@duckling5746@lemmy.today as a reminder the reason this is related to self-hosting should be obvious, whether in the title or the post text.
For this one, I’ll note that this is key to self-hosting, and I think many know it. Many, myself included, use f-droid or similar 3rd party repos to manage the apps that we use with our self-hosted setup. With this change, many of the current apps we enjoy using will either need to register with Google, or essentially become unused. While there is a way to still do it, it is really messy, and requires an absolutely wild number of steps + 24hr “cooling off period”. Its ridiculous.
Personally, I’m leaving the android ecosystem one way or the other. It may be using an android phone and hotspotting for another device running PMOS or similar, or getting a Moto with Graphene, whatever, but this change is impactful and horrendous.
Not that I particularly trust Google, but they have promised to not molest the ADB pathway.
"Are ADB installs impacted by the 24-hour waiting period for advanced flow? No, there are no changes to how ADB works. You will be able to install applications using ADB as usual. The waiting period does not apply to ADB installs. Last updated: March 23, 2026’
https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/faq
@SuspiciousCarrot78 @curbstickle adb is not at all convenient compared to something like fdroid. I wouldn’t consider that a real alternative other than in rare cases.
LADB is a native android app, among many.
What’s to stop me from doing this
- Download apk
- Enable Wireless debugging
- Pair the on-phone ADB client
- Run something equivalent to: pm install /sdcard/Download/app.apk
- Installation occurs through the ADB shell route.
Because if that works, “install from Fdroid” needs just a small tweak so that the Fdroid app submits the APK through ADB.
Enable Wireless debugging
not everyone has wifi at home, and this doesn’t work without one. It’s also very complicated for people. it is basically a wall around a garden.
also you either have to set adb over wifi to automatically turn on when connecting to that wifi, which is not that safe, or turn it on manually every time you want to install apps or updates. with that, the recent android feature to allow 3rd party stores to update their apps without a prompt goes out the window.
The nonsense steps to even get there. The absolute nonsensical mess of lies in their claims to even do this in the first place. Lets be clear - if they wanted to block malware, they would need to be doing so from the Play store in the first place. So, lets highlight a few simple things:
- It was only about 6 months ago that it was documented by a cybersec company that hundreds of malicious apps were downloaded quite literally tens of millions of times.
- The number of malicious apps on the Play store have gone up, not down.
- Banking malware has more than doubled in the past few years
- The majority of growth (more than doubling) in the YoY were spyware apps - used for identity theft, extortion, and surveillance, and all on the Play store.
- There are even ones specifically targeting Android TV boxes, again mostly operating unchecked on the Play store.
To even suggest installing apps (which, lets be honest, that is what they are calling “sideloading” - doing the thing you do on your PC all the time) from a different location is the issue is far from reality. So any “promise” from them is worth functionally nothing to me.
As I said, I’m leaving Android either way. I shouldn’t have to go through such a massive number of hoops to install on my own device.
https://github.com/evanman83/OURS-project
Doesn’t really slide into the back pocket but…
What I’m hoping to go with is more something like a clamshell (think MNT Pocket Reform) or slider (like the old motorola droid). The Mecha Comet seems interesting but I’m not sure yet. I also like what WaveShare has going with the PocketTerm, but I want something other than a pi in there (I swore off RPi when they continued business sales and let prices skyrocket for the regular users who made them who they are).
I may also end up trying to put something together with spare parts I have, but we’ll see if I have the time for that.
I kind hope google goes full retard. It’s probably the best way to break their monopoly.
My phone is 9yrs old this year -still works great. When it dies, I will go dumbphone + small tablet route. Fuck it, I will build a tablet or a cyber deck if I have to. No better fuel than spite.
https://github.com/evanman83/OURS-project
Doesn’t really slide into the back pocket but…
Haha nice! There’s also this gizmo that looks really promising. I think this is the one where they were talking about an LTE module. Or yeah, could always just tether!
https://mecha.so/comet#overview
Also this DIY project that seems a bit more… Involved.
but they have promised to
Like they promised other things in the past?
MAKE AN OPENSOURCE STORE THROUGH CUSTOM FIRMWARE DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia
“In August 2009, Wired reported that Freeman claimed about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia.[17]”
Mandate that all boot loaders can be unlocked by consumers/device owners!
That single change alone would open the floodgates of development.
Manufacturer locked boot loaders was the single biggest mistake made in the phone world. Now just consider all the work it’ll take to reverse that simple misstep made years ago that nobody gave a single thought to.
I guess at a certain point I just stop using electronics.
That’s how big tech wins. Complete monopoly.
The number of times that signing an online petition has prevented the plans of an evil corporation is exactly zero.
I agree. Doesn’t do anything it would be better to get people to buy stock in the company and vote on what you want. Get enough people and you can make change.
But that process is also… Gross. And expensive.
There are already some movements, like #Keep Android Open that ask to contact local regulators and law makers, this petition is useful to have a concrete number of people that agree and that can be used officially
Companies have reversed unpopular decisions in the past (just saw a thing about Facebook reversing some AI thing). So there may be some possible chance of them reversing this decision. I’m not hopeful but the cost is cheap, and it has a better chance of success than doing nothing
Hence the proliferation of spam… It cost nearly nothing to do and has a very limited chance of return… And yet my inbox has still got 10,000 messages in it which I do nothing about.
I am not so sure. It creats activity, being passive is worse. We should encourage all type of protests, even petitions.
Fire also creates activity.
I’m highly active at a molecular level doesn’t mean I’m getting shit done 😊
at the molecular level at that.
It dissipates righteous indignation by making sure that people feel the satisfaction and the release of “doing something” (and thus not act any more forcefully) whilst said “something” is the least impactful thing imaginable.
It ultimately makes those who would do more do less instead.
let’s get real…google isn’t going to stop. why would they? there’s zero repercussions for their aggressive strategy against their own consumers.
so stop using their products. cut google out, entirely.
This feels like the last stop for this. I swear it got posted 3X a day to every other sub for weeks last year.
Am I ignoring the actual post and just looking at the logo because I own a 7 year old iPhone —also yes.
Most online petitions are nothing more than a way to safely (for those targeted and for those amongst the authorities who support them even against the public interest) dissipate the common people’s righteous indignation, by making them feel like they “did something” whilst said something is just about the least impactful thing imaginable.
(Some official ones, for example those mandating parliamentary sessions on the subject if they reach a certain threshold, might not be so, though its unclear as it really depends on the legislation around it allowing politicians to just ignore it at will)
This bullshit will require a lot more than adding your name into a list on some corner of the web in some legal jurisdiction where they’re free to sell your private information.
Fuck you Pichai.
Really starting to wonder what they signed with apple to get RCS. Seems to be they sold the soul of android.
Wait so you’re somehow trying to blame THIS on Apple too?
In what way does this have anything to do with RCS or Apple lmao
Google apple agreed to increase android security for the deployment of RCS to both platforms. This directly looked like enforcing root detection and safety net(now play integrity) enforcement to use RCS. I’m speculating restricting side loading is also part of that agreement. It would make sense considering it’s forbidden on apple.
Sorry, but do you have a source for this at all?
As far as I can tell, they have added some Play Integrity checks (with root detection being part of that), but the reason was cited as spam prevention, and I can’t find anything claiming they had any sort of agreement with Apple to do so.
They kept pushing for Apple to implement it, but I don’t know of any cases of them making any promises about what they’d do on their own platform in order to convince Apple or anything like that.
I cannot find my source unfortunately poked around a bit. Unfortunately this article was better than even the ones I was finding.
You aren’t going to keep Android open. Respond by shoring up Linux phones.
Most of the world can’t afford to buy one specific android and hope not to brick it. Most people can’t afford a google pixel and if they can, are going to risk it.
And what happens when google cuts off third party tools like MicroG. I need WhatsApp for almost everything from talking to family and friends to Work. Most of the world does, and th3 space is true for Facebook.
“I need WhatsApp for almost everything from talking to family and friends to Work. Most of the world does, and the same is true for Facebook.”
Whatsapp and Facebook bring convienence for sure, but you can live without them. All those that know me, know i refuse to use Whatapp. Those that want to keep up with me have installed Signal. I admit that for business it can be tricky but we have to start somewhere?
Which is why you stop using Android and use Linux phones instead.
Most Linux phones are android phones that have a Linux rom available to them, hence why they said most people wouldn’t risk what they spent a lot of money on
I didn’t say put a Linux rom on an android phone. I said use a Linux phone.
Then you are fucked right? What’s app and Facebook have you.
I too live somewhere this is expected. I said no. I won’t do it. Facebook is easy, because whatever.
WhatsApp is harder even the doctors want to use it. But I won’t. Someone has to start saying no.
Most people can’t afford a google pixel and if they can, aren’t going to risk it.
And they shouldn’t. By buying Pixels you are supporting Google, the same company that is destroying Android freedom.
Today’s best alternatives are phones that come preloaded with custom ROMs (Brax3, Fairphone, Murena, Iodé, and so on), or if you’re feeling more adventurous, a Linux phone (I have heard good things about FuriLabs FLX1).
I don’t want to buy a new phone
Awww
I don’t want to, but I will if I have to
Google doesn’t give a shit about what you want. It only understands two things: credible legal threats and not giving them your money.
I’m saying I don’t want to buy a new thing, so saying “just buy new phone” doesn’t really help for a lot of people
These people are screwed, then. You can’t expect an uncaring universe to accomodate your wishes, if you’re not willing to move yourself. Stopping using stuff is always an option that doesn’t cost money.
Not only would that solve this little problem, it would reduce Google’s power and remove one’s data from the claws of US authorities (were the Patriot and Cloud acts let them mass track everybody using a Google product).
Just make sure you chose a non-US Linux phone.
deleted by creator
or making a cydia-style open source repository style app store that’s accessible through custom firmware.
This will not work either. Stop using Android.
Start working on a Cydia-like app for android or graphene. Look into the development of how to code an open source repository style app store that’s accessible through custom firmware. if one person can make one for the iphone via a custom firmware then, we can 100% do the same with android.
I genuinely appreciate the cause, but to sign this, I have to provide PII, agree to their terms of service and privacy policy, and get automatically opted-in to their mailing list that I’ll have to unsubscribe from later.
So to petition against this shitty tech stuff, I have to go through this other shitty tech stuff. It sucks how normalized this all has become.
here it makes at least some sense to verify that each person voted once. the mail list stuff is of course to much and should be optional from the beginning.
Anyone know if this affects GrapheneOS users? I can install GrapheneOS like 50x faster than it would take to understand what I’m legally binding myself to by signing the petition.
custom OS shouldn’t be effected by it. I’ll probably change soon as well.
anyway, that is rather independent on the petition. a petition is usually not for your own short term benefit, rather for the common good, or outreach of the general problem. so doing either is for different reasons, both reasonable
A 24hr waiting period to use a competitor’s product has to be one of the most blatant anti-competitive behaviour in history.
I‘m curious I read the petition and didn‘t see mention of „24h waiting“ anywhere could you tell me what you‘re referring to?
The 24h wait period is a part of the so-called “advanced flow” which will become the only way to install apps not verified by google once their new rules go into effect, as described here: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html
If only the founding fathers had written the right to bear apps shall not be infringed in an amendment.
Oh well can’t change the ancient text now, just have to be governed by it forever. 🤷 (It’s a shame the ancient powder-wigged wizards that wrote the constitution weren’t clairvoyant.)
That’s it gents! Wax up those mustaches, load the cannon with grape, storm the White House! We’ll give those bastards a day of reckoning that won’t soon be forgot.
Also kilts and face paint 🤣
I am not from the US but can’t you interpret the first amendment in a way that would work here?
Code is just information and you could argue that a platform is infringing on private free speech.
i am American, and yes we have a long history of interpretation that is expansive. the problem is we have narrow minded people running the institutions now who don’t even want the narrow interpretations to be in effect so they do everything possible to limit them.
if you pay attention long enough you will see them use one argument to get their way, then later use the opposite to get their way on a different issue. there is no moral consistency because morality is just s tool to them.
If only there were some way to change the ancient text. Some sort of amend-sion. Surely our benevolent leaders would have figured something like that out by now. I guess we’ll just have to keep voting and hoping every four years
We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas
Or just call a constitutional convention and write a new one.
That surely won’t backfire spectacularly.
Welcome to McDonald’s credit! You’ll have to wait 24hrs if you want to eat that Whopper you want to buy!
What competitor?
Only an Android alternative will fix this. No amount of proactive work from users will change Google’s mind on this.
