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A big win for Android interoperability

openhomefoundation.org

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Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#31

Post by leni536 »

aboardRat4 wrote: post #11

This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.

I recently learned that there is a business doing exactly that:

https://iode.tech/

I don't think it's high volume, I think this is done by some of the microg folks.

But OEMs probably do everything in their power to make this business model unviable or at least not scale.

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#32

Post by microtonal »

leni536 wrote: post #31
aboardRat4 wrote: post #11

This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.

I recently learned that there is a business doing exactly that: https://iode.tech/ I don't think it's high volume, I think this is done by some of the microg folks. But OEMs probably do everything in their power to make this business model unviable or at least not scale.

It is one of many projects that make alternative, AOSP-based operating systems (e.g. GrapheneOS, LineageOS, /e/OS), and some of them sell devices for an additional source of income (e.g. Murena who develop /e/OS also does this).

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#33

Post by hollow-moe »

microtonal wrote: post #24
hollow-moe wrote: post #18

What a shame. How much time and €M spent just to deign allow you to do some very specific stuff on their devices (in 5 years at least once the trials and shenanigans settle) ? Obviously it doesn't include the "answering call screening" for example, which requires very privileged APIs accessible only by "system" apps, i.e. the ones preinstalled in the ROM. How about RCS ? Remember RCS the "open" standard replacing SMS…

RCS is a nothingburger in Europe, virtually everybody uses WhatsApp (and a smaller group also Signal, etc.). RCS is especially relevant to the US where many people use iMessage and the downgrade path is SMS/MMS.

Whoops my bad then, disregard previous post. Creating a facebook account at once with my national id in addition to my carrier subscription. Gotta love US dependency.

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#34

Post by microtonal »

aatd86 wrote: post #15

Funnily enough, I think it is in Google's best interest to comply and do the best work they can. Besides security that they might want to guarantee up to a limit, that would boost Android usage, also including their own hardware. The future lies in a large, local-friendly ecosystem and the hardware to support it. Gate keeping software makes even less sense nowadays. The competition is on compute offering. Cheaper, fa…

Funnily enough, I think it is in Google's best interest to comply and do the best work they can. Besides security that they might want to guarantee up to a limit, that would boost Android usage, also including their own hardware.

It is not necessarily a competitive advantage, because Apple needs to do the same (which is why they aren't releasing the new iOS 27 Siri, etc. in the EU).

Apple and Google just took different approaches: Google just released their stuff in violation of the DMA and had the EU come at them. Apple chose to be in compliance before before releasing their assistant updates, though they tried to lobby the EC in favor of releasing now with the promise of adding interoperability in N months.

I am completely in favor of this. But for Google/Apple the best outcome giving their own assistance preferential treatment. More subscription income.

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#35

Post by pitchlatte »

shiandow wrote: post #22

I don't care about any of these, I just want to be able to have whatever Google pay does without Google. You could claim that's not an android problem but if you do I don't think you've ever had to explain to people your phone doesn't have a Google Play store.

blows my mind that there’s not a single open solution for mobile wallets and nobody is saying anything.

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#37

Post by pipes »

aboardRat4 wrote: post #27
pipes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prevents this? I always assumed they could.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/10/trump-... DMCA and other anti-circumvention regulations.

That was a good read. But I still thought anyone can take graphene os and put it in a phone and sell it? Maybe there is specific licensing restrictions in the android license that stop this.

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#38

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

shiandow wrote: post #22

I don't care about any of these, I just want to be able to have whatever Google pay does without Google. You could claim that's not an android problem but if you do I don't think you've ever had to explain to people your phone doesn't have a Google Play store.

There's Curve Pay which works on GrapheneOS

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#39

Post by eszed »

microtonal wrote: post #28
JoshTriplett wrote: post #20

Now if only these rulings also covered attestation.

Indeed. This ruling seems to be targeted at AI specifically. It is a great ruling, because it allows proper competition of other assistants with Google's (and Bixby). However, IMO the bigger evil is all the anti-competitive stuff that make it impossible for competitors to Android/iOS to enter the market, including European products like SailfishOS, such as remote attestation and the things that flow from it (e.g. no…

I agree that attestation is the biggest deal. My current hope is that the upcoming GrapheneOS phones will be able to achieve that. It's really up to a manufacturer being able to strong-arm third-parties - banks and such - into accepting their chain of trust, and Motorola may be able to do that.

Re: A big win for Android interoperability

#40

Post by tonyhart7 »

pitchlatte wrote: post #35
shiandow wrote: post #22

I don't care about any of these, I just want to be able to have whatever Google pay does without Google. You could claim that's not an android problem but if you do I don't think you've ever had to explain to people your phone doesn't have a Google Play store.

blows my mind that there’s not a single open solution for mobile wallets and nobody is saying anything.

"open solution for mobile wallets"

define open wallet then

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