Submitted 8 months ago by JairajDevadiga@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://jacobin.com/2025/07/google-android-smartphones-open-source
Google’s Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, started life as open-source software. In its quest for ever-greater profits, the tech giant has been gradually eroding Android’s open-source nature over the last decade.
Originally published on The Lever, but that one asks you to sign up.
I’m thinking about getting the new FairPhone 6 when it comes out and running /e/ OS, but I’m so reliant on Google Maps and Gmail (my email account, not necessarily the app … but I do rely on the app).
I’m afraid that I’ll either install Google apps and end up with a phone just as compromised as a stock Android install, or if I don’t it will be too much of a pain in the ass to use.
Organic Maps is great in many ways. It’s maps are so much better. But the lack of traffic data is a killer for route planning in the UK. All the open source maps suffer this. There needs to be open access traffic information for there to be competition.
Maybe we should start resurrecting symbian
or just start pooring support into PostMarket or UBTouch
It’s almost like the organization itself is designed to make things worse if it means short term profits, useful and appreciated apps sacrificed at the altar of line goes up
My Nexus 5 recently broke and the only reason I went with a pixel 9a was too install grapheneOS on it as soon as I got it. The process has become way easier than it used to be. After setting up/skipping all the first run screens I plugged it into another Android device and used the grapheneOS site to run the install, took like 15 min.
hows your experience with graphene? Better than stock? I heard they have a sandboxed Google Play store now, so getting apps is even easier.
So far it’s been good for about a week. Highlights have been the easy install, secure by default but lets me override when I want (block app network access on install is awesome), and getting access to the other app repos than Google’s I haven’t seen since I installed dirty unicorns years ago. I setup multiple users so I can keep me primary like a root which was also simple to do.
Only complaints I have are when I get messages on another user than primary I can see the messages in the app but not the message content in the notification, its just a genetic alert message like new messages received. Nice to have but not going to make me switch back.
Also I did install the Google app store to get a couple paid apps and calendar/contacts I need to move out of Google. It does sandbox by default which is really cool and i think should be required for phone manufacturers. I just disabled services/store/calendar access to the network after I let it download everything.
The best thing about switching to an iPhone is that I use my phone way lesser
I can’t tell what this is a dig about. Less Apps available? Less required maintenance time? Less Notification spam? Or?
But I’m all for it.
I can offer an answer as a former lover of android (12 years)…
I used to do all of the phone modding/flashing roms etc. it was like I could never be just satisfied with my phone. After years of this, I got tired of the nagging in my head to improve it. So, I switched to Apple, and it just works and I don’t feel as though I’m missing out on anything.
So, yes I don’t have to be on my phone all of them time other than when I actually need it.
Maybe it was better when Android phones didn’t get updates. Eh? 😉
2 days ago I moved from GrapheneOS back to Stock Pixel in my 8 Pro, just to see what all the hype about the new android 16 in Pixel is about. Jesus, this is way worse than I remember. i tried it for 2 whole days, and that shit just won’t allow me to have ANY control over my phone. It’s fucking ridiculous. On Android 15 I was able to uninstall Google Drive, Meet, Youtube, and many other Google apps, this time around all it would allow was “disable”. What’s next, removing the ability to disable (which I don’t trust anyway)?
Fast forward to today, I’m back on GOS, and my anxiety levels are down again. This shit is insane, and I honestly can’t understand why anyone would put up with this crap.
I’ve been considering moving to GOS because of all the Google shenanigans, but I need to make sure everything works since my job means I have dozens of MS authenticator entries for various admin tasks. I really want to try it out, but can’t afford to have to rebuild all those entries on a new system (and the notifications not work)
I had to use MS Authenticator for work and it worked in GOS, notifications and all. Now, that was about a year ago, and I haven’t tried it since. At the speed GAFAM are enshitifying everything, there’s a chance it doesn’t work anymore. I keep a Pixel 8a stock for banking and some other apps that I need (such as EV charging networks) and won’t work or are unsustainably wonky on GOS. As I mentioned in another post, RethinkDNS is worth it, but it does take some trial and error to get it to work without breaking stuff I need, but once I got there, it was all good (that’s how I keep the 8a less intrusive).
I’m stuck with Google. No aftermarket OS supports my phone. :(
May I suggest you give RethinkDNS a shot? At first it’s kind of convoluted to configure, but once you have it set up the way you want, it’s smooth sailing from there.
Thanks for the anecdote now i know i can just stay in gos
Please do stay on GOS. I already suffered for 2 days for the whole community.
Those apps are installed in the squashfs image. Such images are write once, read many and thus they can’t be mutated at runtime.
I know, and that’s exactly my point. They used to be in the user space, now they are in squashfs. They CHOSE to do this.
Well who made the decision to put non-system apps in the system partition?
this time around all it would allow was “disable”.
This has been par for other OEM-flavored Android phones for years, unfortunately.
Disable is alright, not that the phone itself isn’t a privacy nightmare.
Most users want those installed, anyway.
That’s a really lousy excuse in support of enshittification.
How do you know most of users want that?
Even if most of them do, that still negatively impacts literally millions of users who don’t want that.
Most is anywhere from 50.1% to 99.9%
So what are you actually saying? Because you aren’t being very precise.
Most people want to engage in hetero sexuality, so everyone who didn’t shouldn’t get to?
That’s the same logic you are using, I highly doubt you would agree that all non hetero relations should be discarded and given a giant middle finger. If you do feel that way JFC go touch grass or whatever
The stupid attempt to have everyone leave bluetooth always on pisses me off. They’ve made the BT quick tile 2 more presses to toggle on or off is ridiculous. It’s not a quick tile.
I’ve just put a BT on/off widget on my home screen.
Could you develop on “attempt to have everyone leave bluetooth” ? What do they want us to use instead ?
“[…] leave bluetooth always on”
There is an Xposed module to replace the tiles back to a simple on/off toggle, for both BT tile and WiFi tile.
You need to grab your control back lol
root is a security risk on many security focused ROMs.
See the 4th reply in this GrapheneOS thread
and this from CalyxOS’s FAQ
If you can link the xposed module though I wouldnt mind making a feature request and asking for the module itself to be integrated into their forks.
Mobile GNU/Linux is getting better, but I think it is 5-10 years out from what’s needed. I suppose people need to adopt Desktop first. The nice thing is you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively, and they appear in your app drawer like a regular app
My big problem is banks and satnav.
SatNav need traffic info and there is none, so their routes are bad.
Banks require apps to even use their website for “secure codes”. Those apps try to detect ROMs and refuse to run, not even really being Android is going to make passing that harder.
Let alone random things like parking apps where the app is the only way to pay.
This is a political problem as much as technical. Competition is basically dead. We need government to step in and make competition possible. But they are in big tech’s pocket and the status quo suits them too. Voters either don’t care or believe what big tech says. It’s a mess.
Satnav there is Pure Maps (OSM client), which can connect to sources like HERE to get traffic data to provide voiced guided turn-by-turn instructions. Of course there is also all the Android apps like Google Maps available, and their mobile site works fine.
On the topic of mobile sites, you can also install them as dedicated app drawer icons via Gnome Web & Firefox PWA for any site.
This means if your bank app doesn’t like vanilla Android, GApps, you can use a comparable dedicated web app.
For parking, I’ve found a surprising amount have mobile sites, so I don’t need to install their bloaty Android app onto my GNU/Linux phone.
There are Google Play Android bank apps (mine works fine), and you can use mobile sites as dedicated app drawer icons.
NFC payments won’t come anytime soon to native GNU/Linux, but I don’t use them. Maybe Google Wallet works, I haven’t tried and don’t know if NFC can be passed through to Waydroid. OnePlus 6 is the best supported originally Android phone for GNU/Linux, someone with that would need to test.
I just have my card in a silicon sleeve on the back of the phone and I get the same effect. I’d rather Google not have my purchase history anyways. Haven’t had issues with my banking app via Android, and their mobile site is top notch.
What’s wrong with tapless payment with cards?
you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively
What whaaaat? I didn’t know this! Thanks for the tip
I just saw KDE Bigscreen got reboot. While it’s not exactly the same (its for TVs, like Android TV and Steam Big Picture mode), it’s nice to see major desktop environments(DE) adopt new UI features for small and large devices. This compliments work done by groups like PinePhone, who laid the groundwork for Linux phones.
It’s a bit of a catch honestly.
OSS/community Linux graphical environments have kind of always been ~5 years out from what’s needed. 15 years ago they were behind ~5 years, 5 years ago they where behind ~5 years.
The only difference is today. I think they’re only behind by ~3-4 years thanks to the backwards movement of things like Windows.
Mobile operating systems are in a worse place.
I find myself using desktop Linux more than my mobile device, even on the couch with the family. Monitors on arms that can swing out of the way ftw. No cute advice for keyboards though. We have wireless ones around but I still use my wired Deck Legend on my lap. It’s an old mechanical keyboard that’s built like a tank, with the PCB literally mounted to a sheet of metal that is mounted inside the housing, lol.
It’s almost a shame, because smart phones are still absolutely amazing to me as far as the amount of scientific and technical advancement that can fit in the palm of your hand. But I look forward to the open options various parties are working on.
The obfuscated nature of compiled code does an incredible amount of heavy lifting on behalf of shareholders. Imagine a world where x-ray specs suddenly revealed source code. The flight to open solutions would be irresistible. Windows is hot garbage but it clings to its market share like a limpet, through the magic of closed source, occupying space like a flabby tumour. It doesn’t care if it kills the host because the top priority is growth and an unassailable market share. That’s the magic of capitalism.
Honestly I don’t think many people would care? Until the security holes became intractable, I guess.
Its proven Android phones are doing awful stuff, even client side, and has that slowed them down?
MS keeps making Windows worse but that is not a problem because Linux is great on PCs. The reason is that PC is made out of standardized plug&play components that you can make generic OS image for.
There is no such thing in smartphone world. Each chipset is it’s own Linux fork that gets only most crucial bug fixes while in warranty. Same is true for ARM SBCs where I believe the only board that supports generic image are new RPis.
The reason is that PC is made out of standardized plug&play components that you can make generic OS image for.
Yep, given the history of consumer technology as a whole it is really more amazing that the standard PC became a thing more than it is that people put up with what phones are today.
We all really owe a lot of gratitude to Phoenix for reverse engineering the IBM BIOS back in the day, and going to court to fight the IBM copyright lawsuit that resulted, as well as Compaq and all of the other IBM compatible clones.
Both ARM itself and Linux for ARM has been standardizing a fair bit recently. But not to the extent to be fully generic, mostly just enough for portable bootable kernels - and after that you still need all the same custom drivers and configurations to make proper use of a SoC, but it’s not nothing.
The article is 7 years old. Has anything come to fruition since then?
Thanks for these, especially the “we’re not going anywhere” link. I was hesitant to switch because I was worried about future support on my Pixel 7. Here’s the full quote for anyone that didn’t check the above link:
Many companies and individuals are trying to mislead people about the future of GrapheneOS to promote their insecure products and services. GrapheneOS is not going anywhere. We’ve made it clear we’re shipping Android 16 soon and that the supported devices will remain supported.
Spanish authorities*. Not really European-wide thing, but a local one.
Still use my Windows Phones with Windows 10 Mobile as my daily drivers. Best OS to date.
Eh, even if they got it right and more popular, it would have enshittified quick.
one of the best products Microsoft ever produced. I absolutely LOVED my old Lumia. great phone, the OS was perfect, just an awesome all around phone. wish I still had it.
I loved my Lumia 1520, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to a modern Android phone with LineageOS installed. Both in functionality and in privacy.
Linux phones will hopefully fix that soon(ish)
PostmarketOS usking Waydroid for the neccessary apps, anyone has experience to share?
It’s the year of the Linux phone!
I’m on hyperos and every time I have to touch anything pure Google I feel like I’m on a windows PC.
Don’t get me wrong, hyperos isn’t a pinnacle of freedom, but all I do with my phone is basically using Firefox and take photos (+ signal, & SMS) and use the lichess app.
It’s so infuriating, they steal our data, but just needs more. I’ll try a Linux FOSS system next phone.
Two most important open source projects right now are PostmarketOS and Servo.
Google keeps making everything worse.
Sadly iOS is not much better
Google should be broken up and its leadership fined into oblivion for anti competitive behavior
Unfortunately the Android experience is getting more and more bloated and users’ freedom to tinker with their phones or sideload apps is getting more and more difficult. The Play Store is riddled with more ads than useful content. Just try searching for something, and oftentimes more than half of your screen is ads.
I’ve been with Android since the start and I hate what Google is reducing it to. It pains me that the only viable alternative is Apple and I feel trapped.
I really want to try a pinephone or something with Ubuntu touch. It’s likely not daily driver ready but I’m still curious at how far along it is.
Up until about two weeks ago I could use wallet on my rooted pixel with lineage and play integrity fix.
Some recent change on their end and it doesn’t work at all anymore. I guess they don’t want to know what I’m buying.
Can I get a rundown of the few non-flagship phonemakers that are currently out there? I have heard of The Nothing Phone. Are there more companies that put together Androids to operate within the US?
android peaked with the pixel 2. then everyone went overboard on bezel-less displays and fast refresh rates and smart assistant services and brought the whole damn thing crashing down.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Tried to restart my fairly new Pixel phone a couple days ago by holding down the power button, and instead of showing the Power menu it prompted me to ask the Digital Assistant something. Excuse me? I don’t even remember enable that. Every other phone I’ve had, holding down the power button has always been the way to power down or restart. I had to search Settings to find how to configure the power button to control the power. WTAF?
Turret3857@infosec.pub 8 months ago
grapheneos.org calyxos.org e.foundation/e-os/ lineageos.org
be free
oskin@lemmy.world 8 months ago
i’m currently using redmi note 13 pro, can i install any of these OS?
MML@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Graphene is the only one that gets rid of webview right?
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Yep, this is how they trick people into inadvertently using their shitty ai Spyware. Welcome to the future, yay. Fuck Google and Samsung.
ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 8 months ago
So, how do you power it down?
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In Settings you select Power as the function of the Power Button instead of Digital Assistant.