The future of this elegant and proven system was put in jeopardy last month, when Google unilaterally decreed that Android developers everywhere in the world are going to be required to register centrally with Google. In addition to demanding payment of a registration fee and agreement to their (non-negotiable and ever-changing) terms and conditions, Google will also require the uploading of personally identifying documents[^regid], including government ID, by the authors of the software, as well as enumerating all the unique “application identifiers” for every app that is to be distributed by the registered developer.
If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users5 will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications.
Oh, it’s preventing sidloading?! I thought it was just for their app store!
That’s shit.
If I understood correctly it doesn’t prevent sideloading, but even apps not from the app store will need to have their creator’s legal identity verified by Google. Meaning not only do they have to dox themselves, but they have to pay Google for the privilege. And if it’s an app developed to not comply with Goggle’s terms then it just won’t be usable at all.
Stop calling it “sideloading” as if it was something bad. Let’s all call it “installing apps”
Yes, some of the latest commits to AOSP repo added code to the Package Installer app for denying .apk package installation based on developer verification result, and even for denying installing .apk packages when internet isn’t available so it can’t contact Google’s servers for developer verification results. Google is already making it clear this kind BS is how they intend to enforce this ridiculous decree.
That’s egregious and really will impede using open source software on Android. Guess my phone will turn into a device for tethering now, instead.
Or just root your phone and continue to use your phone exactly how you would use a Linux laptop lol
Why would anyone use an Android phone without root after Google started showing their true face with Android half decade ago anyway lol
I mean, sadly most people. But I like the enthusiasm.
Yeah may Google have mercy on them LMAO
Hint: Google will NOT have mercy on them LMAO
Fair point, but there’s quite a large hurdle to rooting a phone nowadays, and I’m not optimistic that FOSS will continue to work as well on Android for the average person once Google introduces these restrictions. iPhones could be jailbroken but there never really was much open source software on those things.
Unlike iPhones, where Apple dictates all iPhone to require literally hacking the phone via exploits to jailbreak, the ease of rooting a phone depends entirely on its OEM. Indeed there is Samsung the Apple wannabe who makes it physically impossible to root with locked bootloader, but there’s also Sony Xperia phones where Sony makes it clear about their specific open device policy with step-by-step instructions on their dedicated developer support webpage for how to unlock bootloader and the process itself taking less than 10 seconds.
Vote with your wallet, remind others to vote with their wallet, support OEMs who don’t do the kind of anti-rooting and anti-bootloader-unlocking practices, and support FOSS projects. This is our best chance, and Google is NOT going to stop themselves doing all the evil.
Also Mr. Average McPerson is not a real human being, and we shouldn’t be too concerned about the opinion of someone who doesn’t physically exist and is merely an abstract conceptual construct.
Lobby lawmakers to label phones and devices that do not have full user control
Regarding Sony, they too may be interested in enshittifying.
Recently they removed USB camera monitor and control from non-Sony phones, locked it to only flagship Xperias, and further behind a $4.99/month paywall.
https://www.androidauthority.com/sony-xperia-monitor-and-control-camera-3593061/
Also a video from Louis Rossman regarding this shit: https://youtu.be/PqPfM6lxv90
That’s hardly enshitification, the USB camera monitor feature is NOT USB video output capability, which remains as a hardware feature on all Xperia phones, it is a proprietary software feature for receiving video output from Sony’s Alpha Cameras into the phone via standard USB-C port, and displaying the camera’s viewfinder feed on the phone. This is exactly the same as what you can do with for example Spacedeck to use your phone or any other Android device as an external monitor for PC, but with Sony’s own proprietary implementation. And Sony’s implementation is exclusive to their professional Alpha series cameras, you could never use your phone as an external monitor of any other device with that feature, which would always require another software to encode the video feed to transmit theough the standard USB-C interface anyway. So it’s been an extremely niche proprietary feature only used by a very small group of people who happen to be professional photographers, doing certain specific types of photography, and happen to be using certain Sony Alpha cameras instead of professional cameras from other vendors. I agree it’s a ridiculous and beyond stupid decision from Sony but I do also think it’s a bit of a stretch to call that enshitification, especially compares to the kind of practices from many other much bigger OEMs that have unfortunately become almost ubiquitous these days throughout an entire industry.
While at the same time, Sony Xperia phones remains some of the very few high end Android phones these days that still have BOTH 3.5mm headphones jack and SD card support, together with an open device policy where you’re always free to unlock bootloader and root without artificially losing major core OS features.
Doesn’t rooting it mean a lot of apps no longer work though?
Personally I’ve had my phone rooted for years and only twice encountered an app that really wouldn’t work anymore.
Sure but what about google pay? And I imagine you have to do some stuff to get some apps to work.
I personally never used Google Pay, I don’t have a usecase for it. For other apps the worst I had to do was hide root from the app in Magisk.
Sure but what about google pay? And I imagine you have to do some stuff to get some apps to work.
You mean rooting causes some of the apps which were deliberately designed to be anti-consumer, from some of the companies that are known to be most consumer-hostile with a long history of screwing over not only their customers but also the entire industry? Yes.
But why would you use those apps anyway.
I mean rooting causes some apps that rely on androids security model may stop working so malware can’t steal all your money.
(I think, I don’t know how common this is)
You can’t root a ton of phones. My Samsung phone is 5 years old, and it still isn’t possible to root it. Also, at current I believe the Linux OS options have a much more severe battery drain.
Okay then keep buying Samsung phones and support their aggressive and audacious push for walled gardens on a platform that started as an open source OS, when they are neither the most affordable nor the most feature rich option.
You deserve every bit of the enshitification and corporate exploitation that you have enabled and supported directly yourself.
There’s a difference between you cannot root on a lot of phones and you cannot root on a lot of Samsung phones. Saying you cannot root Samsung phones isn’t all that different from saying you can’t root iPhones is it?
Can can say “a lot” and “most” because Samsung has over half of all android phones in the US and is also globally the most used android phone.
So yeah. A LOT of android phones can’t be rooted.
By 2025 Q2 Samsung smartphones have 19.7% global market share, how cute.
Oh don’t worry it is not even close to being the biggest problem people in the US are having lol
19% of cell phone market share. That isn’t android market share. Your number is including iOS and the sliver of other operating systems.
Because unfortunately rooting makes the device significantly less secure. It was fine back in the day when a smartphone was a cool new thing to tinker with but now it’s got all my personal information and more on it I value security a little more.
What BS. Not doesn’t. No more insecure then a computer. Actually more secure apps have to ask for root I mean the user can be stupid and click allow to every app I guess but you can’t fix stupid.
That’s one of the biggest lies that’s been systemically propagated by the industry. A rooted phone is as secure as you make it, because you are in control of your device’s security.
And a device you have control over is as secure as you make it so.
Is it? I’m no security expert but doesn’t that go against things like the principle of least privilege? Even obsessive security people like GrapheneOS say root access breaks the Android security model.
I agree in theory, but you’re never completely in control of what’s running on Android because there are still proprietary bits (like device firmware) that we can’t replace, right?
That argument is moot, even if you use a device that’s 100% FOSS and you actually have total control over even down to firmware, like a Raspberry Pi cyberdeck/small form factor PC you built yourself using open source wifi cards, you are still connected to an internet infrastructure that’s filled with proprietary devices such as routers and servers which you have practically no control over, and deliberate malicious actors can still do MITM attack for example as long as any data is being transmitted. And it’s not really a personal mobile device anymore if you don’t connect it to the Internet at all.
However, even if you cannot ensure 100% control, having root access on your personal device enables you far greater freedom to monitor and investigate the behavior of the proprietary stuff you can’t control directly, and mitigate or bypass the security and privacy vulnerabilities they might poss with far more options than is ever even close to possible on an unrooted device.
For example, there are many apps I need to use because of services I need to use because of the city I live in, they have known track records of security and privacy violations. With a rooted device I have the freedom to capture every single pocket they transmit and analyze on Wireshark to see what they are doing, I can block internet access specifically for these apps without conflicting with my existing VPN setup, I can spoof my device’s IMEI and other identifiable information for specifically these apps so they can’t identify my phone, including even spoof my geolocation without the apps realizing they are spoofed, I can block these app’s access to my phone’s application list so they can’t profile me by seeing what other apps I have, I can block their access to my phone’s sensors without the apps knowing they are blocked (other than getting empty sensor reading), I can even deny permissions to those apps without the apps knowing the permissions were denied. On an unrooted device you either need ADB or can’t do any of these at all.
Also, without any of these tools how do you even know your device’s manufecturer has done everything they need to do to protect your security and privacy? Just because they said “Trust me bro!”?
Principle of least privilege is completely irrelevant here, any system app provided by your phone’s manufecturer already have total system control anyway, including Google’s GMS apps and Facebook framework apps that are pre-installed, and without root you also do not have an option for truly stopping or removing those apps.
So downstream just removes that code? I don’t see the big deal
It doesn’t work like that for mainstream manufactures, the way Google does this, as they have declared so far, is making it a contractal obligation to keep this code in order for them to get Google’s GMS certificate, which Google requires for authorizing them to integrate Google’s suite into their phone’s ROM, including Play Store and Google Service Framework, which are all proprietary software which manufacturers are not legally allowed to distribute without Google’s authorization. And outside China it doesn’t look like most mainstream manufactures dare to sell an Android phone without Google’s Play Store, thanks to the wonderful collective of the Android users making fricking brilliant choices with their wallet over the decade, didn’t they?
The only way out of this for a government agency to step in it seems because Google really does have the manufacturers cornered here.
Why would you run the OS that comes with your hardware, anyway? Any business is going to do a wipe and OS reinstall as a required first step before issue. Phones should be no different.
Because the most popular choices for Android phones don’t even let you unlock the bootloader, let alone install a different OS (also custom rom support can be a tad spotty at times).
Sounds like a lot of people are going to be forced to buy libre phones, then
Most people don’t even know libre phones exist.
So why doesn’t this article mention them, rather than claiming doomsday?
It is just for their app store. If you don’t install gapps, this doesn’t matter…
Affecting just 99.99 % of android users
Probably closer to 80%
But that number will fall rapidly, thanks to this change.
You underestimate how many people have no idea how to/own a phone that doesn’t even let you disable gapps.
Just buy it from the right vendor. Like iode. You don’t need to even know how.
You need to know that iode even exists in the first place.