Plan B if there’s no custom ROM for your phone:
- root and install App Manager (F-Droid)
- rip out play services
- Replace stock apps nagging about missing play services with FOSS alternatives
- flash microg if some of your favorite apps insist.
- install Aurora
- Choose your updates
You can put the time until lockdown banner on your website if you have one, they have a guide for it and it’s simple.
This is not going to change anything. Google decided to become a bully and they’ll succeed.
It’s all a result of hardware manufacturers not bothering to create a common open source Android fork and keep giving more power to Google. Now even Samsung cannot operate their App Store without every single app in their store signed by Google.
It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out long term. Google absolutely will abuse this and consumers and regulators will catch on eventually. It might take some years, but the EU might step in when things get too lopsided.
Google just has to keep it below the threshold of annoying ordinary people
The EU is far more concerned with forcing age verification into everything. Only allowing apps from approved stores helps them do that so I doubt they’re against this
EU politicans like van der Leyen are terrified of Trump, and do not have the backbone to stand up to American corporations.
No, they just don’t want to, they’re playing for the same team.
How about LineageOS?
The alternative ROMS will be affected by this because many applications will require a Google account to function. There will be workarounds, but overall this effectively changes how the phone I spent my money on works: they are altering the terms of the deal.
many applications will require a Google account to function
Yeah, it might be a good time to stop using those apps. That’s privileged statement I know since I started using Lineage as part of my smartphone-purge, but when it comes to many every day tasks, I haven’t ran into any problems.
Note every day tasks don’t involve:
- Using Whatsapp*
- Taking Uber
- Going to any professional sports game
* I did find a way to bridge Whatsapp to Matrix-Synapse through an old iPhone and a docker container which is neat.
I don’t have a Google account. I’ve had issues. The app for my CO2 sensor has the CHECK_LICENSE permission activated, which asks your phone for a Google account. I can’t use it with the new version of the apps. I’ve complained and the company responded that I should have a Google account so there is no issue. We shouldn’t need to make workarounds and bridges to use the gadgets we buy.
Just cracked the spine of Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification. I’m right there with you.
TL;DR: This will not affect LineageOS directly. But it may affect users running the stock ROM on their device.
— Lineage OS blog, Developer Verification: What it is, and how it affects you
So it looks like there’s just a small hurdle to get it working.
According to the blog post, LOS simply won’t include the AndroidDeveloperVerification package. If that’s really all (for now), people with custom ROMs who also mainly use F-droid don’t have much to worry about. It might actually bring a few more people around to degoogled Android.
