I mostly use apps installed from F-Droid, so I’m not sure how I’ll use the phone, except that it’s sometimes required as a contact method.
TL&DR; PinePhone. Longer explanation below
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I’ll prepare for sacrifices. I should not blame the Open-Source alternatives that they’re not on par with Android yet. It was Android’s decision to become more closed, and I’ll keep remembering it.
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I’ll start using my PinePhone that I already own anyway. I’ve used it for a while, but there was less push for me to use back then. Without F-Droid, I’ll press myself hard to adapt to PinePhone and will just stay there until it improves. I have 1-2 decades of experience of using non-mainstream software and see it improve with time. I’ll learn. I’ll adapt.
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I guess just don’t by one of these “certified Android devices”. Might become a selling point. Other option would be to run SailfishOS (buy a Jolla phone) or install Ubuntu Touch / Mobian and use Anbox.
I’ve been using GrapheneOS for a while, which should minimise disruptions, but I’m also hoping the Linux phone ecosystem improves before Google locks down Android completely.
Same. I have to imagine there are some devs out there who will start working on Linux ports of their apps.
I feel embarassed to say this as someone who is fairly techy, but I’m a little confused by the whole brouhaha.
Is Google making changes to Android, or to AOSP?
If Google is making changes to the Android fork they put on their own phones, then fuck 'em. Use Graphene. Use e/OS/, use Lineage…use something that forks their own branch of AOSP and Google can pound sand because those forks are in no way obligated to make the same changes as Google. AOSP is open source for that very reason.
If Google is making those changes to AOSP itself, which means that anyone who uses AOSP as a base have those changes by default, then isn’t Google obligated to keep those changes as Open Source, in which case anyone else who uses AOSP can just remove them from their own fork?
Someone explain like I’m a particularly dim five-year-old, please.
iirc they are enforcing this on the play services level, using the play protect system. so if you use a custom rom with google play, you are likely cooked too.
that is if the roms don’t implement a system to circumvent it.
If you want to keep using google playstore and services, you no longer will be able to use f-droid, whether google or any aosp rom. grapheneOS claims it won’t be affected given their sandboxed google play and services. Though I’m not sure if eventually google would come up with a counter measure or it won’t ever care. They want to enforce that if anyone uses their proprietary stuff the apps interacting with it must be from register developers, which automatically exclude any libre/free app storage on which developers don’t want to register to google. GrepheneOS being the exception.
If you use microG with any custom rom, I guess that might work through fake registrations, but can’t be sure. But any custom rom without google play and services is supposed to be ok with f-droid. The thing is that google knows most if not all users need one app that depends on their stuff, perhaps bank apps, payment apps, and so on…
I’ve also been confused about this, but this is my take on it.
You’re correct that they are making these changes to Android and not AOSP. This means that an OS like Graphene or e/OS/ will still be able to use sideloaded apps and other appstores like F-Droid.
I think the reason everyone is freaking out about this, is that it hurts appstores like F-Droid. It has a chilling effect on apps that are released to alternative app stores and may cause those stores to fail over time, thus killing FOSS apps at the point of distribution.
That said, this is also over my head technically, so I would love if someone more knowledgable could weigh in.
Yes, this is an important point overlooked by the ‘But I have root’ crowd.
Also: https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html
If it really interferes, same thing as when YouTube started enshittifying: use it less and likely be better off.
I’ll just keep using grapheneOS.
I’m currently using GrapheneOS on my Pixel phone I brought secondhand so think I should (for now) be okay?
Otherwise, Linux phone looks interesting but it just relearning both another OS (like iPhone users trying to learn Android and vice versa) and also just I have low income so buying new tech is just expensive.
I don’t want to throw myself a deepend to an OS that I not as familiar with beside on my desktop and Raspberry Pi. Personally, I prefer to know what’s there before I just go blind so at least I can manage my expectation than expected it to do 1:1 stuff that I do on my phone right now.
DeGoogled Custom ROMs
Keep waiting for a Linux phone that actually works as a daily driver.
At that point I’d rather use a half functioning Linux phone than a locked down one. Hopefully stuff like Framework and Fairphone will follow through on making parts available for real old devices.
Leaving android
For what in partricular?
A pine phone which is otw now
Solid option
It’s a bit dated but it has an open bootloader which is what I mainly want.
Yeah, not the most impressive hardware, but it is what we have
A slow Linux phone is still better than a pedospyphone.
Made me wonder if they introduced CSAM detection to fill their collection…
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Continue using a custom ROM.
If more brands start locking down their devices I’ll have a conundrum, and it’ll start being about antique hunting. More apps requiring an “approved” OS would also do it, but geopolitics will stop that from going too far in the near future.
Build a time machine and go back in time to stop WebOS from being sold to HP.
You mean convince more people to not buy android phones. Man we used to be able to run custom kernel code on the palm pre to try and get more performance out
I don’t have to do anything. I use GrapheneOS btw.
The problem for all these things is proprietary firmware.
What problem? Firmware for my phone works fine.
The firmware is made by the phone makers, and partly needs to go into the ROM. And if they don’t make it available, you can’t run Linux on them.
For example, on some phones in order to install Sailfish, you need to update Android first. Plus, that firmware is usually proprietary and not available as source code.
It is easily conceivable that smart phones become so locked down that it is not possible to install something else.
Be fucked? I don’t know I already hate most phones on the market and I’m going to need to buy a new one at some point, not looking forward to it…
Start giving easy to follow de-googling instructions when and where you know them, people.
The bigger and more thorough the head start, the better.
