a lot more development of and for Ubuntu Touch. Biggest issues it faces are lack of compatibility and lack of apps. I think the core is solid though. I used it for a week when switching from iOS (so no Android background) and enjoyed it, but a few too many minor issues built up and I ended up going to Calyx.
Wording of the message implies it’s possible to have uncertified version of Android… Such a thing possible?
Yes, like GrapheneOS
any version of android that's not vendor or downloaded from the official android website
- like https://lineageos.org/
- https://e.foundation/e-os/
- or the aforementioned GrapheneOS
- ~~calyxos.org (paused)~~
Adding iodé to the list, cocorico !
Why everybody always forget about iodé ?
first time I hear about it, seems to be based on lineageOS?
What's with the premium tiers? Seems a bit sketchy to be honest.
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It is a big thing at least in developer circles. It made the front page of Hacker News multiple times.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45087396
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And so it continues... Google trying to shoehorn themselves into a position of authority of the internet. Imagine they get as much sway as the banks now have? Private entities controlling the masses for massive profits. Fuck off Google.
I'm going to look into adding this to my app https://git.allpurposem.at/mat/Sudoku Indeed I do not agree with this, so it will become unavailable when the terms go into effect. I will look into making it available for Linux Mobile.
First of all thank you for providing a foss app!
I think it's a big difference if the platform tolerates you or actively wants to stop you from doing it. You got my fullest sympathy.
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Yet another possible antitrust lawsuit series. Some day maybe a judge will do something to help the consumers.
Google just came out of the biggest antitrust suit since 1998 completely unscathed so you can expect this sort of anticompetitive measures to continue.
Aaand the reason's called ✨c o r r u p t i o n ✨
Whenever a politician comes from a big company or goes to one after retiring from politics, that's when you know they've been bribed.
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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?
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.
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Where are you linux hardware manufacturers ?
Syatem76? The same company that made POP OS are making PCs and laptops They claim that they made the laptop with the longest battery life
Phones ?
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Just to clarify:
Will my apps installed from F-droid be unaffected by this?
Even apps installed outside the Play Store will need to have a "verified developer", and this change will affect any devices that use Google Play Services, so it will be a problem even to old devices.
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If you don't have Google Play Services installed, then you're not affected. Of course, how many custom ROMs will live to that day is unknown.
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Would people be able to circumvent this by downgrading their version of Google Play Services? ..or not updating it in the first place?
I think you could still adb install unverified apps into your phone.
That untill they'll block that path too.
Also I suppose that you'll need to adb every update. So apps that would want to go this way should self check updates instead of relying on an external store.
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Does anyone know if this will affect Android TV?
Wait you could install arbitrary apks on android tv?
You have an android tv and not smarttube? Your youtube experience will increase ALOT.
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Yup. I’ve installed a few that way
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