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Your phone is about to stop being yours

keepandroidopen.org

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Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#311

Post by BatteryMountain »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #92
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.

Will your 4 unpublished apps be in your android-alternative apple device? Android will still have the ability to install non-google-distributed programs. The problem is the ominous momentum, but it is still more open than the apple alternative

Its more about the principle for me.I know I can jump through hoops for google but I prefer to say no-thank-you.

The long term fear/plan for google is that they know they days of SAAS and Apps are obsolete. People will just write their own platforms, apps, websites all from scratch using AI, which means the app stores becomes obsolete, which means no more ad revenue from shitty ads and no more control and unfettered tracking of your behaviour. AI will make these guys obsolete, they know it, this is them fighting back.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#312

Post by bigyabai »

NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #298

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…

Money won't fix anything here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments...

The central control is the point.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#313

Post by lucb1e »

criddell wrote: post #61
NDlurker wrote: post #30

>Android's openness was never just a feature. It was the promise that distinguished it from iPhone. Millions chose Android for exactly that reason. Google is now revoking that promise unilaterally, on devices already in people's pockets, because they've decided they have enough market dominance and regulatory capture to get away with it. This is why I've stuck with Android for the past 15 years.

For you, is the openness of Android appealing as a matter of principle or does it enable you to do things you couldn't otherwise do?

Both, very much both, and I would assume that the 'actually being able to use the device in whatever way I want' feeds back into the 'this should be a thing we can do with purchased-to-own hardware' feeling

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#314

Post by pizzly »

If an update could silently block any app from working then your phone was never yours to begin with. Even if they never implement the update, the potential power means they own your phone.

We lost control of our hardware a long long time ago.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#315

Post by gvurrdon »

svat wrote: post #283
pngwen wrote: post #68

This change has served me well! I have been a Mac OS X users for years who used an android phone. As soon as google announced their impending walled garden status, I went out and bought into the ios eco system. I have really been enjoying my iphone, ipad, and apple watch. You see, the only value that Android really offered me was the ability to run my own code on my own device. Since they are taking that away that ju…

Here is a table I just made (edit: changed to list as HN wraps code blocks now), of iOS vs Android (now) vs Android (after Sep 2026 or 2027 or whenever these announced changes take effect): •1. Where most users can install software from: ↠↠ iOS: official store (App Store) + (in EU) other stores ↠↠ Android (now): official store (Play Store), other stores (e.g. F-Droid), arbitrary APKs ↠↠ Android (after changes): offic…

Android does indeed still look better. But, I would not consider having to send a copy of my government ID to Google, or having them be able to block apps when so ordered by government, to be acceptable.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#316

Post by lucb1e »

akramachamarei wrote: post #150
JoshTriplett wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy the FUD claiming this is about "secure app management".

Just to play devils advocate, the petition is a bit of FUD too, no? I ask as an F-droid user and downloader of unofficial apks. Speaking purely from my own experience, all the side-loaded apps I care about are fungible; I could get them or similar quality equivalents from GPS. With the exception of a 4chan reader, that hasn't been hosted there and likely won't be. I don't mind the 1 day wait too much. I understand po…

> all the side-loaded apps I care about are fungible; I could get them or similar quality equivalents from GPS

You're missing out then!

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#317

Post by code_biologist »

maxrev17 wrote: post #301

Mobile ecosystem is crap as a dev, crap as a user.

People don't like the phrase enshittification, but the process Doctrow describes is so accurate (serve the users, then serve business customers at the expense of users, then serve the platform at the expense of users and business customers) it's hard not to see it everywhere. Phone platforms fit the template exactly, sadly.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#318

Post by InexSquirrel »

627467 wrote: post #234
pngwen wrote: post #68

This change has served me well! I have been a Mac OS X users for years who used an android phone. As soon as google announced their impending walled garden status, I went out and bought into the ios eco system. I have really been enjoying my iphone, ipad, and apple watch. You see, the only value that Android really offered me was the ability to run my own code on my own device. Since they are taking that away that ju…

> stop being yours As if most android maker phones don't already fully own your device - preventing you from unlocking of bootloader and installing an OS that actually doesnt enforce the restriction google is introducing in their flavour of android. To pretend that with this change android becomes exactly like iOS is... ridiculous? I can pick any 10yo old android phone from my drawer and develop for it, no problem an…

I hear what you're saying, especially around just moving to iOS not being a better argument. However with > And if I'm already this motivated I'm certainly motivated enough to wait 24hs on future (more locked down) devices.

But I don't think that's the point. It's a continual erosion of people's ability to use hardware _they own_ in ways _they want_ under the guise of 'security' - which to be fair google does fuck all to actually prevent malicious, scammy and misleading apps from appearing on their play store.

Like, why make it harder _at all_? I develop Android apps for a company that is used only internally. I don't want to have to release apps to the play store so that they have to go through a bs review period before I can get them out the door users. Currently I have a I recognize my experience isn't universal, but I'm pretty opposed to changes like this. I'm not American so I don't really have underlying rhetoric around freedom etc, but this is an impingement and part of continuing anti-consumer trend. Google's not the only one, but certainly the one under the spotlight here.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#319

Post by lucb1e »

Xunjin wrote: post #16

Let me play out a scenario, imagine to use a Desktop Hardware like a complete built rig, you would need a specific OS like Windows 11 and you could not run Linux on it, just because it's a vendor lock-in. Why is this acceptable for phones but would not for the case above? I know a lot of people don't care, and that's ok, but we should root for an open choice for the users.

No need to play this scenario in your head, here it is in the real world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_RT

Few interested hardware vendors, discontinued after 4 years. "mixed reviews at launch, while critics and analysts deemed it to be commercially unsuccessful"

Windows 10 S was another attempt that "Similarly [restricts] software installation to applications obtained via Windows Store." Cancelled after one year.

Exactly the fate I wish upon closed ecosystems. The only question is why iOS is different. I am inclined to say it's the brand status that overpriced luxury goods have that draws rich people initially, making it lucrative and perhaps even a tad prestigious to be there, but surely it's more than that?

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#320

Post by ccamrobertson »

I've found that releasing and maintaining production Android apps has become more difficult in the last decade as compared to iOS which (surprisingly) has improved slightly.

Google Play removed a perfectly functional NFC utility app we released after a year of no updates (despite the fact that it didn't require any to work on the latest Android version at the time). By contrast, the App Store doesn't care as long as we continue to pay the annual developer fee.

We opted to open source the app and let users sideload the app as an alternative; now that will be far more difficult as we are no longer "verified" Google Play developers.

Really unfortunate, glad I'm not an Android user myself.

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