Fuck Google with a stiff wire brush.

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Here's why:

they are a greedy company

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  • [+] 109 points 1 year ago (5 children)
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] 61 points 1 year ago* (34 children)

    I read somewhere that GrapheneOS devs have a strategy which they believe will work -- they strip out something or other about app/device attestation (?) from APK files before installing occurs, or the enforcement code itself from their spin of the OS, so sideloading (ie., user-controlled installation) can still work.

    I sure hope so... I think everyone in their respective country needs to scream at their local regulators about this.

    Of course, this will only help those whose devices GrapheneOS can run on.

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  • [–] 50 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    The GrapheneOS team is already in communications with an Android OEM to see if they can make a device that meets their specs, hopefully that bears fruit in a year or two.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Google has already shared how apps' developers will be verified. They're adding another app that will have access to block installing apps or disable them. That won't work on GrapheneOS because 1. the app won't be installed and 2. the app won't have that kind of privileged access.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I think the issue is new hardware and google starting to close source android, so that Graphene devs don't have the open source to work with. They'll probably get binary blobs

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It's my understanding that the changes that were made didn't make things more or less proprietary. Some drivers are still open source, others are still closed source. The device trees mostly have other things in them like configuration files and stuff like that.

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    And how long is it going to work?

    Do we really want to play cat and mouse with Google? I don't.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    The way Google will block apps with unverified developers won't work on GrapheneOS. The change won't be part of AOSP. On the stock OS, the functionality will be handled by another Google app that has privileged access. GrapheneOS won't be affected directly.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (13 children)

    I hope so as well. This debacle with RCS not working on GrapheneOS has been a real dick-punch. I really don't want to go back to a stock OS.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It's my understanding that RCS was fixed for most users after this update: https://grapheneos.org/releases#2025092700. You may need to grant permissions to Google Play Services first, then clear Google Messages' storage, grant permissions to Google Messages, then try setting it up again.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    It was not. I have been on the Discord #Testing channel working with others to troubleshoot. Those steps do not work.

    It seemed to be fixed on the 20251003 release, a lot of people got it working for a while, including me. It died within 24 hours.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I said "most users". There are some who are still experiencing issues, which is being looked into. Other people have had issues that were fixed by clearing the storage for Google Play, Google Play Services, Google Messages, then granting all necessary permissions before launching Google Messages again.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I have accepted no RCS. I miss some of the features, sure, but until I can get more than one person to use something like signal I'll stick with insecure SMS thru a FOSS provider I guess.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I have like 40 people on Signal and regularly chat with a dozen of them there. Some people see the benefits, others don't. I am lucky.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    That sounds great! So far, after five years, I have won a single person. Even back when Signal worked as a more regular messenger. Happy for you 🙂

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Hopefully we can all get more people on it. I adopted Signal almost ten years ago, so that helped. Keep spreading the word and it'll grow.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I thought the RCS thing was also happening on stock Android? Wasn't it more of a carrier thing?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It's been largely fixed for stock with select regions still being affected. RCS is failing on GOS because the correct device ID isn't getting reported and the verification services won't authenticate the OS.

    It'll work for about 24 hours, give or take, from a fresh installation, but after that RCS dies and no longer works. Any groups you were in will see you as departed and you will lose any future messages to that group.

    It's pretty fucked.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Thanks, I had no idea of the severity. I wonder if they'll be able to fix it.

    I convinced my fiance to switch over to GOS because I've had moderate success with it for about a year now. So of course this happens as soon as she made the switch. Now she's talking about getting an iPhone.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Shouldn't they be keeping bypass strategies a secret right now?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Shouldn’t they be keeping bypass strategies a secret right now?

    They're up against a company with more money and developers than they know what to do with. This is, at most, a game of cat and mouse. Secrecy will buy them a sprint or so.

    If Google wants to go nuclear, they can do some rolling encryption bullshit or put a million calls all over the OS to check app validity and stop open source altogether.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    This will face legal hurdles, especially in the EU and China. It reminds me of the time Microsoft played shell games with Chrome and Firefox and then lost eventually. That being said, it will kickstart a new mobile OS arms race, not necessarily to beat Android but for choices.

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  • [+] 3 points 1 year ago (7 children)
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Above all, the organisation behind it must be or become sufficiently robust, like GNU/Linux, in order to take up the torch, but that requires a lot of financial backing.

    It's not impossible, but in my opinion it won't happen right away and is likely to take time to implement. Once that's done, the only issue left will be installation (for users, that is).

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  • [+] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    That was a possibility, but if I'm not mistaken, it was either Chrome or Android.

    And it seems to me that an agreement was reached on Chrome (but no sale planned). So I won't make any predictions. Especially when you see the lockdown on Android, something is brewing, and Google wouldn't allow that if it had to part with it.

    Unless they are preparing for the separation by establishing as much interdependence as possible between the two in case of a takeover by another company with a partnership. Because otherwise, the community will know how to unravel and clean up the Android project.

    EDIT:

    If anything, I've just looked into it and it seems to be stronger than ever after this antitrust ruling. Because what you heard was more what the Ministry was asking the judge to do.

    In the end, there will be no dismantling of Android or Chrome, no loss of revenue for "partners" such as Firefox.

    There is an end to exclusive contracts, notably to prevent it from imposing Gemini or Chrome, but ONLY for one year. There is also data sharing, particularly related to parts of its search index, but no total obligation and nothing on advertising data, only interactions as a supplement.

    It's as if it were letting its competitors take a look at its library without giving them the keys to the safe.

    And to top it all off, it seems that Google is preparing a gradual merger of Chrome OS and Android for "greater hegemony". If anything, I've just looked and it seems to be stronger than ever after this antitrust decision. Because what you heard was more what the ministry was asking the judge.

    In the end, there will be no dismantling of Android or Chrome, no loss of revenue for "partners" such as Firefox.

    There is an end to exclusive contracts, in particular to prevent it from imposing Gemini or Chrome, but ONLY for one year. There will also be data sharing, particularly related to parts of its index, but no total obligation and nothing on advertising data, only interactions.

    Here are my sources in French:

    1. https://digitalmag.ci/comment-google-a-evite-la-separation-entre-android-et-chrome-suite-a-une-decision-antitrust/
    2. https://www.frandroid.com/marques/google/2732671_google-fusionne-enfin-android-et-chromeos-pour-en-faire-une-mega-plateforme
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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    ... except for the binary os blobs, that'll need to be reverse engineered to run it on... well... any real hardware /s

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  • [+] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    As far as I understood from Graphene, when Google released the source code for Android 16, they also stripped all the reference code for Pixel devices.

    Historically, Google would ship the code for Pixel and a software emulator as "reference designs". Now, it's only shipped with the emulator.

    The Graphene Team needed to reconstruct the pixel code from the Android 15 release. Fortunately, the divergence between Android 15 and 16 was minimal, but I'm certain the division will widen as time goes by.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    sigh and here I was looking forward to switching back to Android since I missed being able to install APKS...

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Timestamp 07:00-18:30

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Couldn't f droid in theory request their own key?

    This is a terrible situation, but surviving for a few more years isn't a bad idea

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    This comes with trump and its another shot at us. Class warfare!

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