- cross-posted to:
- opensource@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- opensource@programming.dev
Keep Android Open
In August 2025, Google announced that starting next year, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google.
This registration will involve:
- Paying a fee to Google
- Agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions
- Providing government identification
- Uploading evidence of an app’s private signing key
- Listing all current and future application identifiers
Sign the open letter. And get active to help oppose the enactment of the policy in other ways listed on the website. Are there any more ways to oppose this?
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The big problem with this is that I don’t like android.
It works relatively well, it’s support is ok, it’s probably better than apple because their garden walls are higher. But it’s not at all the operating system I would like to have. It’s already too restrictive, I have not seen/found good app building docs that make it actually easy and convenient to create “apps” and that massively rubs me the wrong way.
With that move, google is enshittfying android, but that doesn’t mean we have to resist the enshittification and keep android, we can also let them do it and move to something else. In theory, anyway.
So I’d like to see more calls for different OS, forks or stuff like
I agree; the best option is to ditch Android … those who can do it. Some Banking apps, public transport ticket apps, and post/mail-delivery apps seem to be a hard requirement for people in real live though. Which leads to the question: But what about people who can not ditch their phones and can not afford multiple devices (this decade)? Maybe laws that introduce a hard requirement that everything should work through a (open source) web-browser can help, but then what about “offline” use cases?
It feels like we are building our own digital prison in real time.
There really should be a focus on government-level efforts in the EU, to force mobile manufacturers to standardise and open source all firmware sold in its jurisdiction. All OSS mobile OS’s (not on custom OSS hardware) rely on Android solutions because mobile hardware is bespoke, closed source, and non-standard from device to device; the opposite to the PC ecosystem that enabled Linux. The Apple/Android duopoly won’t be broken if mobile hardware vendors can continue creating custom closed-source firmware for their hardware, and there’s simply no reason to allow this anti-competitiveness to continue.
For now, Android is the best compromise between functionality and openness that’s suitable for daily use, especially GrapheneOS. Hopefully some of the Linux alternatives will develop to that point soon, but by all accounts they’re not there yet. So it’s worth fighting to keep what we have until we can use something more open.
Agreed. The UI sucks (peak was jellybean, went downhill since) and it’s so hard to create software for it. Also way too complex.
Forget it. Privacy-wise, Android is a sinking ship, they can do whatever. I’m out.
Where’re you headed?
I mean, Linux mobile is the only viable path forward, despite its poor present state
poor is a understatement, its a pet project at this point.
I hate to agree with you but I can’t deny the reality. Even with what FSF is trying it’ll be really hard for Linux phones to break into current market…
GrapheneOS for now until Liberux NEXX becomes a thing or whatever linux phone with good enough security, privacy, and hardware. I’m most hopeful for liberux due to the hardware and the desktop mode so you can use it like a PC.
https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1s/
It’s a Linux phone on Debian that uses Android drivers, so all the normal functions (calls, SMS, etc.) work perfectly. Battery life is a full day.
lol. oh you sweet summer child. there is still going to be backdoors on that hardware. your never going to get true privacy with technology.
Ideally, to a Linux phone. If not, a regular dumb phone. I’m staying with Android until September 2026 at the latest, so I have time to figure it out.
It’s Android.
But without Play Protect (unless you sideload gApps).
Letter to whom? unless this letter will legally bind Google to stop its current plans, all this is going to do is serve as a convenient spam list
what do you guys think this gonna do?
Facebook abandoned their Libra cryptocurrency plans due to social and political pressures
If the industry gets together this could be Google’s PS/2 and OS/2 moment.
Historical context via Wikipedia:
The PS/2 line was created by IBM partly in an attempt to recapture control of the PC market by introducing the advanced yet proprietary Micro Channel architecture (MCA) on higher-end models. These models were in the strange position of being incompatible with the hardware standards previously established by IBM and adopted in the IBM PC compatible industry. Most major PC manufacturers balked at IBM’s licensing terms for MCA-compatible hardware, particularly the per-machine royalties. The OS/2 operating system was announced at the same time as the PS/2 line and was intended to be the primary operating system for models with Intel 80286 or later processors. However, at the time of the first shipments, only IBM PC DOS 3.3 was available. OS/2 1.0 (text-mode only) and Microsoft’s Windows 2.0 became available several months later. IBM also released AIX PS/2, a UNIX operating system for PS/2 models with Intel 386 or later processors.
Android is now becoming a worse version of iOS.
