151–160 of 171 posts
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The point being made above is that if data is turned off, you can no longer receive calls made over WhatsApp.
Yup. My intention is to intentionally block whatsapp calls. And to use the oldskool telephone for emergencies. I could have communicated it more clearly.
I’m now an iOS user but the problem is actually the same here : apps not respecting communication channels to push ads (mostly to their own app or service). I usually fully block notifications from most apps but for some apps the notifications are really convenient (carpooling, transport or delivery app). Yes I want to know if the train I booked is delayed. No I don’t want to be notified that you are now partnering w…
Worse even because iOS doesn't offer notification groups/channels like Android does (ignoring the fact that market leaders like Uber, DoorDash, etc. eschew them in favor of "General" channels they can pump both delivery/ride info and ads through.) IMO this needs to be an app guideline enforced by the iOS App Store and Play Store. I remember back in the day, iOS used to be known for having less spammy notifications.
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>I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. The app lacks the INTERNET permission so it can't really exfiltrate data even if it wanted to.
That's another pet peeve of mine: Why the hell can't we block internet access for apps in (native) Android? Everything else is a permission, but this is not, somehow.
There are also (open source) firewall apps that will let you block (non-system) apps if you're on a stock ROM like me.
Technically, this is a permission, just not a user-grantable one. Google has moved quite a few permissions from inherent to user-grantable, but most apps don't work without internet (unfortunately) so I doubt they will do it for the internet permission in stock android.
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Wait, we can in Android. In my OnePlus 12 in the app settings under "data usage" there are two toggles for "disable mobile data" / "disable wifi"
Wow, thought it was GrapheneOS only, but no. Confirmed these settings on One+15 on OOS16 (based on Android 16). Is it also the case for other Android brands? P.S. I did use it before to turn off ads.
Some Chinese/Taiwanese brands do it too, but most western brands don't seem to include a firewall.
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Google's Pixel phones (near stock Android) famously do NOT have the option.
Google is invested into you having WiFi all the time. Weirdly, my very old Nexus 6P with the WiFi off, could lie untouched for weeks, with almost no battery depletion. Yet if I turn the WiFi on with near stock Android (meaning no messengers, tens of email accounts, etc, to constantly ping _something_), it just eats the battery within 24 hours tops. Perhaps that’s just the module itself, but I remember flashing Lineag…
I've also noticed the difference between vendor+custom ROM with a Xiaomi device, which I use as a second phone around the house for controlling smart lights and such. The biggest difference there seems to be that I don't have as many apps installed and as many features enabled, because during active use and shortly after, the battery drains just as fast as (actually a bit faster than) when using the original ROM.
Many custom ROMs (at least the LineageOS-based ones) also don't do thing like configure the country code for the WiFi chip and GPS caches. A large part of the 5GHz spectrum simply doesn't exist (by default) on my custom ROM devices so there's just less to scan in the background.
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If you're that paranoid, you might also consider not using F-Droid: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/obtaining-apps/#f-d... https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/15490-f-droid-or-obtainium
TIL! IDK if I would consider not blindly trusting an unknown third party to read all my notifications being paranoid, but if it is, then yeah, I guess I am. I've used F-droid merely due to the open source guarantee, so how fast these apps are patched isn't a deal-breaker for me, but I'll definitely look into Obtanium now. Thank you!
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If you're feeling skeptical and just want to be sure, you can use this NetGuard https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard to block internet access for any app.
TIL! What a find. Thanks mate! I might actually try this now.
Fast/private DNS, firewall, logs, VPN (WireGuard) ready to go.
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There are e.g. banking apps doing that.
Consider using another bank. Maybe there's a higher tolerance for that kind of bullshit in the US but I've never seen a single notification from my bank. If it sent me spam I would assume they got hacked.
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Consider using another bank. Maybe there's a higher tolerance for that kind of bullshit in the US but I've never seen a single notification from my bank. If it sent me spam I would assume they got hacked.
The problem is that the energy it takes to switch banks is way too high given the inconvenience, and they know. This applies to many small annoyances that are not big enough to vote with your feet, so companies abuse these things. Classic dark patterns.