this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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[–] maplesaga@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Motorola has Graphene OS soon.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 160 points 2 days ago

Stop fucking calling it sideloading. It is called installing an app

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 60 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So it's on the same scale as buying a gun in the states.

I didn't realise it was so dangerous.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not quite. The majority of states have no waiting period to buy a gun and there's no federal law, either.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago

Oh. It's more dangerous than a gun then!

[–] chortle_tortle@mander.xyz 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Political power grows from the barrel of f-droid

[–] sours@lemmy.dbzer0.com 59 points 2 days ago

It's so weird that they don't take comments on the android developer blog post... Almost like they think it'll be hugely unpopular.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 54 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Google is the epitome of living long enough to become the villain.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

They changed their "don't be evil" motto years ago. I guess they must have kept two thirds of it.

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 75 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

To those who think it is a fair compromise: It is not.

Android already had one layer of this shit before. When installid freshly dowloaded apk, android would prompt you to confirm that the source of the apk is trusted. This was not like this before. Before you'd just install apk.

And I agree to a certain amount. But thing is, it was added for no specific reason. People who install apks form outside source, will keep doing it and they 99% of the time know what they are doing or being told to do so by someone who knows what they are doing.

Adding another layer to this wont solve the problem, except make users annoyed for 24h wait time. And this is only adding 1 layer now. Who the fuck knows what is going to be 1 year later. 5 years later?

[–] j0ester@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

The thing is, people who do it and trust others to say, “just do it” - are the crazy ones.

It’s like the bs Tech Talk in TikTok. Always telling you to run RegEdit and such… oof.

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 422 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (82 children)

A one day wait period to install an app on your mobile pocket computer. Fucken bullshit.

Edit: to all the "its one time" defenders, its one time for now. Stop falling for it. It always starts with an inch.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 107 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It used to be no time at all. You could just do it. From that perspective they’ve already taken a mile.

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[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 67 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I mean, it always starts with an inch but what people dont get is that compared to the 2000's we are a mile deep and compared to rhe 80's we are already in a dystopia.

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[–] rikviergever@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Come join us at /e/OS, we don't have this https://e.foundation/

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (4 children)

google doing their best to make me move to a different platform for my next phone.

anybody know of other options?

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Linux phones are about to get interesting.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I've heard that 15 years ago

[–] Zink@programming.dev 20 points 2 days ago

Same with what we were hearing about the Linux desktop!

...yet here we are in 2026 and literally all my desktops have since become Linux, lol.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

15 years ago the world wasn’t looking for a maliciously compliant escape route.

[–] Reference4054@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately, I don't think most people are too interested even now. The masses that buy phones and make it profitable aren't aware of things like this or even give a shit. Any time I bring something up with friends and family it gets shrugged off. Realistically Linux phones are going to be fringe unless they can offer something up to the masses that is attractive to them.

Hope I'm wrong.

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[–] lb_o@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

It feels that it is either Linux phones, or Fairphone, or GrapheneOS. We are somewhat fucked.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't think anything other than degoogled Android is mature enough to recommend. And it looks like degoogled androids might extinct soon.

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[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago

How about a 24 hour waiting period for me to harden my OS before Google slurps up all my data.

[–] 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.world 117 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

I teach digital literacy and 99% of unsavory software I encounter on people's phones come from the play store or app store

I will believe that they're serious about protecting users when I see them do something about the crap ton of borderline scam solitaire and weather apps infesting their stores

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago (5 children)

In these scenarios, scammers exploit fear – using threats of financial ruin, legal trouble, or harm to a loved one – to create a sense of extreme urgency. They stay on the phone with victims, coaching them to bypass security warnings and disable security settings before the victim has a chance to think or seek help.

Does this actually happen? Or they just trying to manufacture consent to all this bullshit?

[–] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do calls like that happen? Unfortunately, yes.

Is it a reason to lock down and enshittify every computing platform, every OS, every Internet-connected device until we own nothing, control nothing and can't install what we please?

It's an age old tactic of manipulation to start with something true, exaggerate the threat, and apply it everywhere possible.

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 54 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This would make sense if google play store wasnt full of malware. Scammers dont need you to sideload malicious apps they just get you to download it from the play store.

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[–] compast@lemmy.zip 41 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (14 children)

fuck google. We immediately need linux like alternative to android

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How does this affect my Galaxy S10 from 2019 which hasn't seen an update in years? I suspect it doesn't. Not trying to be a smartass — I know I should change it out for something like an A25 that is still supported and probably a little faster, but I have this and it still works.

[–] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Nothing wrong with sticking with something that works fine

[–] icedaemon0@lemmy.world 55 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Meanwhile the scam apps and viruses in the damn play store: ...

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[–] markz@suppo.fi 111 points 3 days ago (2 children)

So, the idea is to make the process as annoying as possible.

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[–] osanna@lemmy.vg 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Remember when you used to own shit? Wow. This is beyond fucked. Right now, it’s “one day”. But this is only because they got a shit load of backlash for disallowing ALL installing software without their permission. They WILL enact it. They’ll just wait until people are used to this. Then they will disallow it all.

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[–] rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

"Sideloading"

Aka avoiding the monopoly app store with your own device

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[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 34 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

it's very clear we have to escape Android and Google entirely, there is no other option.

Please donate to PostmarketOS if you have the means, it gives us a true alternative that is completely community owned, it just needs our support to become polished and to add support for more phones.

We have to support software that's still made for us. While we still can.

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[–] IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz 80 points 3 days ago (10 children)

"This is Android's new 'advanced flow' for INSTALLING apps without verification". Sideloading is such a bullshit term made only to confuse consumers. They can wrap that in sparkling wrapper, but it's still security theater at best and definetly misleading. Apps from F-Droid or any other app 'store' are not any less safe than the ones at googles own offering.

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