alt Hacker NewsYour phone is about to stop being yours
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I don't understand, there was all this regulation for force apple to allow alternative app stores, and now google are pulling this move?
How is this not the same walled garden approach apple was forced to change?
I have tons of apps I installed (mostly from Play Store) since like 2012, and that were grandfathered in through Samsung Switch from phone to phone as I replaced them with one another. A lot of data in them, too. Will they, and the data, just ... disappear?! When exactly do I have to do the 24 hour song and dance to prevent that? All of this sounds too bad to be true, honestly.
Is anyone considering a fork of Android that would not have this, um, "feature"?
I imagine most of us here will look elsewhere when we next upgrade. But are those numbers large enough to form a viable alternative?
It will end up badly for them in EU
There is a negative network effect: The opt-out is so complex and time-consuming that it will deter almost all users (even if some on HN say they will do it).
With so few users, many fewer developers will release apps that don't comply with Google's requirements. Then the value of opting out will decline significantly, which will reduce the number of people doing it, which will reduce the number of apps released ...
How do corporate users distribute custom apps on iPhones? Must they distribute them via Apple's store or is there some corporate mode, maybe involving X.509 certs and device management, that enables large-scale professional users to sideload?
This feels like something where the EU Commission should step in. This is directly counter to the Digital Markets Act, it's Google abusing its gatekeeper position.
I've been planning my move from Google for a while but this is getting me to pull the trigger. GrapheneOS, Kagi and Fastmail it is. I'll keep the gmail account open for mail forwarding but that's about it.
Does this make Android the same as iOS now, in terms of how locked down it is?
So what you're saying is that I have about 3 months to switch to Graphene? Really though, is this not the very definition of monopolistic behavior? Did they not just lose a lawsuit over this?
Some more discussions:
2 weeks ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778274
Yes, but not because of those changes in the GMS stock OS, but because the ability to unlock the bootloader (and install the OS you can actually control) is being increasingly limited.
Stock GMS Android was never yours, you only had access to basic permissions, privileged/signature permissions were only accessible to Google/vendors anyway.
The level of panic here feels totally out of proportion. While these restrictions are a sad reminder of where personal computing is headed, the shift toward appliances over computers isn’t a new trend at all.
What’s more frustrating is the "your android phone will stop being yours" narrative. Where is that supposed to lead the reader? Moving to iOS to escape restrictions is a total contradiction, as the situation there isn't even comparable. The people who actually care - the F-Droid users and independent developers - are already used to jumping through hurdles and bypassing "install anyway" warnings. They won't be deterred, and new users will learn.
Honestly, you have to wonder if the goal of these dramatic campaigns is just to scare ignorant users into the Apple ecosystem or maybe to prop up emerging Linux phones.
But has anyone actually tried a mainstream Linux phone that isn't a nightmare to use? Compare that experience to the dozens of Android models that work perfectly with LineageOS or other variants. Those are 100% daily drivers with the power, cameras, and battery life fully working. Instead of helpful criticism, these headlines feel like they’re just herding people away from the only practical "open" hardware we actually have.
So... just like the App Store on iOS?
I predict this same restriction for Windows 12.
Buying a jolla phone now!
This is goggle's version of windoze 11
There's never been a better time to switch to a linux phone...
I love that it's so easy to tell that this was built with Claude.
Algorithmically removing words from a headline with confidence that what comes out will be better is the precise intersection of stupid and arrogant that defines the modern tech industry.
Better to share how to install apps and alternative app stores instead of fearmongering around very reasonable security measures.
vaguely curious how this is going to affect Amazon's FireOS
which is basically android with their own app store layer
FireToolBox has gotten really powerful with workarounds
especially with the new Shizuku pseudo-root via adb
WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY?
This is the question this website should be answering. Signing petitions is all well and good, but I want to vote with my wallet.
WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY???
One thing I will do in the future is buy a nifty Motorola / GrapheneOS collab phone, but I can't do that yet. So for now: WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY?
It is literally amazing to me that people aren't giving this as an option on such social coordination sites. Who is willing and able to sue Google over this? Who is actually doing it?
*WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY*
I have to admit, in ancient times when the googleists could point schadenfreude at the appleists and brag about how open Android was compared to iOS, I was a bit envious. Now that terminal enshittification has infected Android too, I'm not feeling schadenfreude in turn. It's a sad day all around.
On one hand, having a free for all is very good, especially for developers, and for programmability of our devices as such. Screw iPads.
On the other hand, malware which coaxes normies into installing unverified apks, is an undeniable fact of life. It's nice to be pontificating as a power user who has never been phished or whose devices never became botnet zombies in their life.
On yet another hand, higher-end malware (made by those who can afford the store fees) is there on the freaking play store and app store, so, I guess, shrug
Another downside of this, besides what’s mentioned, is people becoming insensitive about security, when they get to blindly do that process to install legitimate apps multiple times, it will be easier to trick them to install malicious ones, so you are not improving security at all.
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Isnt the title a bit dramatic? I remember reading you can still install apps but you just need to click a few buttons.
Since forever.
The fixed phones belonged to the phone company and were only rented under contract.
Most prepaid and contract mobile phones were locked to the operator and we even had to pay extra to unblock them.
App stores were gated through operators, and required devkits for some of them.
Ah, and none of them got updates, if they did, usually required additional software to install them.
Our phones stopped being ours ever since we accepted phones with locked bootloaders. I hope Android and iOS both disappear. Trading freedom for security has resulted in what we knew would happen.
Ugh such overreaction. ADB is still a thing. Apple doesn't even have an official command like tool where you can just push an IPA to your phone. Goodness.
The real mystery is why anyone remotely aware of the Free Software movement would have ever been duped into advocating for handheld computers so hostile to their own goals.
My phone has not been "mine" for a decade and a half now, and the ability to install a self signed.apk has very little to do with this.