This story with restricting users is a similar one to Manifest V3 in Chromium.
But we don't have anything like FF as an alternative to go from Android. Especially considering banks require "certified OS".
yonatan8070 · 2h ago
What if we collectively decide to use the web alternatives for banking?
We lose some convinience since they are generally desktop oriented, but they don't check who signed my kernel
thombles · 2h ago
My bank recently made it that app-based MFA must be used for every single web login. Unless I and many others are willing to swap banks in the vain hope that the new bank won't do the same thing (I am not), then we're cooked.
lrvick · 1h ago
Just say you do not have a compatible device. Special undocumented alternatives appear every time in my experience.
reitanuki · 5m ago
Agree with this. Either you'll get SMS OTP (which is free for the user, at least in the UK?) or they will send some 'calculator' or multi-colour-code-scanner device that generates OTPs.
(Honestly this last one was the most impressive bank security system I'd seen yet; for every individual transaction, you'd have to scan the code and the scanner device would tell you what you were authorising, then you put the PIN in and get a OTP to put back in the bank)
riedel · 1h ago
Sure, one option means paying for each SMS (actually they had to abandon that one), another option is getting a paid banking card just to use a hardware device. From my experience they try to make sure that you will get a certified phone . I just got one because for some reason my Redmi Note 10 despite passing all play integrity checks after hacks like Tricky store+Key box triggered some checks in my banking apps. I needed to use an aftermarket ROM, because my device would not receive any updates from Xiaomi (also I don't know why a device packed with Chinese bloat ware is certified as secure in the first place). And guess what I bought: a Google Pixel. Smart Google, huh.
homebrewer · 17m ago
These "security checks" are a complete, total, absolute joke. Just a couple of weeks ago I had a friend ask me to downgrade firmware on a similar Xiaomi device from the latest LineageOS to stock to make two shitty banks work. Nothing I did on Lineage would make "security checks" pass, even though it was running the cleanest possible Android 15 with the latest security patches applied.
Now the phone is running stock firmware from 2020, with Android security patches from 2020, and with numerous publicly known vulnerabilities. The banks work fine, Google Pay works fine, every Play Integrity check passes, even the strongest one (device integrity).
The only reason I see for it being implemented this way is not to lock the bad guys out from your phone, but to prevent you from doing anything to the banking applications, even through it is still possible through said vulnerabilities.
One of said banks also refuses to run if it detects remote assistance clients on your phone (like TeamViewer), or even Discord, because apparently these were used in scams over the past few years, and we need to protect even the stupidest at the expense of everyone else. How did we come to this "future"? The worst days of desktop Windows weren't even remotely close to this nonsense.
kelnos · 51m ago
> Sure, one option means paying for each SMS (actually they had to abandon that one), another option is getting a paid banking card just to use a hardware device.
That sounds... fine? Like... there are actually alternatives. Sure, if their plan is to phase out those alternatives, then that's bad, but... the current situation seems fine?
rvnx · 32m ago
Reality is very different. If you try living one year without bank card or wire payments, then your life is going to get very very difficult.
ChocolateGod · 58m ago
If you're trying to imply Xiaomi is crap with updates so people buy pixel phones I don't think that makes much sense.
dingnuts · 1h ago
fuck it back to cash
PeterStuer · 2h ago
Many banks are slowly phasing out their websites to go app only.
Gigachad · 52m ago
In Australia they aren't phasing out web, but anything high risk like a transaction to a new contact and you have to approve it on the app. The app is considered a significantly safer environment.
derwiki · 1h ago
Which ones?
kikokikokiko · 1h ago
every single Brazilian bank for instance
No comments yet
MathMonkeyMan · 2h ago
I uninstalled banking related apps from my phone years ago. I used it so infrequently that every time I did use it, it was as if it had been newly installed and didn't remember anything about me. Now I use a desktop web browser for anything finance (and it's Firefox on Linux, so thankfully that works for now).
homebrewer · 10m ago
It's getting repetitive to come with the same message over and over and over again, but in many countries you can no longer interact with your bank through the web browser. The banks' applications are either required for 2FA, or are the only way to use remote banking at all.
The last one applies in my country. You can of course go to the bank branch for every little financial operation, which is bad enough by itself for us living in cities, but is practically impossible for my relatives in the rural area, who would have to drive 100 km to the nearest bank branch, and then back just to move some money between two accounts.
Even if you don't care for anyone else but your country, it will come to you also, I promise.
fsflover · 2m ago
You should at least complain to your bank and government, support NGOs fighting for your freedom like https://edri.org, https:/eff.org, or equivalent in your country.
pastage · 2h ago
The phone will be used as MFA, and that will have requirements especially on Android versions. So it is going to be harder to escape it, it is darn comfortable using Android as a MFA. Many banks still use a custom device for MFA here but is is slowly going away.
BankID in Sweden and similar in other European countries.
PeterStuer · 2h ago
For now the custom issued 2FA is still an inconvenient option, but nearly everyone uses the phone for 2FA as it is so much faster.
1gn15 · 2h ago
Also, use ATMs if you can instead. Don't use propietary code on your own machine; run it on theirs instead.
falcor84 · 2h ago
I don't understand the sentiment - how does relinquishing control of the hardware help us? I see a possible future where the banks/governments give the people devices to use for these things, and I don't like this future, as these would surely become spy instruments.
defanor · 1h ago
Not OP, but sharing the sentiment (never had banking or similar software on a phone, yet using ATMs, banks' web interfaces, offices). Avoiding interaction with a bank completely is rarely viable these days, and they will run their software on their hardware to operate either way (whether it is an ATM, a bank office, or a website). I do not see it as relinquishing control of the hardware, since you are not expected to control a bank's hardware in the first place. While setting it on your phone comes with the usual risks of running proprietary software on your machines, such as sneaky data collection. If banks/governments will give mobile devices to people for that, those may act even a little more like electronic ankle bracelets, but they would also be isolated from your other data and software; in places with near-mandatory government software, some choose to create such an isolation by having multiple devices for different purposes.
zigzag312 · 43m ago
> how does relinquishing control of the hardware help us
It's not relinquishing control, but separation of concerns for hardware.
Bank should manage their hardware, not your hardware.
p0w3n3d · 2h ago
It sounds like an implementation of the Orwell's 1984 telescreen
card_zero · 1h ago
In what way, if supplied by the bank and used only for contacting the bank to do banking, could a device become a spy instrument?
Kicking banks off the internet/apps would make Android and Apple less cushy.
falcor84 · 1h ago
> In what way, if supplied by the bank and used only for contacting the bank to do banking, could a device become a spy instrument?
Here's my attempt at future history: Firstly they'll require you to prove your current location, to ensure that the request isn't made by a remote hacker; they'll do this by integrating their own cellular modem, as well as scanning local wi-fi networks. Then, at a second phase, they'll integrate a camera and microphone to perform a face identification, asking you to speak out a particular phrase while performing a particular motion. At the start they'll only require you to turn the mic and camera on during active usage, but eventually they'll say that these have to stay on continuously so that they can ensure that the device wasn't tempered with. And if we aren't careful, we'll accept every single small added requirement, until we're boiled alive.
PeterStuer · 2h ago
ATM's are disapearing. There used to be one at every corner. Now, I have to travel to the next village that has just one left at the train station.
Cash is positioned as suspicious. In 10 years, it might very well be illegal.
scrubs · 1h ago
Not in the US... have you seen the first or second Shrek movie where a monster busts in on a Starbucks and all the scared customers run across the street to another Starbucks? Like a virus they're everywhere. Same thing for atm machines. Cash is doing just fine.
lifthrasiir · 2h ago
Except they did in several countries, typically using activeX.
sfdlkj3jk342a · 2h ago
It's too late for that. In many Asian countries, most of the banks have completely removed access via a browser.
Hackbraten · 1h ago
I switched to a Linux smartphone because I've had enough of the duopoly.
I also switched banks so I can use my bank card as the 2FA device, similar to CAP. [0]
Probably in the long run the only way to go will be to own/carry two devices.
A long supported phone with stock firmware and apps you are "forced" to use to interface with the world around you, and a second Linux portable machine where you have your freedom.
russnes · 58m ago
Which one?
Hackbraten · 46m ago
It’s a Librem 5. I’m looking for a more powerful model that can also run mainline(-ish) Linux.
russnes · 27m ago
Seeing as GrapheneOS appear to be recommended on the newest Pixel models, I wonder if it shouldn't be too difficult to get Arch Linux running on them with the AUR plasma-mobile?
nunobrito · 15m ago
Run away from Graphene, it is suspicious at best scenario and dangerous at worst.
Just observe that the key factor is to be independent from Google and then the only recommended devices from their side are exactly google devices where nobody here can have an idea of what is modified inside them.
You'd be better off supporting other distributions like Calyx, which have no problems in supporting other devices like the fairphone and so on.
duesabati · 10m ago
I was very interested in Graphene, do you have other grounds for your suspicions?
safety1st · 1h ago
I live in Thailand which is very mobile first and the main way to pay for things here is through your banking app, you scan a QR code, it fires up the app and you make a transfer.
The convenience is great but increasingly businesses now begin to offer this as the ONLY way to pay.
I keep telling people because I'm seeing it begin. This is how it happens, this is the endgame for freedom, democracy and life as you know it. Give the West 20-30 years, it will happen in some developing countries sooner.
They will require the approved app to buy and sell. Without it you will be outside the financial system, and maybe will starve.
They will require the approved app to only run on the approved operating system. You will have 2-3 options for the approved operating system but total surveillance will be a mandatory feature on all of them.
Finally, they will punish you for wrongthink when your surveilled device detects you writing or saying it.
As the world gets worse political leaders will become more authoritarian until one finally checks the last box on that list, and that's the end.
There will be no escape except for death.
All the pieces are coming into place. Every time you hear them talking about better security for XYZ you can see how it's one of the pieces on the board, being moved one square.
I don't think there is one guy who has this master plan I think it's the inevitable end state for surveillance capitalism that's as pervasive as ours.
I am an atheist, I think the Bible is all fairy tales, and yet the "Mark of the Beast" vibes I get from where the world is going are out of control. The mark on your hand or your forehead that will be required to buy or sell, that was what you'd be forced to accept once the Antichrist took over, or whatever. The 2,000 year old fairy tales were not wrong they are starting to set it up now, you carry the device in your hand, they will do it through payments and banking.
userbinator · 2h ago
The alternative is older versions of Android, from before these hostile changes. The propaganda that it's "unsafe" is just that, propaganda. Perhaps Google will realise once enough of the population refuses to put on the noose.
russnes · 1h ago
the majority of the population will happily put on the noose and they will join in on pressuring you to do it too. Don't kid yourself. However, a successful resistance movement only requires like 3% of the population or something
zx8080 · 2h ago
It's totally unfeasable for those using stock deviced. Refusing to upgrade takes lots of attention even from experienced users like developers. Regular user just doesn't have any chance to avoid accidentally clicking or intentionally accepting the annoying permanent notification to upgrade OS.
userbinator · 2h ago
It's the norm for the huge number of users with devices where there is no newer upgrade available from the original manufacturer. Back when Android was great(tm) there were far more of those than today.
saidinesh5 · 2h ago
The problem is not the propaganda, it is the businesses restricting the freedom and choices of users because of this propaganda.
So many apps even refuse to be installed on older versions of iOS/Android.
userbinator · 1h ago
So many apps even refuse to be installed on older versions of iOS/Android.
That's because they see older versions of Android decrease in usage so they think it's fine to lock them out and potentially lose customers[1], but they're not going to do that to the majority of them.
If the majority stops falling for the propaganda and "upgrading" to a worse experience, other businesses will follow.
[1] I have told businesses that changes to their site have made me no longer want to do business with them, and seen responses ranging from complete dismissal to quick reversion.
PeterStuer · 2h ago
The bank app, mandatory updated to the latest version, does not run on old android.
scotty79 · 2h ago
What about GrapheneOS?
zx8080 · 2h ago
I'm not going to buy Pixel feeding Google further with my pennies just to use GrafeneOS.
fzorb · 2h ago
Well you can always buy second hand/refurbished.
immibis · 27m ago
Maybe you should and Google will see the demand and keep making good devices. (As if)
zx8080 · 2h ago
Is it a joke? Have you seen the list of supported devices?
I don't do banking on my phone. I really don't understand why anyone would. If I can't get to my PC or laptop, I'm probably near an ATM. I've already given so much autonomy to Google/Alphabet/Apple, I won't give them access to my bank account.
em-bee · 2h ago
even if you use a computer to do banking, like i do, some banks still require an app for 2FA, or windows...
ATMs won't let me send money or do any other kind of maintenance
stein1946 · 2h ago
Again, technological measures against this kind of attacks on ownership rights fall short and are probably what conglomerates want since it keeps the tech people busy in a self-satisfying "fight" against the big corporation.
You need legislation.
ajb · 1h ago
This.
You can have a popup, but it must have a call-to-action. Explain to users how to fight this.
ducktective · 28m ago
Didn't Google say that they're gonna provide an escape hatch for students and hobbyists? So, best case scenario, we just need to tap some label 5 times to enable side-loading again.
charcircuit · 21m ago
You are able to get a limited number of app installs for your package for free.
All this has me wondering: what's the future of chroot-based tools like proot-distro? No app store here, just PPAs. Can largely run whatever the hell I want, provided it's distributed for the OS I'm currently running.
charcircuit · 15m ago
The future I see is that it gets rearchitected such that each app will correspond to an android app that way it follows the Android model properly. The current model of shoving everything into the same app is going to continually run into problems and is not the right way to do it long term. So essentially there will be a tool to easily convert a freedesktop Linux application to an android one.
In regards to this new package name registration whoever is running the repo of such packages would register a new package name for each app.
debugnik · 22m ago
> This library is licensed under the GPLv3.
If the intention was to make it easier to spread the word, you've already failed.
Anyway, this whole library should have been a copy-pastable snippet for a dialog or toast (what's with the duplicate code?); the only value added is the translation, which most app devs already have a pipeline for.
The code part is so trivial that I suspect it doesn't even meet the legal bar for copyright protection in many jurisdictions.
kikokikokiko · 3h ago
A little bit overkill to use a dependency to just show a dialog. I agree that Google ia making Android less and less free with every new release, but show a damn dialog, no need to use this.
Kwpolska · 1h ago
It's also pretty sloppily coded, with the same code repeated in both branches of the `if`...
If it was 2023 I would say someone just vibecoded a trivial android piece of code. But nowadays Android studio comes with Gemini agent integrated, and I doubt it would produce such terrible redundancy on a code so simple.
Barbing · 3h ago
Sounds right. Though may aid in spreading the practice if it accumulates stars, goes viral on places like this?
No comments yet
Hackbraten · 1h ago
The library features localized warnings.
scotty79 · 2h ago
I think creation of this repo is more of a statement than creation of utility.
ethersteeds · 1h ago
I would say it's both a statement and a way to encourage other developers to "speak with one voice". Like handing out printed signs at a protest.
camdroidw · 3h ago
What would be my options as an end user who does not want to root his device
captainepoch · 1h ago
For now, there isn't an alternative. Maybe a Pixel phone and GrapheneOS with the sandboxed Play Store would be the only choice, but for now, nobody knows.
aydyn · 3h ago
Cry in a corner ig?
zx8080 · 2h ago
Maybe use iphone? There will be not much advantages left on Android side after that shit gets go.
politelemon · 2h ago
Even without side loading there are several advantages and freedoms that Android has unmatched.
littlecranky67 · 2h ago
such as? Curious, because on iOS you can freely install browser extensions (adblockers like uBlock origin lite) from the get go. Still boggles my mind that Chrome does not allow extensions.
cyberax · 1h ago
Alternative browser engines, JIT-compilation support (enables apps like Koreader), ability to completely disable animations, etc.
import · 1h ago
Like what? I am curious what’s left
Aardwolf · 1h ago
Choice of running multiple browsers with different engines
scotty79 · 2h ago
I might just move to whatever Chinese come up with. By 2027 their tech should be clearly superior in every way.
userbinator · 2h ago
who does not want to root his device
Why not? Freedom isn't a given --- you need to fight for it.
Kwpolska · 1h ago
Rooting a device will usually cause banking apps to stop working.
immibis · 26m ago
Then go to your bank and say hey, fix this or close my account
okanat · 37s ago
In many European countries this means you cannot have a online-activated bank account. Offline banking is paid and often expensive.
debugnik · 10m ago
[delayed]
userbinator · 1h ago
There are still workarounds. The way to win is to keep fighting.
kikokikokiko · 1h ago
All banks in Brazil now use the Google Play Integrity api. I've been on rooted phones for almost 15 years, and I'll never not main a rooted phone. But for a couple years now, I have to keep a separate phone just to be able to use tha f*cking banks.
add-sub-mul-div · 2h ago
I assume my S20+ won't get this because it's stopped getting anything but security updates. Sometime next year I'll look for the latest phone that's too old to get the new behavior.
rickdeckard · 3m ago
I assume this will not be rolled out as an OS-upgrade but as a Play services update, so it will be enrolled by Google directly to nearly all devices on the market.
TheDong · 3h ago
"Copyright GPL"
I don't think this meets the bar for copyrightable code. Copyright protects creative expression. Displaying a single dialogue does not take creative expression, and pretty much any developer given the task would produce code identical to this.
croemer · 3h ago
Don't complain about the license. The license removes any doubt. You can happily use it without having to worry. If there was no license you'd have uncertainty.
Also you're misquoting. The license is GPL-3, not AGPL.
TheDong · 2h ago
I'm not complaining about the license, I'm complaining about the library size.
Something that is too small to be considered creative should be a documented example you copy and adopt into your app, not a dependency.
The only exceptions to this are things like "A dependency that contains all unicode planes and categorizes characters", which isn't creative, but is useful and too large to copy-paste, and also updates over time.
Or the timezone database file, another case of something that should be "public domain" knowledge (uncopyrightable), but makes sense as a dependency.
This is not that sort of thing.
ronsor · 3h ago
Yes, this code is almost as trivial as a hello world.
chrismorgan · 2h ago
Have you looked at the code? I sure wouldn’t produce exactly that. Even for identical functionality, its FreeDroidWarn.java methods are 30 lines, I’d write it in 13 lines. I also wouldn’t write exactly the same strings (some stylistic changes, some being specific rather than generic as is somewhat necessary for a library), and definitely couldn’t produce 17 other translations.
This easily meets thresholds for creative work. The basic concept is nigh-trivial, but the concrete implementation is still creative.
userbinator · 2h ago
and pretty much any developer given the task would produce code identical to this.
That I doubt; it seems more like it's deliberately large and complex enough to be copyrightable, because otherwise it wouldn't be.
maxlin · 1h ago
Based.
I wonder how badly Google's shenanigans will affect sales of new Android devices too. I've been looking to buy a foldable at some point, but I'll have to make entirely sure it won't be of an effectively broken (too new) Android version.
ChocolateGod · 55m ago
I doubt then locking down side loading will make more than 1% difference. Most people just don't care.
littlecranky67 · 48m ago
Well what is the alternative? Apple does the very same, even in the EU.
wiseowise · 38m ago
The single most prevailing argument for Android was always “sideloading”.
“You want sideload on Apple? Go buy an Android”
I see this change as win, personally.
a) it will finally shut the fuck up braindead sideload, Apple bootlicking, haters
b) EU can go after both Google and Apple to allow sideloading (one can only dream!)
Win-win.
Krasnol · 2h ago
Wouldn't it be nice if, in this time of feeding our IDs to the machine, there would be someone who would also offer some nice and easy way to identify ourselves digitally? Maybe someone who sits on all that unverified advertisement tracking data already and somebody who has an AI agent to feed?
Fascinating that the same company producing zero knowledge proof implementation didn't think to use it for the purpose they mention here. Do these departments not talk to each other?
rippeltippel · 1h ago
It's Google we're talking about. Likely the left hand has no idea of what the right hand is doing. And it's got far more than two hands.
IshKebab · 1h ago
What property would they prove? The whole point (supposedly anyway) is they know your actual identity in case you publish malware.
everyone · 3h ago
google seem to have the multi-pronged attack on android devs going on atm. They are seemingly trying to take down as many apps and dev accounts as possible.. Anyone know why?
1. doxx yourself of they kill your account
2. re-build every app with pointless newer api version literally every year or it gets taken down.
3. Push an update or a new app or they kill your account.
..
My guess is enshittification, some random exec is trying to save a few pennies in server and storage costs.
..
I'd also say that google makes so much money from ads and data-brokering that everything else they do is not vital for their survival and thus undergoes a sort of "genetic drift" where they just make random decisions.
bloqs · 2h ago
background political lobbying. its part of the effort from most of the west (not the US yet) to verify users on devices to 'protect kids'
peddling-brink · 2h ago
> 1. doxx yourself of they kill your account
Combat abuse. I don't think this is a solvable problem, so obviously this won't be a silver bullet. But maybe will it impose more cost on the abusers creating a nicer app store experience for everyone. Or maybe this only imposes cost on the honest ones? I don't know how much validation they do.
> 2. re-build every app with pointless newer api version literally every year or it gets taken down.
Fix vulns. This also gets rid of abandoned apps. It also probably provides an "opportunity" for the dev to agree to new T&C.
> 3. Push an update or a new app or they kill your account.
This one seems shakier to me, but it might feed into an effort to get rid of abandoned apps. But I disagree with this being healthy for the ecosystem, if that's actually the reason.
I'm not trying to defend google, but from working in FAANG, some of this is obvious. None of these things save a significant amount of server or storage costs. Some of it is clearly anti-abuse and efforts to defend themselves from the constant stream of crap that tries to make its way into the app store.
> everything else they do
Google isn't like some dude (sundar) making decisions. It's a bunch of millionaires and billionaires making decisions. There's some high level guidance, but the difference between different divisions is 100% based on who's running that particular show.
8n4vidtmkvmk · 1h ago
What's wrong with "abandoned" apps? I still use an app called DiskUsage. Not sure you can still get it on the store or it comes with scary warnings now. Continues to work great. Never found a replacement. Don't want a replacement. This one works.
When an app works but keeps getting updated, that means the enshittification is starting. How else do you extract money out of a completed app?
fer · 1h ago
I thought this applies to every app regardless the app store it comes from? Including side loading. The Play Store is already "sanitised".
tomrod · 3h ago
Google cut off their own revenue legs with AI suggestions instead of ads.
Thats okay, they jumped the shark when the imperative for ads took over.
zx8080 · 3h ago
> Add the JitPack repository to your root build.gradle
How much MB (kb?) does this dependency add to apk?
nulld3v · 2h ago
Given that it's just a couple lines of code and has no other dependencies other than AppCompat (which nearly all apps already use), the increase in size would be negligible (<4KB).
But we don't have anything like FF as an alternative to go from Android. Especially considering banks require "certified OS".
Now the phone is running stock firmware from 2020, with Android security patches from 2020, and with numerous publicly known vulnerabilities. The banks work fine, Google Pay works fine, every Play Integrity check passes, even the strongest one (device integrity).
The only reason I see for it being implemented this way is not to lock the bad guys out from your phone, but to prevent you from doing anything to the banking applications, even through it is still possible through said vulnerabilities.
One of said banks also refuses to run if it detects remote assistance clients on your phone (like TeamViewer), or even Discord, because apparently these were used in scams over the past few years, and we need to protect even the stupidest at the expense of everyone else. How did we come to this "future"? The worst days of desktop Windows weren't even remotely close to this nonsense.
That sounds... fine? Like... there are actually alternatives. Sure, if their plan is to phase out those alternatives, then that's bad, but... the current situation seems fine?
No comments yet
The last one applies in my country. You can of course go to the bank branch for every little financial operation, which is bad enough by itself for us living in cities, but is practically impossible for my relatives in the rural area, who would have to drive 100 km to the nearest bank branch, and then back just to move some money between two accounts.
Even if you don't care for anyone else but your country, it will come to you also, I promise.
BankID in Sweden and similar in other European countries.
It's not relinquishing control, but separation of concerns for hardware.
Bank should manage their hardware, not your hardware.
Kicking banks off the internet/apps would make Android and Apple less cushy.
Here's my attempt at future history: Firstly they'll require you to prove your current location, to ensure that the request isn't made by a remote hacker; they'll do this by integrating their own cellular modem, as well as scanning local wi-fi networks. Then, at a second phase, they'll integrate a camera and microphone to perform a face identification, asking you to speak out a particular phrase while performing a particular motion. At the start they'll only require you to turn the mic and camera on during active usage, but eventually they'll say that these have to stay on continuously so that they can ensure that the device wasn't tempered with. And if we aren't careful, we'll accept every single small added requirement, until we're boiled alive.
Cash is positioned as suspicious. In 10 years, it might very well be illegal.
I also switched banks so I can use my bank card as the 2FA device, similar to CAP. [0]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Authentication_Program
Just observe that the key factor is to be independent from Google and then the only recommended devices from their side are exactly google devices where nobody here can have an idea of what is modified inside them.
You'd be better off supporting other distributions like Calyx, which have no problems in supporting other devices like the fairphone and so on.
The convenience is great but increasingly businesses now begin to offer this as the ONLY way to pay.
I keep telling people because I'm seeing it begin. This is how it happens, this is the endgame for freedom, democracy and life as you know it. Give the West 20-30 years, it will happen in some developing countries sooner.
They will require the approved app to buy and sell. Without it you will be outside the financial system, and maybe will starve.
They will require the approved app to only run on the approved operating system. You will have 2-3 options for the approved operating system but total surveillance will be a mandatory feature on all of them.
Finally, they will punish you for wrongthink when your surveilled device detects you writing or saying it.
As the world gets worse political leaders will become more authoritarian until one finally checks the last box on that list, and that's the end.
There will be no escape except for death.
All the pieces are coming into place. Every time you hear them talking about better security for XYZ you can see how it's one of the pieces on the board, being moved one square.
I don't think there is one guy who has this master plan I think it's the inevitable end state for surveillance capitalism that's as pervasive as ours.
I am an atheist, I think the Bible is all fairy tales, and yet the "Mark of the Beast" vibes I get from where the world is going are out of control. The mark on your hand or your forehead that will be required to buy or sell, that was what you'd be forced to accept once the Antichrist took over, or whatever. The 2,000 year old fairy tales were not wrong they are starting to set it up now, you carry the device in your hand, they will do it through payments and banking.
So many apps even refuse to be installed on older versions of iOS/Android.
That's because they see older versions of Android decrease in usage so they think it's fine to lock them out and potentially lose customers[1], but they're not going to do that to the majority of them.
If the majority stops falling for the propaganda and "upgrading" to a worse experience, other businesses will follow.
[1] I have told businesses that changes to their site have made me no longer want to do business with them, and seen responses ranging from complete dismissal to quick reversion.
https://grapheneos.org/releases
(Pixels only)
Go for Calyx or any other android distro, they have zero difficulties in supporting more devices.
ATMs won't let me send money or do any other kind of maintenance
You need legislation.
You can have a popup, but it must have a call-to-action. Explain to users how to fight this.
https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/...
In regards to this new package name registration whoever is running the repo of such packages would register a new package name for each app.
If the intention was to make it easier to spread the word, you've already failed.
Anyway, this whole library should have been a copy-pastable snippet for a dialog or toast (what's with the duplicate code?); the only value added is the translation, which most app devs already have a pipeline for.
The code part is so trivial that I suspect it doesn't even meet the legal bar for copyright protection in many jurisdictions.
https://github.com/woheller69/FreeDroidWarn/blob/master/libr...
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Why not? Freedom isn't a given --- you need to fight for it.
I don't think this meets the bar for copyrightable code. Copyright protects creative expression. Displaying a single dialogue does not take creative expression, and pretty much any developer given the task would produce code identical to this.
Also you're misquoting. The license is GPL-3, not AGPL.
Something that is too small to be considered creative should be a documented example you copy and adopt into your app, not a dependency.
The only exceptions to this are things like "A dependency that contains all unicode planes and categorizes characters", which isn't creative, but is useful and too large to copy-paste, and also updates over time.
Or the timezone database file, another case of something that should be "public domain" knowledge (uncopyrightable), but makes sense as a dependency.
This is not that sort of thing.
This easily meets thresholds for creative work. The basic concept is nigh-trivial, but the concrete implementation is still creative.
That I doubt; it seems more like it's deliberately large and complex enough to be copyrightable, because otherwise it wouldn't be.
I wonder how badly Google's shenanigans will affect sales of new Android devices too. I've been looking to buy a foldable at some point, but I'll have to make entirely sure it won't be of an effectively broken (too new) Android version.
“You want sideload on Apple? Go buy an Android”
I see this change as win, personally.
a) it will finally shut the fuck up braindead sideload, Apple bootlicking, haters
b) EU can go after both Google and Apple to allow sideloading (one can only dream!)
Win-win.
I'm sure everybody would profit from that...
https://blog.google/products/google-pay/google-wallet-age-id...
1. doxx yourself of they kill your account
2. re-build every app with pointless newer api version literally every year or it gets taken down.
3. Push an update or a new app or they kill your account.
..
My guess is enshittification, some random exec is trying to save a few pennies in server and storage costs.
..
I'd also say that google makes so much money from ads and data-brokering that everything else they do is not vital for their survival and thus undergoes a sort of "genetic drift" where they just make random decisions.
Combat abuse. I don't think this is a solvable problem, so obviously this won't be a silver bullet. But maybe will it impose more cost on the abusers creating a nicer app store experience for everyone. Or maybe this only imposes cost on the honest ones? I don't know how much validation they do.
> 2. re-build every app with pointless newer api version literally every year or it gets taken down.
Fix vulns. This also gets rid of abandoned apps. It also probably provides an "opportunity" for the dev to agree to new T&C.
> 3. Push an update or a new app or they kill your account.
This one seems shakier to me, but it might feed into an effort to get rid of abandoned apps. But I disagree with this being healthy for the ecosystem, if that's actually the reason.
I'm not trying to defend google, but from working in FAANG, some of this is obvious. None of these things save a significant amount of server or storage costs. Some of it is clearly anti-abuse and efforts to defend themselves from the constant stream of crap that tries to make its way into the app store.
> everything else they do
Google isn't like some dude (sundar) making decisions. It's a bunch of millionaires and billionaires making decisions. There's some high level guidance, but the difference between different divisions is 100% based on who's running that particular show.
When an app works but keeps getting updated, that means the enshittification is starting. How else do you extract money out of a completed app?
Thats okay, they jumped the shark when the imperative for ads took over.
How much MB (kb?) does this dependency add to apk?
EDIT: The AAR file is 26KB: https://jitpack.io/com/github/woheller69/FreeDroidWarn/V1.3/... But most of it looks to be from R.txt and I think that file gets deduped/compressed during app packaging?