Peace be with you, F-Droid Community. 🌹
As many probably know, Google will block Android starting 2027.
Here is my hope: Google has shot itself in the foot with this Darth Vader move, because many People who loves privacy will now switch to de-googled systems, because ( Since to my knowledge), the blockade won’t affect those systems.
So this is just my Openion and my HOPE.
What’s your take on this?
And I kindly say to all developers: Please don’t register in Google.
There are so many people using de-googled systems now, including myself. Please keep going for us, and four you too. Please
Best wishes from Germany 🌹
Maybe it’s time to consider SailfishOS as a real alternative to Android (which remains very closely linked to Google)?
I’d rather see non-proprietary mobile Linux like postmarketOS, Mobian, or Ubuntu Touch.
I’d love to degoogle but all of the state programs that I am in use Google and my emails that they have are in gmail. You don’t get to have privacy when you are part of US programs.
I’m thinking of taking a government job and why is that you have to do that as part of a US job? What if I just show them I got a flip phone, what will they do?
Idk I’m on the other side as one receiving the support not giving it.
Maybe I’m out of the loop, but shortly after Google announced this didn’t they backtrack and say they will let you install unapproved apps after changing a setting and waiting 24 hours?
An afaik undocumented workaround isn’t exactly evoking trust, particularly coming from Google. Also wtf 24h cooldown to install shit on my own device?!
They said that, but similarly with how they said they delayed switching their extension API after backlash (they’d break adblockers), they ended up doing it later on. That’s what they’re counting on here as well, unless there’s a lot of loud backlash and this hits their bottom line they will eventually eliminate that option down the line imo. They have every incentive to do so.
^This.
Even if there is immense push-back for this right now, they have told everyone what they want to (and eventually will) do. The wake up call we need to focus on is an alternative. A fully functional mobile FOSS OS (I personally hope for Linux, but honestly don’t want to restrict the options if there are others that would be better).
So they’ll be like iPhones?
Sadly yes
I think you’re overestimating the de-Google community.
I’d be astonished if there was 10 million of us. Compared to a few Billion normies, we’re a rounding error in their accounting.A rounding error that many friends and family rely on for tech advice.
I actually got surprised how quick people around me reacted to remove/avoid the tracker before sharing url links for example.
This is anecdotal, but yeah. I once mentioned this google thing to my wife. She was due to change her phone and once I explained she was like “I’d like to have what you have” so she is now on a refurbished Pixel with Graphene.
I’d be shocked if there was even 1 million people globally using fully de-googled phones tbh
I’d actually guess it’s roughly 1 million globally. ±20%
The nonprofit GrapheneOS Foundation was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by Daniel Micay, Dmytro Mukhomor, and Khalykbek Yelshibekov in March 2023. It received large contributions from donors such as Ethereum developer Vitalik Buterin and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. As of April 2026, the operating system had approximately 400,000 active users.
obviously thats just graphene. i use e/os on my phone. not sure how many other distros there are…
LineageOS is a big one compatible with many devices.
Yes, I would think that LineageOS has more users than any other alternative.
Indeed. Users like us might think we are in larger amounts. But sadly enough we are the minority.
Same with Linux.
it’s the lack of awareness combined w the convenience of modern day bread & circuses that keep everyone ignorant.
It’s also a lack of technical understanding and willingness of understanding. Most non technical people just don’t care.
Someone probably going to break the lock like a week into it. You can just refuse the update until it does
Update system,right? Sorry , things what are common for this commun,I am just learning.
I tried to open up an issue (and did a PR) suggesting a developer strike as a tactic (IE open source devs adding their names to a list to promise to remove our apps from google play if developer ID goes through) on the KeepAndroidOpen repo. As a dev whose made many android apps and have them on both f-droid and google play, I thought this would mean something.
The maintainers of that repo have been ignoring me to death since April. I was told by the maintainer that the project was “leaderless”, but in reality it seems they’re very opposed to a developer strike, otherwise my PR would’ve gotten more attention.
I work on an Android app for a small company. Google doesn’t care at all about Android devs except if you’re running a huge social media app or P2W game. I’m pretty sure they expect blowback from the OSS community and their plan is to simply ignore it.
There are some really popular FOSS apps for android, that are also on google play. Things like tasks.org , all the fossify apps, termux, joplin, ankidroid, thunderbird / k9, and many more.
These being potentially removed from google play by developers due to a developer strike, would have more of an impact than KeepAndroidOpen’s current top strategy, which is for users to mass email their country’s regulators, which are easily ignored by either politicians or google.
I’ll be serving as the tester for a de-googled phone, hopefully, next month for my family. If all works within expectations, we’ll be moving towards no google phone until the end of the year.
I’ll be getting a Murena phone.
That’s great to hear. Good luck! I wish I could de-Google my family too.
I’m currently testing /e/OS from Murena myself, but on a Fairphone 6, not a Murena device. The system itself is fine. Takes some getting used to, but no problem. Hope you enjoy it =D
I haven’t had any problem on my Fairphone 6 with eOS except Android Auto wont work without the Play Store installed. I do miss being able to split screen apps like I could in stock android, but that’s not exactly a “problem”
My plan exactly, but on a later schedule - end of the year for me. I’ll go for the cheaper gs6
That is what I intend to get as well. But it would be welcome seing Murena widen their to the entire Gigaset line, like Volla as done.
I think it impacts any system running Google play services, even if you’re on GrapheneOS. Is that everyone else’s understanding too?
I can’t find the post, but I recall the Graphene developers saying this would not affect GrapheneOS because of the way they have play implemented. Play services on GrapheneOS is sandboxed, it does not have permission to enforce this check.
But it will affect GraphenrOS users if less developers will make FOSS apps because its harder to distribute them
Agreed
Okay neat, thanks for the explanation
well for one, you don’t even need play services for all apps downloaded from the play store. and for another, even for the ones that do need it, play services run as an unprivileged sandboxed app, the same as any. so it can’t enforce anything google wants because it has zero control over anything.
Phew, thanks for the explanation
You do not need to install Play services on Graphene. You can. You can also install MicroG, or you can skip both and use NextPush or ntfy.
Hey, honestly I don’t know much about GrapheneOS. I only know it’s available for Google Pixels. But you’re right. All Google-certified devices will be ‘locked down!’
We need a mobile Linus Torvalds, one that’s not Finnish-American.
Alas that’s not happening.
what part of him being finnish-american has influenced his decision making?
He himself sprouted some fucked up lines in the episode of banning Russian devs from the LKML that could be resumed to “lol, cry me a river. I’m Finnish and you know what that means, right?”
And I guess you (is a Finn) too?
Banning Russian devs was (is?) so performative, impractical and stupid, and of course lots of “apolitical” projects display Ukraine flag emojis, but you say one word about not liking genocide…
Exactly
i’m not sure which one you’re referring to, me “knowing what being finnish means” or saying those lines
i know what he’s referring to cus there’s a lot of finns that are russophobic and trying to excuse it with political stuff but it’s not something specific to being finnish… not all of us are like that
I know not everyone is like that. Sorry if it sounded that way.
But nobody can excuse Linus here.
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Is there a program or a way to tell what apps currently on ones phone will be affected by this?
other people are posting their experiences with degoogling on lemmy and that’s how i stay informed.
Is there a program or a way to tell what apps currently on ones phone will be affected by this?
Hi.
As far as I know, there is no program with which you can check this.
But, I know that for example F-Droid apps on Google-certified devices will no longer be usable, because these apps are not registered in the Play Store. According to the KeepAndroidOpen page, this will no longer work.
I want to add: According to the Samsung Galaxy Store Seller Portal, apps that are already installed will remain usable, just without updates.
Hopes, that helped.
fdroid apps can use a reproducible build instead of being signed by fdroid. In that case the dev can use their own keys and also upload to the play store under the same keys. From memory I think the fossify suite apps do this, so could in theory be approved by google.
In practice it’s unlikely though, the process costs money, requires giving identity documents to google, and also makes your app subservient to them, giving them full control over future updates, revocation, and making you dependent on their arbitrary rules for what apps are allowed to do.
the open source community response to this is a joke. not prepared at all. we’re totally fucked.
what do you mean? what would you have the community do?
I’d expect us to be organized enough to be prepared for google removing our foundation. Instead all we’ve got is a countdown timer and a call to pressure a fucking evil company into “doing the right thing”.
it’s as if we are begging on our knees to extend our execution date. I don’t feel any motivation about putting my energy on the line for this weak ass energy.
To be fair, this has been an issue from the start, and barely anyone cared about it until now. To put into perspective, the whole PC environment has evolved to be open within its fundamentals - Standardised components, user servisable parts, and ability to control what OS is put on.
In the case of phones, propriatery is the norm. No standardized components nor freedom, just the fact that we are doomed from the start as a single corpo essentially owns your phone not the other way around.
If something where to change it would be separation of the manufacturer from the OS and the premise of a free bootloader. Of course this is what’s happening right now with google-free phones; of course, this should’ve been done sooner - but at least this will work as a catalyst for the future devices.
Hey. I’m trying to see everything positively though. I know its sucks, and im angry too. But how secure can a Google-certified device be AGAINST GOOGLE anyway? I could only deactivate the systems, which is why I wanted to buy an /e/OS device. And the news from F-Droid that Google was going to pull this shit was the kick in the ass I needed to finally buy a Fairphone with /e/OS.
I think it is great that you are putting your energy into something that feels meaningful to you. But we also need to make sure that we don’t waste our energy on something that doesn’t burn us out.
The current message has low energy, which means that the energy doesn’t spread so easily. What we need is high energy which means that energy spreads easily.
We need a high energy message. A message that empowers the individuals, makes us dream, makes us want to contribute to the movement.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts so openly. Sorry my message came off as “low energy” to you. But to me, it still holds up logically. Google makes money mostly from ads and our data. The more people boycott their products, the less funding goes to things like Project Nimbus. De-googled setups, a phone, an app, a browser, give me hope. This isn’t just about privacy for me, it’s about human rights! And i hope ther will coming more Alternatives.
Again: Thanks for sharing your openion so openly.
I believe you may mean Darth Vader.
Also, I think everyone who was worried about this might have moved to a different ROM that’s more privacy focused and that there may be some movement but it will show up as a blip for Google because most people don’t understand and don’t care.
I believe you may mean Darth Vader…
😅You’re right. Thanks for the correction!
You have a good point. I also know many of people who have no clue about this. I talked a lot about this but they dont care. Anyway for me, every setback, even if it’s just a brief blip for Google is a triumph. Of course , a longer triumph will be great, but yeah… that is just my openion. And thanks again, for the Darth Vader Correction 👍🏻
I decided on graphene awhile ago and run what Google apps I need in a sandbox for this reason among others. My hope is that my approach will protect me from their overreach but at this point we need more successful development and marketing of alternative OS’s built on things like Linux because normal every day people don’t care what operating system it is so long as it’s available in their price range and it works.
You make a good point. And its so true. I know a lot of people who also dont care about Google Problems.
I’m just familiar with /e/OS so far. I’ve disabled microG and don’t use a single Google app. But I can’t judge the people who using it. The problem is really the ecosystem. Many companies build on Google, which means they’re not independent. The End result is : There are no real alternatives. So people only know Google and nothing else
I have developer mode enabled on my phone to get around this but it does force you to wait 24 hours.
