Your phone is about to stop being yours. — Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, sign…

Right but its official, so its safe. That's what matters. Not whether it has malware or not.

Purism is a grift, should be removed.

Many people are still waiting on phones they ordered years ago.

i got a fairphone from murena with /e/OS preinstalled recently. i love it so far, but theres a weird glitch where it will randomly switch timezones and only goes back when i restart it and some apps are a little broken.

the issues are relatively minor and its nice to have a phone i know i can plan to keep for a really long time. also the camera is so much better than my old phone. some people said its mid compared to other new phones but if i wanted a camera that nice id buy a real camera.

Graphene is only of help (today) if you buy some shit from Google namely a Pixel. If you have another phone, step numero uno is always to learn what custom ROMs are available for your make and model.

Graphene is by far the best. I highly recommend it.

Right now you need a Pixel to run it but soon you can get a Motorola that works with it.

Given who is winning european elections I wouldn’t hold my breath.

I hope they push this out and spark the ire of the EU

probably will take a bit longer because it will happen in certain countries like Indonesia and Brazil first (i.e. not EU countries)--basically the countries with rampant apk scamming, unfortunately. I think this move is also partially forced by the government in those countries, but that's just my conspiracy hat talking, note that I'm also against this move and much prefer a scam education (I'm in Indonesia).

It'll be like Edge, where you can uninstall it in certain EU countries, but nowhere else. It won't really change anything on the grand scheme

My brother has ordered the Jolla phone, and I will too if it works out for him and works on American networks

I think they'll argue they're better than ios

I really hope the Motorola thing actually pans out. Based on the general state of things I’m done with both Apple and Google.

For anyone who hasn't heard, Motorola is partnering with GrapheneOS to release compatible phones in 2027.

We have extremely moral billionaires preaching their theology in silicon valley, so it should all be fixed pretty soon.

@dudesss@lemmy.ca made a nice list of phones.

Ethics and morals are irrelevant when the entire economic paradigm is designed to reward whatever makes the most profit regardless of ethical considerations.

Wow, you knew in 2012 that finally in 2026 the days of Android phones are numbered, nice one.

I mean, 14 years isn't exactly a short time for something to turn shitty.

Buy an unlocked phone and tether a laptop to it, only use the phone for calls and sms.

pissed-tier: take it off on your taxes out of spite

They won't let me because my email address is for my personal website... How stupid is that‽

It'd be a stunningly idiotic move if they let you keep the ones already installed, but not let you update them - allowing security holes fixed by future versions to persist so you're wide open to exactly what they claim they're trying to prevent. More likely they'll use them as marketing for how "safe" Google is making you by repeatedly pointing out one at a time how they're blocking app "x" now that a security hole has been found on it.

Laundry... app?

How the heck does that work? Do you need the phone to unlock the washing machine?

I live in an apartment with those kinds of laundry machines.

We have an option for people to buy a card and preload it with funds.

Do you have that option at least?

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/17/csc-serviceworks-free-laundry-million-machines/

You can use android apps with many custom ROMs like !graphene_os@lemmy.sdf.org and !lineage_os@lemmy.world

Andromeda (on FuriOS) works amazingly; most apps run on it, including all þree of my bank's apps. I hear þe Ubuntu touch Android emulator works just as well.

Techradar Article

Is this the Honey scandal all over again? Motorola phones caught adding affiliate codes to Amazon orders

I have a motorola, absolutely no clue what anything else you wrote means.

Same here

How does this work, can you install it on any android device or do you have to specifically get a graphene device? Can you run common apps from the play store if you choose?

Depends on your version, search for "update" in the settings area.

Not directly, but they've been making other moves to make life difficult for such users — such as significantly delaying releasing the open source parts they're supposed to, potentially leaving users on insecure versions for far longer.

Its being pushed through the play services, so anything ROM based on AOSP without google will be unaffected.

Second hand and refurbished is a thing

Just don't buy them new, and it becomes far more ethical.

it will not come with system updates, but with updates to the google play services package. you can't disable that. how else would they lock down most phones if manufacturers only supply updates for such a short time, if any.

Graphene OS

Finding out whether the pushed update effects jailbroken android set ups like Lineage would be a next step. But it will be a lot of work to see if you can jailbreak all your devices.

Enable developer mode. Like everyone else.

I don't think it will automatically uninstall sideloaded apps in your phone, it simply prevent sideloading from unregistered developers. There is an "official" way to circumvent it, doing it directly on the phone is a bit convoluted and require you to wait 24 hours, the other way need a PC and USB cable to install apps with adb--that one is just like usual.

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html

I didn't get the reference