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Google's shocking developer decree struggles to justify the urgent threat to F-Droid
(www.neowin.net)
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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Google’s developer verification will only run on mainstream Android with play services. It’s not supposed won’t be running in standard AOSP so the easiest solution would be to switch to a custom ROM like GrapheneOS.
They are also working to similarly kill custom ROMs. Just recently the GrapheneOS team mentioned that Google is no longer making their hardware drivers Open Source, and so compatibility with new phones means reverse engineering their own drivers - which is a big reason that custom ROMs support such narrow hardware options already and very often come with limitations and/or features that just don't work. At best, they figure out how to make it work, but it takes time and updates can lag significantly behind.
We have a lot of options on the software side for avoiding google (or android), but very limited options on hardware. We need open source mobile hardware support ASAP.
They’re not so much working to kill custom roms as they are just not giving away their code anymore, going closed source for their own hardware.
Why do you think they're making this arbitrary change?
Because Google have been wanting to be closed source for years, which is why nearly all their new features since they released the Pixel have been PixelOS exclusive and not in AOSP.
They don’t care about killing custom roms, that’s just a side effect of them going closed source for their Phone.
What do you think the benefit of closing sourcing their software is if not to stifle competition?
It means they can do way more features without giving away precious IP, and it also just reduces their workload. They don’t need to keep giving out their code for free. It makes their job harder.
AOSP projects are not and never have been a threat to Google. They aren’t trying to stifle them - that’s just a byproduct of not giving away their code anymore. Giving it away gives literally zero benefits to them. It might only save them 0.01%, but that’s a lot money.
As someone whose job runs several FOSS projects, I think you're making up the fact that it adds meaningful workload.
I think that, for all intents and purposes, protecting IP is equivalent to stifling competition.
I think giving away code benefits the entire Android ecosystem, which might be the largest data mining operating Google has. I fully believe that's of nonzero benefit.
It doesn't have to be meaningful extra workload for it to cost them millions/billions of dollars because of their size.
While true, the pool of unlockable devices are dwindling fast.
even the OP is softlocking thier newer phones(arbitrary online application to unlock it) in the near future, i expect a full lock sooner or later
True…. I heard GrapheneOS is having trouble porting to the Pixel 10
Also, aren’t some critical apps like banking apps starting to ban unlocked / non-stock systems? Heard someone complaining about this a while ago.
Yes, banking apps, streaming apps, even some shopping apps. This has been a problem for a long time. Sometimes its for “security” reasons and sometimes its simply because the app uses Play Service APIs. Another issue on de-googled systems is push notifications, though that is often fixed through alternates like Unified Push
But remember, unlocking bootloader is harder and harder for many devices. And Google's Play Integrity and API changes makes removing trace of unlocked bootloader harder. Many apps not just banking, ChatGPT, games, some of social media is completely unusable in that scenario.
I don't have that choice in Denmark due to NemID.
Like other people have suggested, maybe get a second phone (one of those really cheap ones with play Services) and use that for that stuff, and keep your main personal phone google-free.
This is the way for me too
At this point the solution seems to just be having a second phone for that kinda shit
I don't like that my neighbours are noisy, guess i should get a second house for when they're shouting
ah yes because phones are $400,000-$1,000,000+
I'm comparing the impracticality, not the monetary impact
ah yes because those things are completely unrelated
Carrying two massive slabs because a few apps won't run on one of them
Having a second home because some nights you can't sleep in one due to noisy neighbours
Where the more simple solution would be:
bro what year are you living in? 1987?
No, I'm 2025 where a "small" phone is now 6x3"
You can just install Android. Only certified vendors will have the blocking activated.
Well, fuck. Most of people use F-Droid on "certified vendors" device.
If only. Most people I know have never heard of F-Droid... Only privacy-savvy people have.