What will you do after Android starts restricting FOSS apps?
I mostly use apps installed from F-Droid, so I’m not sure how I’ll use the phone, except that it’s sometimes required as a contact method.
install them with adb. its a crucial feature for developers, so they won't easily get rid of it.
How do you get updates when installing via adb?
Install them via adb, probably
Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance? I can get by on a tutorial or too but if enough things break I'm feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path
Depends on your comfort with CLI tools. Here's the process (assumes Windows):
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\your\path\here\ <- Temporary, just for the current session setx /M path "%path%;C:\your\path\here\" <- Permanent Settings -> About and look for Build Number it can sometimes be buried in Software Information Build Number repeatedly until a message appears You are now a developer Developer options menu item somewhere in your settings. Sometimes it's top level, sometimes it's buried under Additional Settings or Advanced Settings or the like USB Debugging is turned on adb devices adb devices again. You should see your device listed adb install C:/path/to/app.apk <- if adb devices only returns one device adb -s <device_id> install C:/path/to/app.apk <- specific device You can install updates the same way, just download the updated APK and add the -r flag
adb install -r C:/path/to/app.apk
Yes it is.
It will probably be something similar to ios altstore. You would have an app which has a list of your non-playstore apps and repo for their releases and would notify you for upgrades that you would manually have to install (for example I suppose obtainium will implement adb), the setup will be annoying but far far less cumbersome than apple where you have to reboot your device multiple times self sign ipas and refresh once a week otherwise the apps don't load at all. This iOS experience is awful but still doable and non-dev. Android will have a better experience for sure.
There is also Shizuku that might be utilized in der Future to install apps (Im just speculating here)
Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance?
Not really.
I've not been following things super closely, but the idea would be that each user would get their own developer key and then locally compile and deploy whatever apps they want as though it were a project they themselves were working on. The first bit is not too dissimilar from how a lot of people with XBOXes made dev accounts to install emulators. But the latter is going to get real messy and REAL compromised REAL fast as people just use third party tools and binaries that will inevitably be compromised.
I’m feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path
It really depends on what your use case is. If you actually just talk to people on phones? Uhm... I am not even sure where you would find a dumb phone at this point, but that will probably work for voice calls and SMS using just your carrier and MAYBE wifi. But anything that involves apps, which is a shockingly large part of the world, will be a mess. Some you can (and should) do workarounds (banking apps, for example) but others you are kind of up a creek since your options are to use a modern phone or not be able to (for example) see your kid's daycare schedule.
LADB can have a phone connect to itself over ADB and install apks which are stored on the phone. Maybe F-Droid can utilize this as an installation medium.
I've started donating to PostmarketOS this month, so hopefully I'll be able to buy a device with decent support once my current phone needs replacing.
I already run LineageOS on my phone with microG instead of Gapps, so not much is going to change for me. There'll also be an update to Android 16 for me soon, LineageOS just announced that last weekend.
I don't like android 16. I already regret so much updating to Android 15 a few weeks ago: it's onky feature was making notifications huge and replace the monochrome logos with rhe app icon (which is not the one I have on my themed launcher) so it takes more space and is uglier. Same for the new control center: I had to disable it. Horrible locked screen experience too with less icons on top left and ios inspired dynamic island gimmicks.
Android 16, will be some design choices which are even less customizable I feel (but at least way better than ios broken transparency)
I only use app from f-droid on lineage and I don't have a google account anymore, if that stops being an option I guess I'll use an old dumb phone and fuck all.
I will switch to Android roms that don't have that defect, and continue to buy and tinker with Linux phones when I can afford it, until they become daily-drivable.
I hope there will be a good Linux phone in a few years that I can switch to. Would be great with it was compatible with the latest Fairphone by then, for a true FOSS and ethical phone.
From what I've been researching, Fairphones pretty much work after a year or two on at least Ubuntu Touch. It uses Halium though for that. It seems like the older ones mostly work after a couple years on postmarketOS, but crucial stuff like audio from the speakers is still broken or whatever. Security is pretty obviously gonna be worse than an Android phone no matter what you use though.
I'll root and/or use ADB to install APKs. Fuck Google.
Same here. I already use ADB for each new phone setup because it is so much faster, anyway.
Staying on Graphene for the time being. AFAIK should be able to still install apps whatever way I see fit.
Graphene's team has stated that they are looking into OEM's to potentially work out a solution to make a suitable device to run GOS, since Google is locking things down.
If it really comes to it, (long term), I'll make the jump to a Linux mobile device, whether that's a phone or a custom solution.
Just because corpo's are making things difficult, doesn't mean I'm going to cave. I started this privacy journey 6 years ago and I'm not about to undo it because of greed and inconvenience.
I moved to GrapheneOS about a month ago, not too long after the announcement. Bought a used Pixel and jumped. TBH moving to Graphene was something I'd considered for a while for privacy reasons but Google gave me that last push.
There are some different ways of doing things but I've really enjoyed the transition overall.
I feel embarassed to say this as someone who is fairly techy, but I'm a little confused by the whole brouhaha.
Is Google making changes to Android, or to AOSP?
If Google is making changes to the Android fork they put on their own phones, then fuck 'em. Use Graphene. Use e/OS/, use Lineage...use something that forks their own branch of AOSP and Google can pound sand because those forks are in no way obligated to make the same changes as Google. AOSP is open source for that very reason.
If Google is making those changes to AOSP itself, which means that anyone who uses AOSP as a base have those changes by default, then isn't Google obligated to keep those changes as Open Source, in which case anyone else who uses AOSP can just remove them from their own fork?
Someone explain like I'm a particularly dim five-year-old, please.
I've also been confused about this, but this is my take on it.
You're correct that they are making these changes to Android and not AOSP. This means that an OS like Graphene or e/OS/ will still be able to use sideloaded apps and other appstores like F-Droid.
I think the reason everyone is freaking out about this, is that it hurts appstores like F-Droid. It has a chilling effect on apps that are released to alternative app stores and may cause those stores to fail over time, thus killing FOSS apps at the point of distribution.
That said, this is also over my head technically, so I would love if someone more knowledgable could weigh in.
Yes, this is an important point overlooked by the 'But I have root' crowd.
Also: https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html
If you want to keep using google playstore and services, you no longer will be able to use f-droid, whether google or any aosp rom. grapheneOS claims it won't be affected given their sandboxed google play and services. Though I'm not sure if eventually google would come up with a counter measure or it won't ever care. They want to enforce that if anyone uses their proprietary stuff the apps interacting with it must be from register developers, which automatically exclude any libre/free app storage on which developers don't want to register to google. GrepheneOS being the exception.
If you use microG with any custom rom, I guess that might work through fake registrations, but can't be sure. But any custom rom without google play and services is supposed to be ok with f-droid. The thing is that google knows most if not all users need one app that depends on their stuff, perhaps bank apps, payment apps, and so on...
Well, I know that I probably wont be buying anymore android devices and I know for sure that I'll never buy an iOS device. But outside of that I'm not sure, I'll have to wait and see how things play out. If possible, I'd like to be able to use Linux or at least custom versions of android but, as of now, most of my devices don't have custom roms available and the two that do haven't been supported in years. I have looked into Linux phones, tablets and other portable devices like the Steam deck and the Legion Go S but they are very expensive and there isn't even a way for me to purchase some them.
I am also aware of ADB commands but I've never used them before. If they are easy enough to use without potentially bricking my devices, I am not opposed to using them.
LineageOS user here, so nothing will change for me. Perhaps in the long-term Google might kill off AOSP for good, in which case I'll seriously consider a so-called real Linux device. Cautiously optimistic about the FSF's Librephone project, which right now is attempting to reverse engineer blobs in Android devices.
I already have a Pinephone sitting around so maybe I'll re-flash Mobian on it and play around with it. In the long term my ideal distro would be Guix or some Guix derivative.
I'll happily continue using my GrapheneOS Pixel since nothing will change for 3d-party ROMs :)
Until it does. Google is already closing development, so the GrapheneOS devs will have a more difficult time rebasing their changes to AOSP each snapshot.
Yeah, it's a moving target for sure. For now, the devs seem to be very certain that AOSP will stay and that they will still be able to port GOS on new devices (although it will take more time and work).
Is this verified, or does it still depend on how the mechanism is implemented?
Can you tell me how the ad experience is with GrapheneOS? As in, do apps which try to insert ads in screen transitions (or anywhere) still do so? Or websites which put in AdSense popups?
GrapheneOS doesn't recommend AdAway or other adblocking solutions, so does it do so itself?
Well, I did do app development for Android for a couple of years, so I'll be using ADB it install APKs in any device affected if needed.
I'll also never do development work for Android ever again, beyond making utilities for myself if need something like that.
Beyond that, I'll never buy an Android device that cannot be unlocked. Last one I got was a Xiaomi phone, which at the time could be unlocked (which I did and installed an alternative ROM on it before I started using it), but they stopped that so Xiaomi isn't going to be getting any more money from me.
Mid to long-term, I expect Linux devices are the solution. I'm especially interested in getting a Linux tablet (7" or 8") to replace the tablet I currently use mostly for book reading and internet browsing when I'm out and about (hence the size needs to be small enough to fit a back or jacket pocket).
When I started looking into it, my expectation was that Linux tablets would make even more sense as devices than phones since they're closer to notebooks in terms of how they're used, but I haven't really found all that many out there - there are more Linux phones than tablets - and all of them were 10" or more (so, too large for my use case).
(PS: suggestions welcome, even just stuff I can root and install something like Ubuntu Touch on it)
Am I so unusal in wanting an portable computing device with a big enough screen to read stuff, for the purpose of consuming media rather than working on (so no keyboard need), which is not so big that I need to haul it in a backpack, not a full-blown smartphone with all the bells as whistles (I already have a smarphone on my pocket with mobile data, camera and GPS, so why would I need that shit AGAIN on a tablet???) and not a locked-down system like iOS or Android?
I'll just keep using grapheneOS.
I've been using GrapheneOS for a while, which should minimise disruptions, but I'm also hoping the Linux phone ecosystem improves before Google locks down Android completely.
Same. I have to imagine there are some devs out there who will start working on Linux ports of their apps.
If it really interferes, same thing as when YouTube started enshittifying: use it less and likely be better off.
I have read you will still be able to install using ADB and I figure I will do that since I have done that a lot in the past anyway.
I'm likely going to use ladb to sideload "directly" on the device. I'm really hoping there are some legal challenges and/or bad pr to make them back down. I'm also considering picking up a Fairphone 4 or 5 and running CalyxOS as a plan B.
Fairphone looks really bad after reading some of the GrapheneOS forum threads covering them. Calyx is still on hiatus over the security patch thing
I'm currently using GrapheneOS on my Pixel phone I brought secondhand so think I should (for now) be okay?
Otherwise, Linux phone looks interesting but it just relearning both another OS (like iPhone users trying to learn Android and vice versa) and also just I have low income so buying new tech is just expensive.
I don't want to throw myself a deepend to an OS that I not as familiar with beside on my desktop and Raspberry Pi. Personally, I prefer to know what's there before I just go blind so at least I can manage my expectation than expected it to do 1:1 stuff that I do on my phone right now.
I don't know yet, I'm going to keep track of developments around this and see what the community comes up with. I refuse to be bent over by tech giants.
Custom ROM
Will they be able to circumvent Google's restriction?
Google's restrictions would act through its Play Store. Custom ROMs don't need to use GPS. So they could circumvent it.
Use an alternative ROM. That is what I do now.
Find a phone to use plasma mobile on most likely.
ADB in the meantime.
keep using graphene os
I'm fed up enough to try Ubuntu on my phone. But probably will use a custom ROM. And I will never ever buy a phone that is not confirmed unlocked. I hope others do the same. And I wish the locked phone companies many hours of doom scrolling on their unsalable phones.
Keep on using my phone till a good Linux phone or similar releases.
Short term, my next phone will have Harmony NextOS installed. I'd rather give my data to China than the US and 5-Eyes.
Build a time machine and go back in time to stop WebOS from being sold to HP.
You mean convince more people to not buy android phones. Man we used to be able to run custom kernel code on the palm pre to try and get more performance out
Start giving easy to follow de-googling instructions when and where you know them, people.
The bigger and more thorough the head start, the better.
Slowly switch to Linux devices, or dumb phone, and learning to adapt happily living without some features, but also without control and censorship :)
Keep waiting for a Linux phone that actually works as a daily driver.
At that point I'd rather use a half functioning Linux phone than a locked down one. Hopefully stuff like Framework and Fairphone will follow through on making parts available for real old devices.
Quite frankly im going to keep using GraphineOS, it doesn't really matter for me how much Google restricts AOSP code or sideloading. As much as I care about open source I need something secure and reliable.
I like Graphene, but I'm at the point where I would put up with less security for more freedom -- I just wouldn't put anything actually sensitive on my phone.
It's kind of silly that my phone should be an everything-device.
Google can't control the device if you're not running Google. GrapheneOS will still work like before, allowing you to run the apps you want. But the jury is still out on how long... I hope we can have a long term GrapheneOS solution regarding hardware.
DeGoogled Custom ROMs
Be fucked? I don't know I already hate most phones on the market and I'm going to need to buy a new one at some point, not looking forward to it...
Well because of this, I bought a new phone and am now using GrapheneOS. I'm hoping to last at least 5 years with this, and hopefully by the time I want a new phone, grapheneos will have made a deal to have more compatible phones.
Isn't Graphene still Android? What's stopping Google from turfing AOSP so you won't be able to sideload to them either?
We need something completely independent from Android. Would be great if phone manufactures would make their pocket computers easier to interface like tradition PCs.
I think (thought i am not sure) that this thing will be made with google services so just removing them should do, if not, you can just fork and modify
AOSP is still open-source. If they do, it can be forked.
I won't do anything because I've not used a "certified device" in years...
Continue using a custom ROM.
If more brands start locking down their devices I'll have a conundrum, and it'll start being about antique hunting. More apps requiring an "approved" OS would also do it, but geopolitics will stop that from going too far in the near future.
GrapheneOS for as long as it s available, then probably PostmarketOS for that Nokia N95 experience
I only run free/libre Android forks, so I don't care.
I'm gonna get a linux phone. I used a flip phone and windows phone for a long time. I don't actually need any of this bullshit.
I'll just adb install those same apps from f-droid. But my hope is that I will be using mobile linux more and more as a daily-driver, until it eventually replaces Android 100%
would love it if the community could fund and get a way to create a desktop app (linux, etc) that would connect via adb and sync apks and other apps. just move f-droid and alt app stores to an old school "itunes" method.
at the moment theres possible to sandbox the store in graphene, or use microg. i think there will be modded gapp packs for certain roms.
if not, the community will come up with a ui for adb install, maybe integrate fdroid and izzyondroid
Sony update fails anyway, because i froze a non-essential app too much. Oh noes, my phone could be hacked with physical access, in a few years! But by then the phone is in their Open Firnware program and it's back to a custom ROM again.
The apps are regularly updated of course.
Fight it as long as I can with my current fairly new phone. I assume that update by google would require an OS update, not a google play update. I might just not update my OS until I get a new phone.
If I'm lucky I won't need to update for a few years and an awesome linux phone will be available. If not then some de-googled android phone.