cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/45277582

Opening my weather app this morning I was greeted by this warning:

Google has announced that, starting in 2026/2027, all apps on certified Android devices will require the developer to submit personal identity details directly to Google. Since the developers of this app do not agree to this requirement, this app will no longer work on certified Android devices after that time.

It’s the first time I hear about this, seems to be about:

Tech crunch article from august, “google will require developer verification for android apps outside the play store”

Cirrus app: Github

Was this a big thing I somehow missed? I hope more devs will follow suit.

  • jcarax@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    19 hours ago

    Just to note, Calyx currently has a questionable future, and at best has frozen new installations while they work out new signing keys after some developers left the project. My understanding is that there will be one or no further updates to anyone that has a current installation, and a fresh install will be required if they do continue development.

    • Turret3857@infosec.pubEnglish
      3·
      19 hours ago

      Their gerrit is extremely active, and it was only one Dev that left, cdesai, who is also a lead Dev for Lineage. While its possible they dont come back, given the very active gerrit (and the fact that the other person who left was Nick, who was really only a PR person) i think theres a good chance the project comes back fine.

      • jcarax@beehaw.orgEnglish
        4·
        18 hours ago

        Man, I hope so. I’m on Graphene for now, but I’d like to move away from Pixel devices.

        A security chip is great if you know what it’s doing, but we really have no idea what Titan might be doing in the background. And Google is becoming more and more abusive to the FOSS community.

        I’m seriously considering trying to import a Jolla C2. I ported my number to jmp.chat, so as long as I can run Cheogram or some other XMPP client that handles the PSTN gateway well, I honestly don’t even care much about cellular connectivity anymore. My phone is basically a wifi phone with Signal, downloaded maps, authenticator app, and my music at this point.

        • Turret3857@infosec.pubEnglish
          3·
          18 hours ago

          I felt the same way about getting a OnePlus 6 or Pixel 3 for PostMarketOS. I’m currently on iodeOS which supports a lot of devices, even some EoL pixels with bootloader relocking. Its similar enough to Calyx. I tried Graphene but it wasn’t for me. I’m hoping someone within Google makes sure AOSP stays the A_OS_P, but if not I guess its time for us to start throwing money at rhe PMOS devs.