Google: “Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified. We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer. It will also include clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved, but ultimately, it puts the choice in their hands.”

Thank god. I would’ve ditched Android for good if this went through, and while it sounds like it would be annoying for casual users to enable unverified apps, at least we can still install them.

  • dorumon@lemmy.cafe
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    So I just read what they are going to do and this article is just clickbait. Basically they still want you to dox yourself but it’ll still work like iOS Test Pilot. Google is still full of shit and lies but hey at least you don’t have to pay them money until enough users download your app if you want more.

    So it’ll basically still kill apps like F-Droid or you downloading an app from the internet to run on your phone. You’ll basically have to signup to install third party apps on your device per app in general and alot of the convenience and developer community will still just leave android as a whole.

    All in all really bad decision on Google’s part while also extending this to things like fireOS or whatever the fuck the Quest 2 and 3 will run as a skin of android. This will make sure they would be forever stuck on older versions of android; lest they have to contend with the new upcoming android features that will enforce this that will be baked into the operating system next year. Even without Google Play Services like I read.

    Personally I don’t think developers should have to sign up to Google and provide ID cards to basically have a limited amount of users use their specific app outside the app store.

    Google obviously is feeling threatened by better apps that more people are using on platforms like F-Droid compared the outright subscription based shitware and adware on the playstore. Which is why they are doing this. But like platforms before like inturn Symbian. I personally think it’ll fuck them over so hard that’ll they’ll never recover while China or whomever else makes a new platform for you to run android apps on for a time before going all proprietary fucked up Linux. Just like Android again.

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      They’ll probably also release a new API to allow apps to check if user have enabled sideloading. Then overzealous apps like fucking mcdonalds will throw a hissy fit about it and refuse to work unless you turn it off. Also your bank too, just to really make it as hard as possible to include sideloaded apps. Sideloading will remain available, but so painful, most people just give up.

      Just recently mcdonalds app stopped working when installed in a secondary profile. Long history of them trying to detect root hiding methods too. Fuck them. Once this sideload block thing arrives, mcdonalds would be the first to block it.

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        3 hours ago

        Let em all shut me down. If they don’t need my business, I don’t need theirs. I just found out that Casio makes a g-shock with Bluetooth and you can screw with it using python and an unlisted API.

        One more nail in the coffin for my smartphone footprint. I just want an 8" linux tablet, a watch that can give me messages from signal and a battery powered access point.

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        9 hours ago

        You know it’s kinda funny that I can’t even run the MC Donalds app without doing some fuckery. But my banking app will throw a hissy fit if I try to sign into my account without a rooted or custom ROMed phone because that’s how they know it’s me apparently. Also shame that my banking app stopped supporting Android 8.0 a few years back. I miss my LG V20.

    • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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      Google also extending this to things like fireOS

      it would not, because fireos was based on ancient versions of android like android 11 or earlier, and the block is enforced via google play services which isn’t present on there.

      but new fireos doesn’t run android apps at all. New devices temporarily run android apps on a VM hosted on AWS servers and then stream the video, but only if those apps are distributed on the amazon appstore, and it’s a stopgap until the devs make their apps compatible with the new OS.

      And old fireos devices will start to gradually uninstall “dangerous” sideloaded apks

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    Good news! But it doesn’t change the fact that Google tried to do this in the first place.

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    23 hours ago

    Straight from the playbook. Announce something terrible, then back off with something bad. Everyone calls it a win.

    See: Wizards if the Coast, Unity

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      And 5 years they’ll try it again.

      Do terrible thing A to test the sentiment, probe the reaction, backpedal a bit, admit caveats and facilitate pre-planned option B, try again after a few days and gocus on it died down.

      At one point we’ll need diff monitoring on the TOC and all other legal imprints :|

  • MithranArkanere@lemmy.world
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    No freaking way this was because of “feedback”. This was because the European Commission will keep escalating their fines if Google keeps at it with the monopoly bullshit.

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      15 hours ago

      The EU is just a bit behind being maliciously lobbied to death (eyeroll).
      (See Digital Omnibus Act)

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      Quite some time ago, the messaging I was getting from Microsoft was that Windows 10 security updates were going to end this year. I didn’t really keep up with the news on that front, but I did notice that there was some kind of law suit in the EU that from what I recall basically came down to the fact that MS would have to continue to provide security updates to Win 10 free of charge for EU users.

      Literally within the last week, a buddy of mine asked me to look at his computer and see if I could upgrade it to Win 10. I could not, as it doesn’t have a supported processor. But what I noticed is that MS now offers the option to extend security updates until 2026 with the click of a button.

      So, thanks EU folks! Already knew ya’ll were awesome, but I assume this change of heart from Microsoft was a result of that suit. I appreciate it.

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    Google: "Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified.

    And we will NEVER trust you again because we know you’ll retry this next year or so in a few smaller steps that all have cutesy innocent names that are supposed to lull us in a false sense of security

    Fuck Google, stop paying them for anything, stop using their services wherever possible.

    • poopkins@lemmy.world
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      Wait, so Google listened to our feedback, and we’re still mad? What would a positive outcome have looked like?

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        14 hours ago

        Once user trust is burned it’s not coming back.

        There are no positive outcomes available now - it’s time to abandon Google.

        Linux phones arriving sooner? Hopefully that’s the silver lining.

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        23 hours ago

        Because no one believes that Google (Evil Corp) did this to deteer scammers, as they claim their reasoning was. If that was the case, they would take a much better care about the virus apps that gets released on Play Store, or the phishing ads that gets served through games.

        This was always about monopoly.

        • poopkins@lemmy.world
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          I genuinely believe that it was motivated by the desire to deter scammers. What leads you to believe it’s not? There are many gullible people out there who will follow, precisely as you pointed out, phishing links that encourage them to sideload an unverified app.

          No system is perfect, and I also believe that Google Play does a fair job of removing malicious apps.

          I’m sorry to try to bring some nuance into this thread as I know that discourse isn’t welcome on Lemmy, but I’m just trying to wrap my head around the outrage. Providing a way to let experienced users continue to sideload apps while safeguarding the more gullible seems like a good idea and I still genuinely don’t understand what your preferred solution would be.

          • greenacres3233@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            16 hours ago

            I understand that thoughtprocess, I really do because I’ve thought the same at one point. Most who are angry and frustrated at Google have.

            To explain it a bit, it’s pretty much what I said before. If it really were to deteer scammers, they would implement better security and safety in their Play Store first. There’s also ways they could block phishing attempts through there, but instead they use a bulldozer to hammer a small nail to a wall when a hammer would do just fine. I’m sure if you do a search for articles there’ll be news covering this, and surely son statistic if you are more curious on numbers.

            What they need is better checks in the very first step, because locking down sideloading won’t fix their inherently flawed Play store security and vetting. It’s like putting a patch of glue on a crack in the wall, but right next to it there’s already a gaping hole.

      • theparadox@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        I think it was fairly obvious that the move was going to piss people off, they just misjudged to what extent. Modern business strategy is to claim to listen to customer feedback and just quietly plan to implement it anyway, just do it more subtly, more quietly, and more slowly.

        • poopkins@lemmy.world
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          I would understand the outrage if Google didn’t stick to their word, but unless I’ve missed something, they’ve not, have they? Are we now protesting that they reversed their decision? Wasn’t this what we wanted?

          • theparadox@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            Are we now protesting that they reversed their decision?

            …no? I’m not really protesting so much as offering what I think the other person is trying to say. I think they are saying that Google crossed a line, and walking it back doesn’t change that fact.

            In my opinion, Google has crossed countless lines over the last 5-10 years. I’m looking for alternatives that meet my own needs. That search has accelerated over the last few years, when the things Google has done have been most egregious. This isn’t a protest. This is disillusionment. I’m abandoning ship.

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    Don’t consider this a win, guys, this is more of an ‘Oh shit, we’re screwed if we follow through with this right now’ moment, there’s nothing stopping them from walking this back at a later, less turbulent date when no one’s paying attention, and locking Android down anyways, as this directly reminds me of the situation which caused WEI to be scrapped.

    Also, the EU pushing Chat Control through the back door might embolden Google to both try an Android lockdown just like was going to roll out before, and try WEI again, and get both actually pushed through somehow.

    I wouldn’t even be surprised if MS were emboldened to try to lock down PCs… Again…

    • PaintedSnail@lemmy.world
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      I mean, sure, but there was never anything stopping them from doing this in the first place except public pressure. Large companies changing tracks due to public demand is a good thing, and definitely a win.

      I think its better to simply realize that a win doesn’t mean the fight is over. It’s okay to be happy about a success. Just don’t let up on the pressure.

  • Elsie@lemmy.ml
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    It’s not sideloading, it’s installing. Stop giving into this idea that installing other apps is somehow bypassing normal methods!

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    It’s still worse than before. Really need to break mobile away from Google and Apple. Preferably as close to standard Linux as possible

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      AOSP makes a lot more sense to me. We just need to adopt Graphene or Lineage en masse and start contributing to support more devices, grow that out into a real alternative with support for the already existing android app ecosystem, and real alternatives to Google Play services

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        Aosp makes more sense as a short term strategy, but google is making developing graphene harder, linux mobile is a much better long term strategy

        • tehmics@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          It doesn’t matter, you fork into something else entirely. It’s a hell of a lot easier to leverage the android ecosystems in a diverging fork than it is to build a whole new niche platform

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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          21 hours ago

          The second I hear about a Linux mobile operating system that has even decent screen reader support, I will be switching.

          Magnification in Linux desktops in particular has not been that difficult, but screen readers are a whole different can of worms.

          I figure Linux Mobile will be able to do magnification properly as they do it fine on desktop and they can just copy the gestures from Android if nothing else.

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            Waydroid doesn’t intend on supporting it. It’s a piece of code that checks for evidence of “tampering” (such as an unlocked bootloader, or root access), and sends those bits of data off to Google’s servers for verification

            It’s antithetical to Waydroid and device freedom, and is used by banking apps for “security” reasons, as well as media apps for piracy reasons

            And is a massive pain for anyone who root’s their devices

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    Google: “Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified.

    I’ve been side loading apks since I bought my first Android phones and am much more concerned about malware “safe” apps from Google’s Play store. Google’s quality control is shit.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
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      Yes. I wonder how many people unknowingly updated Simple Mobile Tools apps after the new owner’s buy-in.

      • nuxi@lemmy.world
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        The number of apps that I’ve had to unistall because they got quietly sold and turned into malware is alarming.

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      Quality control is not the words. They are unethical garbage pieces of shit who make the world a worse place. These big companies buy smaller ones just so they have the good devs and no competition. Then they make everything in the market insufferable as fuck.

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    We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer.

    Translation: if they want scamware, it better be from Google Play, where Google gets a 30% cut. On top of the cut they got for the phishing link in Google Ads.

    And if anything thinks I’m being hyperbolic, go on Google Play and search for pretty much anything. Or turn off your adblocker.

    • Buckshot@programming.dev
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      23 hours ago

      Helped a disabled pensioner recently with her phone that kept plaging loud obnoxious ads at her even while locked.

      She had 4 different “virus scanners” that were all fake adware.

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      The fee is 15% below the first $1M of revenue and it should go without saying that app developers only pay that fee for paid apps, in-app purchases or digital subscriptions. It’s very unlikely that a scam app would be paid, or work off a subscription, and if those phishing ads are doing their conversions, you’ll never see the user again.

      I doubt Google’s making more than a few cents off each of these scam apps.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        Google gets a cut from the Google Ads click, which takes the user directly to the Play Store (or, if on desktop, the Chrome extension store).

        If it’s some free shovelware app, they get a cut from the ads spammed onto the user’s screen. If it’s a sham subscription app, they get a cut of that. I see this a lot test clicking ads these days.

        If its legit phishing, that’s a fair point; they don’t get a direct cut of the scam, other than the attention it drives towards their app stores and the data they collect for the user’s profile. But the point I’m trying to make is that it’s incredibly hypocritical to paint 3rd party apps (and indeed any competing app store) as a danger when they do such a poor job policing their own store. They may have a point, but it doesn’t really tackle scamware unless they change their moderation habits.

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    That’s not good enough. They’re just going to keep lightly pushing against the bad publicity until everything not controlled by Google on your phone goes away.

    We need an alternative made without googles shitty hands in the mix. This forced duopoly between Apple and Google sucks. No phone competition in the US also sucks. Overpriced Samsung or a Google phone, while companies Like Red Magic have fan and liquid cooled phones with huge batteries, more ram, and more storage, for less than a grand being sold around the rest of the world outside the US.

    • baconsunday@lemmy.zip
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      Stop it. You’re reminding me why I want to move my family out of the US. Its not just phones, everything is a facade here.

    • daq@lemmy.sdf.org
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      Oneplus had great success but then enshittified. Raised prices to match Samsung and Google, outsourced support to some place that didn’t sound like they were even in the same dimension as any English speakers and took away their ability to help customers even by accident and finally quality of their phones went to shit.

      They could’ve sucked the Chinese government subsidy tit for another few years and would’ve established themselves as legit competition, but that would only delay inevitable enshittification by a few years.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        23 hours ago

        They’re a descent phone right now with their OnePlus 15. Huge battery, good and bright screen, top of the line processing and 16GB of the fastest ram you can get in a phone, and less than $1,000.

        My issues with it are that their potential unlocking and rooting is a bit up in the air, and that they only offer up to a 512GB with no SD card.

        I’d buy a damned Red Magic 11 pro if they didn’t block root and supported band 71.

        • daq@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Nah, I’m not doing back to OP. I hate to say it, but If you’re going to use android, nothing beats pixels. Not even close.

          If GrapheneOS manages to actually work with a decent hardware maker to get a phone to the market, I’ll get that next, but only if Android auto and banking apps work. Phone’s useless to me without those.

          Only reason I’d give those up is if I can get another Linux phone as polished as Nokia N9. Still the best phone I’ve ever owned.

          Not a popular opinion, but if those two options are unavailable, I’d rather switch to iPhone than use a non pixel android.

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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            18 hours ago

            It’s looking like pixel may be planning on locking down root access as well, soon. Really, pixel has never done anything very great. No SD card, ok, screen, ok apu, pretty good cameras, meh battery, and meh storage and ram. Never anything special. Sony phones had potential but they’re always priced high and their software support sucks. I wish LG had kept making phones

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              17 hours ago

              I completely agree, but despite OP or Samsung looking better on paper, overall experience is just so much smoother. Shit just works. And at some point I began to value that over specs.

              Just for some perspective, I’m basing what I’m saying on OP 3T, 5T and 8Pro, Samsung S21 and Pixel 8 pro and currently 9 pro fold.

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      We need an alternative made without googles shitty hands in the mix. This forced duopoly between Apple and Google sucks.

      That goes for MS and Apple on the desktop too, and allegedly Google is trying to enter that space as well for the umpteenth time.

      At least as far as PCs are concerned, they’re still unlocked at the bootloader level, despite MS’ attempts to lock that down, and there’s nothing stopping you from installing Linux or BSD on your PC still. Mobile devices outside a handful which aren’t locked down, unfortunately don’t have that luxury.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        23 hours ago

        Yep. I’m running Linux on all but one of my machines. You at least have the option with most any PC. There’s a very quickly dwindling option to do the same with phones.

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    2 days ago

    Good, but I still don’t trust Google and I really want Linux (you know what I mean) on my next phone.

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            True, but what I’m saying is there is an open model. If another community of devs wan’t a “Linux-based mobile OS”, they can fork AOSP like Graphene did. IE complain about Google, not Android.

            Graphene works. No tracking, tons of FOSS and commercial apps, it just lacks some banking apps. One gap, vs all that exist between now and another Linux phone.

            LineageOS is another option for other phones, also far ahead of other Linux ideas.

            • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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              Yes, but you can expect almost no useful updates from AOSP anymore, which means it’s up to groups like those who develop GrapheneOS to keep up with what people expect while Android ostensibly keeps advancing, and they only support one hardware line.

              • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
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                21 hours ago

                Yes, but in 12 months a Linux phone won’t even be close to where even 4 versions ago Android is. As long as Graphene (or Lineage, or Fairphone, plenty of models) keeps the security updates covered, there are good options out there.

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        AFAIK Faiphone 4/5 and OnePlus 6 are in a very good state on PostmarketOS and continually improving. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say we’ll have fully working devices in half a year - year with the amount of progress that’s happened since the PinePhone and was boosted again by the original Google announcement.

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          Fairphones are probably not daily-able for now, sadly. E.g. on FP4 GPS doesn’t work at all and there are issues with charging/battery reporting AFAIR. OnePlus 6 is definitely more promising ATM, but there are camera issues and you need to do a weird reflashing dance to get GPS to work. Otherwise it’s… passable as a daily phone.

          • cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml
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            Battery fuel guage is almost ready for FP4 at least:

            https://fosstodon.org/@z3ntu/115435804332775702

            And there has been recent successes by the same guy (employed at Fairphone) on getting cameras working (main post of the thread linked above).

            These are recent improvements, and I really hope they can solve the audio stability and GPS stuff so I can move. Thinking of trying out Ubuntu Touch before a mainline distro is ready.

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              Ooh, cool! Might be my new phone when the current one cacks or Android becomes completely unusable.

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            It’s almost like technology doesn’t actually need to be a conveyor belt of spending thousands of dollars on new products that turn into literal e-waste after a year or two. The money-printing treadmill for these trillion dollar corporations would be in immediate jeopardy!

            Imagine! Using an old device that still works and performs all its functions perfectly! You’d have to be completely nuts!

            /s

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            Nothing wrong with it, if you just use it for music listening/youtube/light browsing/satnav/messaging, snapdragon845 is more than enough. Consumables like batteries and back glass can be bought new from AliExpress for like $10. The screen is OLED and so prone to burn-in, but will probably last at least a few more years before cacking it completely.

            Probably not too good for modern gaming and stuff, but probably passable for most tasks.

        • DrDystopia@lemy.lol
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          1 day ago

          Having no call audio on FP5 is a dealbreaker to me, but if it’s only 4g/5g calls and BT audio and mic works I’ll gladly use IP comms only. Need to dive a bit deeper I suppose, and the incentive will come from Google.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        I mean, you can run a Linux phone now:

        !linuxphones@lemmy.ca

        Downside is that aren’t going to have a large software library optimized for touchscreen use. The hardware options are pretty disappointing compared to Android. Not all hardware functionality may be supported, if it’s on a repurposed Android phone. Android or iOS software is mostly designed to expect that it’s on a fast/WiFi connection some of the time and on a slow/limited mobile data link some of the time and be able to act accordingly; most GNU/Linux software is not. Battery life is often not fantastic.

        I still haven’t been pushed over the edge, but I’m definitely keeping my eye on it. I’m just not willing to develop software for Android. I know that GNU/Linux phones will stay open. I am not at all sure that Android won’t wind up locked down by Google at some point, and over the years, it’s definitely shifted in the locked-down direction.

        My current approach is to carry around a Linux laptop and try to shift my usage more towards using the Android phone as a tethering device for the laptop, to get Internet access everywhere. That’s not always reasonable — you need to sit down to use the laptop — but the only thing that the phone really has to be used for is dealing with text messages and calls. If you really wanted to do so, as long as the laptop was on, you could run SIP to get VoIP service off the Internet from a provider of that from the laptop over the phone’s data service, not even rely on the phone’s calling functionality. The laptop isn’t really set up to be able to idle at very low power the way a phone is, be able to wake up when a call comes in, though, so it’s not really appropriate for incoming calls.

        If I need to access something one-handed without sitting down, I can fall back to using the phone.

        And it does have some nice benefits, like having a real keyboard, a considerably more-powerful system, a much larger library of software, a better screen and speakers, a 3.5mm headphones jack (all those phone space constraints go away on a laptop!) and so forth. You can move the phone to somewhere where its radio has good reception and just have it relay to the laptop, which isn’t an option if you’re using the phone itself as the computing device.

        You can, though I don’t, even run Android software on the laptop via Waydroid.

        I don’t presently use it in this role, but there’s a software package, KDE Connect, that lets one interface a phone and a Linux desktop (well, laptop in this case), and do things like happily type away in text message conversations on the laptop, if one has the laptop up and running.

        I’m thinking that that approach also makes it easier to shift my use to a GNU/Linux phone down the line, since mostly, all I absolutely need from a GNU/Linux phone then is to act as a tethering device, handle phone calls and texts. It’s sorta the baby-steps way to move off Android, get my dependence down to the point where moving is no big deal.

        • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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          I’m curious: I’m currently evaluating mobile Linux OSes to transition away from Android. What I got going right now is Ubuntu Touch on a Fairphone 5, but there’s one big drawback with this one for me: the lack of a decent native Signal client.

          I’ve always planned to give Sailfish OS a spin, and I’m almost certain I can install it on the FP5 easily. But I’m not all that keen on ruining my Ubuntu Touch install, and possibly not being able to reinstall it if I want to go back.

          So before I install Sailfish OS on it, can you tell me if it has a decent Signal client? If it doesn’t, then maybe it’s not really worth investigating in the first place for me.

              • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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                19 hours ago

                Yes and yes, but I have no need for it.
                I prefer to use Signal’s Android version by way of SailfishOS’ App support.

                • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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                  17 hours ago

                  Ah right okay.

                  The Android version of Signal works well in Waydroid in Ubuntu Touch also, bu running it permanently in the background like Signal is designed to do is problematic for several reasons that make it kind of a painful proposition. But if I needed it just to send or receive a message punctually, it would be a great solution.

                  Okay then, it sounds like Whisperfish might work well enough as a primary Signal client to make SailfishOS worth giving a spin. Thanks!

      • Emi@ani.social
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        2 days ago

        I saw there is pine phone that is supposed to have Linux or it doesn’t? Didn’t look much into it but was thinking about trying it out.

        • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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          I have a pine phone - they’re super neat because linux on a phone! but… not really usable yet. Not getting texts, random bugs (they fixed the one where you could only receive calls, not make them, but that took a year or more), incredibly laggy UI even just trying to navigate,the battery life is abysmal, the battery management hardware is lacking and the software is even worse, the UIs that exist are poorly supported, basic apps are decently represented but anything not built for mobile is going to be godawful to get working (esp. through something like waydroid), the UI stabbed my puppy, the devices are so underpowered you’re gonna be unable to do things like have two apps open at once or have a video playing in one tab while trying to navigate in another…

          The pro phone has supposedly improved the hardware issues, but it’s new and niche enough that I haven’t seen much of a consens emerge (or hardly any in depth testing at all, really). Fairphone is much more usuable, still not without it’s glitches but much better than the pinephones.

          • mirshafie@europe.pub
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            2 days ago

            It’s great that smart people are working on this, but I don’t think we can expect hobbyists to make a useful OSS implementation of smartphones. Especially since there is so much dependence on the hardware. We either need a company that can throw some weight behind it, or just straight up governments that value it (e.g. from a sovereignty point of view).

        • popcar2@programming.devOP
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          The Linux phones that exist today (including Pine Phone) are more like early dev kits. They have really weak specs, are incredibly buggy, lack all sorts of features you’d expect, and I’m not totally sure if you can even make calls through them because phone carriers require a verified device and proprietary tech to work.

          There are efforts to get things in order but these will take maybe 10 years at this rate.

            • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              It’s not that straightforward - pinephones have varying results depening on carriers, Verizon is notorious for blacklisting them while most of the other major carriers are hit or miss on if you’ll get penalized.

      • ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com
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        Linux on phones or desktops suffer from one major problem as I see it, too much choice.

        You make a Windows app it has to work with the latest couple versions, same with Mac.

        Make one for Linux and you have to test it against dozens of popular distros, package it in multiple ways, and hope the dependencies are gonna match.

        It’s an awesome system for IT people and server admins, but for the end user, ehhh… That seems to be the problem things like snap and flat packs are aimed at fixing, which could transition to phones but first you gotta herd the cats into an agreed state.

        • village604@adultswim.fan
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          Why would multiple distros be a factor? A Linux phone would be its own unique distro.

          The issue is device firmware. The OS has to fit the phone, not vice versa.

          • ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com
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            In itself true, but if you have several competing distros then you run into the problem of attracting developers to the platform if none have a solid market share. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing, if a platform doesn’t have a sizable user base it’s hard to attract developers and it’s hard to get a user base without readily available apps.

        • Illecors@lemmy.cafe
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          That’s not really the case. Have a look at AUR or GURU repo - most proprietary software is installed by simply applying the same steps an apt, dnf, whathaveyou package manager would.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      Err, that’s not true on the last fee devices I’ve used, Pixels and a Fairphone. Installing apps from APK files doesn’t require me to enable dev options. In fact trying to install an APK from say Files brings me straight to the permission setting. It’s also per-app. It can be accessed under Settings > Apps > Special app access > Install unknown apps.

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
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      On Samsung it’s: download APK, run it, see the warning, tap “allow third party installations”, flick a switch, tap “install”.

    • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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      dark pattern

      This is not what dark pattern means.

      Also, I don’t think enabling developer options is required to install arbitrary APKs.

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    It’s always the same, big shocking announcement, public outcry, pushing forward with a less shocking version, public acceptance, and then rolling out the rest of the initial plan. Why do we keep falling for it?

      • regedit@lemmy.zip
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        This is…actually a really good analogy for consumerism. When the market has little to no competition and seemingly insurmountable barriers to enter it, it can really feel like a hostage situation. At best it’s like two dudes sitting behind a desk, ripping off their hook-and-loop patches to caress their nipples while listening to our feedback.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      What do you suggest we do, not push back?

      And btw this isn’t true. Look at how their attempt to get rid of third party cookies is going. The just rolled back like their fifth attempt/rebranding of it