Google’s Gemini team is apparently sending out emails about an upcoming change to how Gemini interacts with apps on Android devices. The email informs users that, come July 7, 2025, Gemini will be able to “help you use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.” Naturally, this has raised some privacy concerns among those who’ve received the email and those using the AI assistant on their Android devices.
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- neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish10 months
Linux has become good enough to replace desktop operating systems.
Now, we are back at square one. I’ll be the first to inaccurately declare, “This will be the year of the Linux phone.”
- Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.eeEnglish10 months
All I need is a good enough emulation of android apps to fool them (eg for banking).
10 monthsSailfish OS has it.
Unfortunately the project has some closed source bits which, imho, aren’t an issue when you look closer. Maybe I’m naive but I trust this EU company.
I use it as my daily driver. It certainly is frugal compared to recent Android versions, but fully functional.
- Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.eeEnglish10 months
I used Maemo on my N900 <3.
I don’t wanna use Sailfish bcs of the phone support tho, I’m shallow af & I need my hardware :(.
(I also have a few other Sailfish issues, the source code/availability/package, the licencing - but I feel like all of those could/would change with some growth.) - GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.caEnglish10 months
Sadly, SailfishOS is region locked. Being from North America, I can’t purchase their phones, or use the trial/emulation option, which really sucks because I like a lot of what I’m seeing there.
- 10 months
Can you get by with web access? That’s what I do and it’s fine.
Depends who you bank with. Some desktop websites suck on mobile and some don’t even allow certain actions on desktop. For some ungodly reason Wealthsimple requires me to do almost everything via app. It’s one of the reasons I barely utilise their services.
This is my fourth comment shilling SFOS here, but it just might be what you’re looking for. It is my daily driver.
- neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish10 months
That’s pretty cool, I’m working now, but I’m checking out its Android app compatibility.
If it can run my work stuff, I’ll be so happy.
PostmarketOS is cool, but as an actual phone replacement it is tough, at least last time I tried.
I haven’t tried, but I took a closer look at their wiki yesterday:
- the Main (official) devices are QEMU, i.e. virtual
- the list of Community devices is long, but whenever I clicked on something it seems that none os working sufficiently.
IMHO they should focus their efforts on getting at least one actual phone working fully.
I want this project to succeed, but until then I use Sailfish OS, btw.
- Sunflier@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
Dear tech bros,
We, the people, don’t want to use your AI shit. Please stop shoving it down our throats. Thank you.
Sincerely, -The people
- 10 months
yes but what if a company has the ability to create billions of close friends who can recommend sponsored products to you? why would it care about whether you want that or not?
also bard was a way better name for google’s LLM. it has its origins in an isaac asimov story about a robot who is programmed to tell random stories.
- 10 months
Is it really the people or just a subset of people that use Lemmy, the vast majority of people seemingly don’t care as is evidenced by the sheer number of people using things like social media.
What might be important to use in this echo chamber isn’t reflective of society on the whole.
- 10 months
The majority of people eat at McDonalds. It doesn’t make it a good idea on your finances or health. Sheep gonna baa.
- Sunflier@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
The companies keep preloading it on new tech, updating old tech so its there, preventing the option from disabling it from even being there, and disabling tech that can’t use it.
This. Shit. Can. Fuck. All. The. Way. Off!
- Akip@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish10 months
but for how long https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1933177989480456365
- MonkderVierte@lemmy.zipEnglish10 months
X is blocked on network level here, could you please copy&paste?
GrapheneOS @GrapheneOS We’re going to be moving forward under the expectation that future Pixel devices may not meet the requirements to run GrapheneOS (https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices ) and may not support using another OS. We’ve been in talks with a couple OEMs about making devices and what it would cost. 1:02 AM · Jun 13, 2025
- 10 months
So there’s an opt-out.
The article seems concrned that the email announcing this doesn’t include a specific path to the opt-out right in the email (which is a weird concern, considering the email provides two links to… presumably that information)?
I’m not sure what this means, either, but presumably the “whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off” line is saying that you can still have Gemini send texts for you even if you disable Google storing your apps usage server-side? I don’t use Gemini as an assistant, so I’m not sure, but looking at the Gemini settings menu on my Android phone that’s what it seems to map to.
My interpretation is that you can leave activity off i.e., your interactions are not saved. I may be wrong, but as I’m not interested in it for now, I’m not going to check either.
- 10 months
Right. They have an opt-out for Gemini storing your in-app activity, which I believe is a requirement to get the assistant to be able to do things in the app. This seems to say you may be able to interact with some messaging apps even if you opt out (presumably they would have a rebuilt way to interact that doesn’t store any of your data?).
- 10 months
Less bad, maybe?
Either way it’s definitely a good example of why you should write good emails to your customers that explain things properly.
If this is what they’re saying I’m assuming they didn’t want to be too clear about what info they’re storing if you don’t opt out and ended up making an email that sounds like a threat.
Either way I won’t be using Gemini as an assistant any time soon. Or any other voice assistant, for that matter.
- 10 months
Pretty sure I disabled Gemini as one of the first things I did when I got my phone. But, yes when I read that, to me it did seem like a serious overreach for something that was going to be “on by default” for most users.
- Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
How, its baked in? Gemini isnt installed on my phone but its there. Like the circle to search.
- T156@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
Didn’t Google replace the normal Google Assistant with Gemini on newer phones?
- neclimdul@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
At least on my pixel 7, they rolled out Gemini replacement but you could revert it to the classic assistant. It was slow, none of my normal commands worked, and it wouldn’t find anything I was looking for just “answer my question”. I asked it how to disable itself and it couldn’t answer that though. You can probably find documentation online if you use an actual search engine
- MochiGoesMeow@lemmy.zipEnglish10 months
Well I guess I’m glad I moved over to apple. But I guess the enshitification of all our phones is coming soon.
- ByteOnBikes@discuss.onlineEnglish10 months
Yeah only reason Apple hasn’t done it is because they haven’t figured out a way to connect it all to its ecosystem.
Like they say, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
- Fedditor385@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
Gemini depends on the Google app, disable it, and it dies.
Have you noticed how the Google app, the one that supposedly just does search and list news articles, has like 400 MB? Over time it accumulated 2GB cache… how?
- commander@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
I swear all of this was predicted to happen by open source advocates of the 80s and they’d be called alarmists/whatever and then 30 years later you had Snowden leaks and all the surveillance bills and now Microsoft, Google, and Apple are all advertisement companies mining data through the software and devices they sell
The best people can do is just keep using and advocating for Linux adoption. Try out degoogled Android or a more traditional Linux phone device. Need more users and funding to get the software kinks worked out. They’re not as good as the high end Android and Apple stuff, but it’s a process
- DarkCloud@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
Yes, it’s on there. I have a phone, never downloaded or installed Gemini, but because it’s a motorola with a special extra button… I can push that button and up pops Gemini.
The only way I can stop it is by disabling the Google app, then the button becomes innert again (which is how I like it).
So yes, it’s embedded in the Google app. Disabling the Google app may aslo cause other issues (such as Google Home/Chromecast not working).
- 10 months
Doesn’t the motorola phone have a settings screen for defining what the button does? For Samsung they like to re-purpose the power button.
First of all, it brought up bixby. I turned it back to powering off the phone and disabled bixby.
Then, with the new update they re-assigned the power button to gemini. So, I turned it back to powering off the phone and disabled gemini too.
However, the problem these days is that I’m never completely sure I’ve turned off all of the AI nonsense on my phone.
IMO, when Google lost most public support, it really started downhill because the people who wanted to profit the business as much as possible became more determinant than those that were still trying to throttle the company due to ethical considerations. When a company gets criticized for everything it does, its decline increased significantly. Add to that it exists under the US government and how that has completely fallen to corruption.
- octopus_ink@slrpnk.netEnglish10 months
When a company gets criticized for everything it does, its decline increases significantly.
Gives me hope for the future of MS then! Maybe they will decline themselves out of dominance.
- RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish10 months
I’ve not received any mails or notifications. Though I don’t use Gemini at all. Or Google Assistant. Or any assistant.
- Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.caEnglish10 months
In the absence of being able to switch to Graphene (Don’t own a pixel), I’ve done everything I can to replace Google Apps with FOSS alternatives, and disabled Google Assistant on my device entirely.
I know none of that will stop a determined Google eventually fucking with me, but at least I’m trying.
I’m so damned tired of the modern corporate world.
- percent@infosec.pubEnglish10 months
Did you find a Google Drive alternative? I’m strongly considering Peergos, but still kinda shopping around.
- hoss@lemmynsfw.comEnglish10 months
Nextcloud sucks in many ways, but it is functional and works for me.
- kalpol@lemmy.worldEnglish10 months
It has always worked fine for me. The occasional upgrade process is manual but literally just a command.
