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.
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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You can install with ADB, with droid-ify you can install apps with shizuku
OniroOS hopefully will be out by then. If not then PostMarketOS. Harmony OS is rumoured to be launching globally in 2026 but I doubt.
If it really interferes, same thing as when YouTube started enshittifying: use it less and likely be better off.
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.
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
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...
I'll just keep using grapheneOS.
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 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.
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...
iirc they are enforcing this on the play services level, using the play protect system. so if you use a custom rom, with google play, you are likely cooked too.
that is if the roms don't implement a system to circumvent it.
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
4/5g card in mPCIE slot until I source a more portable device to do phone things. Yes, there are m.2 options as well. If the supply chain eventually dries up, for expansion cards and/or FOSS phones, then I'll only communicate via my ISP or local mesh nets, until my computers break.
Leaving android
For what in partricular?
A pine phone which is otw now
Solid option
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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.
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.
brute force it with root
you literally cannot prevent root from doing anything.
What happens wen they prevent rꝏting tho ? Samsung already doing it
I will NOT buy devices that i can't root, therefore i cannot own.
they can't prevent it so far. samsungs will just go back to needing root exploits like everyone else before them.
add to the fact they refuse to keep security updating phones for too long.
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.
Install them over ADB like I already sometimes do now
i don't really use apps on my phone anymore other than for maps. i just my phone primarily as a phone.
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.
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 only run free/libre Android forks, so I don't care.
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?
keep using graphene os
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%
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