Your phone is about to stop being yours • Hacker News Board

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#211

Post by mvdtnz » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

gslepak wrote: post #153

HWR_14 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there are two walled gardens, you might as well choose the prettier one.

Or choose freedom. I've been enjoying GrapheneOS for a couple of years now and recommend it.

Graphene sounds great in theory. Until you read the device compatibility page and see you're still at the mercy of Google. In order to support graphene you must first pay Google for one of the most expensive android devices on the market. Oh and Google never sold this device in my country so I guess I'm out of luck even if I wanted to do that.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#212

Post by sowbug » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #172

moralestapia wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Wait 24 hours Somehow bank vaults and heroin storage boxes don’t take this long.

The 24 hour wait period is so the scammer can't use the element of urgency to keep the victim on the phone where they don't have the opportunity to speak with trusted friends/family who would stop the scam.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling-off_period_(consumer_r.... It's an old solution to an old problem: give the potential victim a chance to think clearly while the damage can still be undone.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#213

Post by shafoshaf » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #191

Anonyneko wrote: post #133

I've resigned to the fact that I'll need to use two phones, one with locked down Android/iOS for banking applications and government services (those require strong bank ID around these parts), another with some kind of a Linux or unlocked Android for literally everything else. Oh well, such is life, most people don't care enough about this to pressure Google/Apple/banks/governments into yielding. A big reason why a n…

What we need to push back on is making a phone a requirement to do routine banking and conducting other necessary business. There is no reason I should be required to have a phone in order to query my balance or transfer money to someone, when I have a perfectly good computer sitting here.

The physical keys, like Yubico, help with that. However, I have not been convinced that a password manager with unique, strong passwords on all my accounts shouldn't suffice. I don't know why I have to be penalized because other users don't use best practices.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#214

Post by Cider9986 » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

theK wrote: post #207

Cider9986 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS is the answer. Apple's software is really buggy compared to Android and Linux.

Or /e/

GrapheneOS is significantly more secure, more private, and more free. Not sure why you would use /e/.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#215

Post by tkel » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

shafoshaf wrote: post #206

akomtu wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's their creation.

I don't know if that is sarcasm, but a chair I buy is mine to do whatever I want with it. Same goes for clothes, a mattress, paint, or any other non-software enabled physical item. Why does having software/hardware make a difference?

Because capitalists extend control wherever they can to maximize profitability.

If you want decisions that corporations make to be aligned with the desires of their users, you should be advocating for software/hardware built by consumer cooperatives.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#216

Post by quantumleaper » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

gslepak wrote: post #153

HWR_14 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there are two walled gardens, you might as well choose the prettier one.

Or choose freedom. I've been enjoying GrapheneOS for a couple of years now and recommend it.

Unfortunately, there is no way to use Google Pay on it. I'm all for trading some convenience for privacy, but not having to carry all my cards is too much of a convenience for me :(

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#217

Post by kube-system » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

> Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID.

This is false. Google will provide two other flows for app distribution that are different than this.

> Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt-out.

Again, false. There is an opt-out called the "advanced flow".

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-de...

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#218

Post by vfclists » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

Cider9986 wrote: post #180

BatteryMountain wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on this path too. Waiting a few more months to see what happens. If they indeed block my 4 apps on my phone (which aren't published anywhere), I will simply move to Apple.

You should switch to GrapheneOS instead.

You mean buy a Google Pixel?

How many people can afford one?

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#219

Post by code_duck » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

cestith wrote: post #197

code_duck wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the same situation as game consoles. Custom built hardware that is only meant to run the one specific vendor OS. There have been many other computing devices like that in the past as well. The general purpose desktop computer that allows a choice of operating systems is actually less common than the other way. Historically, people didn’t expect to run alternate operating systems on a mainframe, 80s and 90s compu…

That’s odd, because I remember being a user of MUSIC on the university System/360. I imagine it also sounds odd to all those people who ran AT&T Unix on their PDP/11 systems instead of a Digital OS like RTS/11. Or the people who ran Xenix on their PCs. Or the folks like me who installed OS/2 on what was sold as an MS-DOS machine. Then there were the folks who ran A+ on their Atari.

Oh yeah, odd. Anyway, I’m aware of alternate mainframe OSs but I’m not sure how common using one was. Other than OS2, alternate OSs for other systems were rather rare, though it is worth noting that they were not forbidden or blocked.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#220

Post by scblock » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

dtj1123 wrote: post #157

empyrrhicist wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the vastly superior apple experience After switching away from GrapheneOS to iOS after RCS stopped working for me, I can safely say my experience has been the opposite. The camera is the only thing better for me on iOS - everything else is buggier and worse. A few of my favorites: 1. Safari is buggy as hell, and requires installing apps to run things like ad blockers. 2. The settings are ALL over the place and very…

I'm considering switching to GrapheneOS... What's this about RCS not working?

RCS can be hit or miss on GrapheneOS, but they have made significant progress recently. It requires using Google Messages rather than any other messaging app, and may require enabling an ICC authentication option that is disabled by default. And it may depend on your carrier. RCS is kind of a pain in the butt but the messaging improvements over SMS are substantial which is why I wanted it.

When I first tried last fall I had it working for a few weeks then it stopped entirely delivering messages and I fell back to SMS only. After the recent system updates and enabling the ICC option it has been working well for me.

The official page explains briefly, https://grapheneos.org/usage#rcs

There is a very long discussion threat going back several years that is now considered resolved, which seems to be the case for me. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1353-using-rcs-with-google-...