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This is something the EU should really regulate, unfortunately they are busy regulating oat ~~milk~~ drink and veggie~~burgers~~.
I contacted the EU DMA team a while back. Part of the response:
We have taken note of your concerns and, while we cannot comment on ongoing dialogue with gatekeepers, these considerations will form part of our assessment of the justifications for the verification process provided by Google.
So at least some part of the bureaucracy are aware of it.
The thing I don't understand about any of this, is why can't you comment on ongoing dialogues with the gatekeepers?
I understand the basic tenants of keeping the discussion closed until official statements can be prepared, to prevent the press and the public from going off half cocked. That makes sense for private matters.
This is not private. I can't understand what is the point of negotiating law for people if they can't even see the ongoing process?
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The EU hasn't even been able to stop Apple from doing this shit.
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The EU is actively preventing their own people from leaving the Google ecosystem with the Play Integrity API in their own apps.
I'm confused why so many open source developers think that the EU is going to be the foster parents of FOSS communities
There's a real effort in some EU countries to fund FOSS projects to get out from under US dominated tech.
It's because they did a thing with USB once
Pretty sure the EU was designed to serve the interests of carnists and other capitalists.
Considering Google and Apple both donate to Trump, we really need an alternative: Linux mobile OS. A linux OS that can be installed on a range of phones, from cheap to more expensiove. Just buy the phone and install the OS, as you do on PCs.
Good linux mobile OSs already exist, but phones' hardware is still proprietary and messed up, so it is very difficult to provide a good hardware support for those mobile OSs
Yes, the bottleneck isn't software, it's hardware. We need phones with unlocked bootloaders
When will F-Droid stop working on stock android?
Try Graphene today. IT WORKS
Samsung s22 and s25, checking in. Graphene won't be viable for the vast, overwhelming majority of Android users today or in the coming seasons.
I hope people figure out some kind of virtualization/docker-containerization solution to the coming Goo-lag.
Samsung s22 and s25
I'm still holding some hope that maybe Samsung's flavor of the OS won't have the restriction of requiring Google keys. Specially considering that Samsung has its own "Galaxy Store" with app submissions controlled by them, not Google.
Though it's possible they might simply extend the signatures accepted to include also the ones signed by them ^^U ..still it would give them a competitive edge to remove the restriction so they might be incentivized to do it.
I'm hopeful that the hackers will win. I will never underestimate the power of motivated, scorned engineers.
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Except for stuff you really need like online banking, tap payments and digital ids
All my banking apps and credit card apps have worked flawlessly on Graphene OS. You're correct that tap to pay doesn't work, which is a bummer. But that is just Google spyware as well, honestly.
I heard about this a while ago, but I remember the GrapheneOS team talking about suing Google if they didn't allow them to pass play integrity checks like they should be able to, but Google just doesn't let them. That's the only reason tap to pay doesn't work and some baking apps have issues, its Google purposefully limiting graphene OS so they have a competitive edge somewhere.
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Plenty of bank apps work just fine. None of the ones I've tried had problems, except Santander, which works perfectly after changing a setting.
Not here in Norway. You need BankID which is an app that well, requires a lot of stuff.
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I don't have time today
Ok, I’ll extend your deadline til Monday then. ;)
Even on GrapheneOS, sure it uses a sandboxed Google Play Store, which is obviously great for users, but the developers of Android apps still have to hand over their personal data to Google specifically as this new decree from the Lords of the Google fiefdom entails.
Because FOSS developers rightly value their personal privacy, this decree effectively kills incentive for FOSS developers to continue making and maintaining apps for Android. Running GrapheneOS doesn't circumvent this.
It's like I'm saying "I'm hungry" and you say "Go for a run, it's healthy for you." I mean... it's true that running is healthy... but the act of running doesn't solve the problem of me being hungry...
As I understand it the sandboxed google apps are entirely optional. You can go completely free with GrapheneOS just like with LineageOS.
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I use FOSS apps for everything, I only have one special user profile with google play store for my stupid bank and credit card.
For everything else there are alternatives that don’t need google play.
I think you're missing the point. You say you use FOSS apps for everything. Do you download them from F-Droid?
From the article:
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, 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.
The F-Droid project cannot require that developers register their apps through Google, but at the same time, we cannot “take over” the application identifiers for the open-source apps we distribute, as that would effectively seize exclusive distribution rights to those applications.
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 users will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications. (How many F-Droid users are there, exactly? We don’t know, because we don’t track users or have any registration: “No user accounts, by design”)
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There's nothing set in stone yet. Google just committed to doing it is all that's happened so far. But the response against it has been pretty heavy and we'll see how it goes. We have to speak up right now and organize our communities like this post is doing.
LOL. There's dozens of us here.
Don't wait. GOS just works.
On one phone. The rest of are shit out of luck because we didn't buy the one phone from the company that is causing the problem in the first place.
They're working with an (unrevealed) major OEM to bring a compatible device to market sometime next year.
https://old.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/1o32gpg/blackberry_phones/nivsx0k/
Here's hoping its a device with an SD card slot and optionally a 3.5 jack. The Pixel's lack of those is the one reason I haven't made the switch.
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Buy used. The other phone vendors haven't been offering the security hardware GOS needs, so far. It might change soon enough though.
This isn't awful advice, but used Pixel prices are vastly out of whack with used prices from just about any other android manufacturer. On Amazon I can currently buy a refurbished Galaxy S25+ for $300 less than a refurbished Pixel 9 Pro XL - when the Pixel is a worse phone by every metric but its ability to run GOS.
Also, in some markets (US I believe? I think its a company called Verizon that does this) Some pixels just cannot be OEM unlocked, at all. So that's also a risk buying used online at least - there's usually not a way to tell if you'd be getting one of those if you live in a market that has this fucked up "feature".
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This isn't a scalable solution. There aren't enough affordable, used Pixels for everyone in the ecosystem to adopt between now and the Goo-lag.
Alternative ROM market is fringe de la fringe, so there's sufficient used hardware available. I bought my 7a for 320 eur new and my tablet for 400 eur new though, so the Google tax (or, GOS tax, rather) was moderate.
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I honestly didn't realize how the fdroid deployment worked, and now I'm gonna be way less skeptical of apps I see there.
I do not go to Google play until apps on f-droid prove inadequate for my usage.
Can one just remove GSF and bypass this? Or is it something going to be built into Android going forward? Genuinely curious.
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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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Privacy
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