Google will soon be requiring android app developers to pay $25 to register their governments ids to make apps outside of the play store.
The package (com.google.android.verifier) will be introduced on devices running Android 8 or higher, granting Google the ability to block the installation of unverified apps.
Complete your migration plans before Google puts up the barbed wire making it much harder to leave.
The alternatives are Graphene, Calyx, Sailfish, FuriOS, Ubuntu Touch and Postmarket OS.
95 days: 30 September 2026: Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and Singapore.
188 days: 2027: Globally.
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No mention of /e/OS? It’s de-Googled Android, is available preloaded onto a new Fairphone (selecting the e/OS option), and even comes with a locked bootloader. It comes with Micro-G preinstalled, and its built-in store can pull from both F-Droid and Google Play.
It’s literally the most turnkey, minimal tinkering option on the market. I know a couple non-techie normies who have one.
I have one because I don’t want a second job out of tinkering and tweaking my phone - fun hobby, but that’s an admission that it’s high labor. If we’re actually going to change the market, we need easy, non-scary solutions for non-technical users.
Oh, will they pay. Not with money either, we are done with that.
It’s our destiny, its inevitable.
I legitimately hope zero developers pay the ransom but the ones who do are officially traitors.
What do I do if I don’t have any of the supported devices : (
Why is LineageOS not in your list of alternatives?
It’s an obvious first step to de-googling. It’s android without Google.
How is else is google going to make their extra 13b so they can finally beat Apple’s 416b record revenue, closed-garden it is.
ICE is gonna love restricting non-google play store developers from fighting them.
New phone arctypes here we come.
Wow, their enshittification process is on steroids!
Seems like only yesterday they introduced those mandatory verifications.
The Jolla phone looks interesting. I hope it doesn’t end up like Windows Phone.
what do you mean?
No support, no apps, extremely limited. Only one good feature, windows phones had great cameras.
Also, not open source
It has apps though - both native (3 app stores full) and the option to run Android apps.
Dead?
SailfishOS has been alive and well for 13 years, it won’t die anytime soon.
🤷♂️ I just figured that’s what they meant.
And /e/OS, which is available pre-installed on some devices sold by Murena.
Community Build runs fine for moto edge 30 fusion, I like e/OS for the convenient integration of a tracker/DNS blocker and whitelisting of apps to access your real gps data since it is required for wifi/ble operations on android. You can set a fixed location for the apps where you only really need the permission, like a wifi scanner or pairing new headphones.
I’ve heard that /e/os is basically just used as a tool to sell murena services and is a generally shitty android rom
I have /e/ on my Fairphone 5 and I like it well enough. I was looking for a degoogled European android ROM and it works OK for that. My banking apps etc. all work and I only occasionally have problems with apps relying too heavily on Google services and therefore not working.
They definitely have better integration with Murena services but I use Proton instead and I’ve not had a problem.
I’ve heard good things about iodé too.
I’ve heard they sell refurbished consumer devices with /e/.
They basically tried to recreate G-services (voluntary for users of course) in addition to providing the OS which is built from AOSP.
It worked well enough for me, like LTS LineageOS basically but I didn’t care for the design so much.
But all my info is many years old.OK, I’ve been planning to buy one of their devices so I’m very interested in such information. Where have you heard this? Do you have any sources you can point me to?
I tried installing this on my pixel 4a, but the web installer failed each time I tried. It was never able to unlock the bootloader
Anyone have experience with Lineage OS? I have on old LG G7 that I don’t think is even mentioned in the linked OS’, but I think Lineage is meant for older phones; however, the last commit to it’s code was almost a year ago so I think it’s deprecated/abandonware now.
https://xdaforums.com/t/nightly-judyln-official-lineageos-for-the-lg-g7-and-g7-thinq.4684488/page-5
*Postmarket OS has compatibility, the issue was my phone had a different name then the one listed as it was Canada only; so Postmarket should work on it.
For that device the last update was today
:O thanks so much!
i’ve been using lineageos with microg and root (used to be magisk, but switched to kernelsu which seems much more sensible), and it frankly just seems like the best smartphone experience possible these days.
I use the last supported version of LineageOS on my old Note 3 (Lineage 18.1 / Android 11) as a spare device around the house. Always meant to try building a newer version but never got around to it, and it’s not as though the phone ever ventures outside my LAN anyway (mostly acts as an alarm clock + media player these days).
Lineage itself is still active.
Older devices do eventually have support dropped by Lineage, but depending on which version of the G7 you have it looks like it may still be supported (note that discontinued devices are filtered by default, so you have to change the filter setting to see previously supported devices): https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
Thanks!
It might possibly build anyway even if support was dropped for newer versions. If themuppets repo is still around it makes it really pretty easy.
Already on Graphene. I might have to take one of my spare Pixels and restore it to stock since I need Play Services to use my local transit apps, but that will only have absolutely minimal data on it to operate those.
Thinking about Graphene right now. If you’ve got time, I’d be curious to know if you’ve had any downsides, regrets, or drawbacks. It sounds like maybe this transit one, but in another comment it sounded like actually there’s already a solution to that? Why don’t you like that solution? I’m not criticizing you, I actually don’t know what the solution is or what its drawbacks might be. Have you had any other issues with proprietary apps? As much as I don’t use them for most things, I do use them sometimes when I have to.
I am multiple months in so far and I have no real regrets. If you’re someone who uses your phone for payments and you’re in the US, proprietary apps are really your only option, though I can’t speak to their functionality since I don’t have Play apps installed in my main profile. That being said, many banking apps do work just fine, there are compatibility options for those that don’t, and worst case scenario, you’re stuck using a browser app.
The transit apps are a minor inconvenience for me. I only use them for travel when I have no other good options. My only real issue with them is I don’t trust Google even with the sandbox. The apps require location to be on. I don’t want Google to know my location, and even with the sandbox, I just can’t have a full assurance that the info isn’t somehow getting back to them through something the app itself is doing, even when the Play apps aren’t allowed location access themselves. Disabling the network for the transit apps isn’t possible, since how would it book the ride with the service, y’know? So I’m stuck with giving them limited access, which is the best I can do. Having a separate phone just gives me one more layer of abstraction and is a personal paranoia thing. The separate profile is fine. I just prefer that extra layer.
GrapheneOS has Google play services sandboxing, so the services can only do what you give them permission to
I know.
You could make a profile with play services and that app
Of course I could, and that’s how I’m doing it right now but I really don’t want Google software on my daily driver phone at all if I can help it, y’know? I don’t have to use the apps every day, just every now and then.
