Privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.combyVanillaWasp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
2 months

Mandatory Developer Registration? Hardfork Android

keepandroidopen.org English

With the upcoming changes to how Google handle’s app verification, the future of the android ecosystem looks pretty grim.

While there are calls to petition and protest, it is long past time to take our phones out of the hands of google and into the community.

With the mass tech layoffs, the ai storm taking jobs,etc, there are more than enough skilled devs with free time to make this happen. We as the community need to support them financially.

Please help spread the message in your various channels. If you’re technically capable enough, start the process!

https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/

https://f-droid.org/en/2026/02/24/open-letter-opposing-developer-verification.html

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    An Open Letter to Google regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Android App Distribution
    keepandroidopen.org
    Open Letter to Google Regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Third-Party App Distribution
    • PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2 months

      Petitions and shit would only have any meaning if the decisions were based on ethicand public interest, but it’s all money and power, so the only petition and open letters worth signing are those just saying fuck google and the human garbage running it

    • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      2 months

      I mean, that’s great from a moral standpoint, but forking android will not also switch the billions of devices running it. The real problem is escaping or changing it at scale

      • VanillaWasp@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2 months

        Lets not act like this is an impossible task.

        There is a process and actually multiple ways to accomplish this. Looking into, we might not even need to fork android, but just support existing alternatives.

        I would think the first step is to fork the Android Open Source Project. use that as a base, start cutting out any links to google, fill in the gaps, etc. This is obviously not my realm of expertise but there is a path.

        “170,000 tech workers lost their jobs in the U.S. in the 18 months prior to mid-2025”

        Don’t tell me we can’t scrape together a team of experts and make this happen. Yes there will be barriers and push-back, but its either this or we just keep deepthroating google.

        https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/the-fairphone-2-hits-five-years-of-updates-with-some-help-from-lineageos/

        https://itsfoss.com/linux-phones/

        • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
          2 months

          Thank goodness for existing Android forks (which persist even now), and for projects like the Mecha Comet.

        • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
          2 months

          I don’t think unemployed developers have as much free time as you seem to think they do. Do you know how much the mortgage payments would be for a house in silicon valley? Not to mention other bills like their kids’ tuition, car loans, etc.

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2 months

      Wouldn’t funding MicroG be the better call to action?

      AFAIK this restriction will be part of Google Play certification and not AOSP itself.

      That means we’d need the ability to unlock bootloaders to be maintained, and a good comparable open source abtraction to Google Play Services so users have a soft off-ramp from the Google Play ecosystem

      • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2 months

        Technically the correct first thing to do is to make the manufacturers release the relock keys for relocking the bootloaders of extant hardware (say, the Moto G6 for an example). Having MicroG or whatever is not much useful if there’s not going to be a feasible phone on which to install, so getting extant phones to become relockable with AOSP distros would be priority. And the way the economy si going and the RAM chips are not, forcing everyone interested to have to buy a whole new phone is not a smart choice.

        Once the relock keys are out, fund All the Things. Lineage, Calyx, MicroG, what have you.

        • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          2 months

          Technically the correct first thing to do is to make the manufacturers release the relock keys for relocking the bootloaders of extant hardware (say, the Moto G6 for an example).

          Yeah, but that’s not profitable, so they won’t.

          • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            2 months

            Doesn’t have to be profitable. Can also be punishable, either via adequate state violence, or via People violence. Could be interesting to see something like what the EU has made as a threat of removing all copyright safeguards for the US in case the US presents more as a threat, so I guess the equivalent would be removing all patent safeguards for tinkering with phone manufacturer firmwares if the manufacturers won’t provide a solution for the People themselves.

            • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              2 months

              Could be interesting to see something like what the EU has made as a threat of removing all copyright safeguards for the US in case the US presents more as a threat, so I guess the equivalent would be removing all patent safeguards for tinkering with phone manufacturer firmwares if the manufacturers won’t provide a solution for the People themselves.

              I can get behind that. Hoping this shithole country grows a spine soon.

      • NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2 months

        Believe it or not but the Pixel phones are some of the easiest to unlock and flash. You install graphene OS just through a web browser it’s that easy. It is somewhat ironic given this move.

        • Anna@lemmy.ml
          2 months

          There was a reason for this. Google always branded pixel and nexus devices as a dev kit for Android OS. So all different brands of Android phones started their OS development with pixel. But last year Google announced they are no longer recommending pixel devices as the backbone of Android OS development and that companies and users should target cuttlefish their emulator for AOSP. With that they also stopped sharing device trees and vendor blobs. That is nothing new for custom ROM community but Google always provided that and that made custom ROM development really easy with very fast update cycles. I’m just hoping they don’t lock down Bootloader like others

      • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 months

        Aren’t they also trying to break AOSP? I thought GrapheneOS said something about how Google has been trying to work against them.

    • Ilixtze@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2 months

      Does anyone know if Huawei phones will be affected as well?

    • VanillaWasp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      2 months

      The biggest way you can help is to TAKE ACTION. Get the ball rolling. Regardless what you think the solution is. Take action to make it happen. Don’t wait on “someone else” will do it. If you don’t have the skills or know how. Reach out to someone who does, keep the ball rolling

    • solrize@lemmy.ml
      2 months

      You’d need phone vendors going along with it. Good luck with that.