this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Linux
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I would love to move to a Linux based phone, my old N900 was fantastic. However, I struggle to see how this is possible, for me at least, due to application developers giving no thought to them.
My banking apps and WhatsApp are the only ones I can't live without. With the banking app specifically and the security around them it's not possible to run them on a modified non-standard device so short of carrying a separate device it looks like I'm locked into stock Android.
Though I'd rather recommend you just get out of WhatsApp entirely (it's still owned by Meta after all), one way to go would be by using a matrix client (like element) with the WhatsApp bridge.
I wish I could. I use Signal where possible but most of my contacts don't care and use WhatsApp. How would the bridge help in terms of privacy as the messages still need to pass through WhatsApp right?
The messages would still go through WhatsApp, but they are e2ee anyway. The part where it would protect you is that you wouldn't have the app installed on your device, so Facebook won't be able to get your location, access your contact list, etc.
@spiritedaway @Bondrewd It depends on what you mean by 'modified non standard' and 'stock Android', but banking apps will generally work on a number of custom Android distributions providing they aren't rooted.
All of my (UK-based) banking apps work on Calyx, for example.
I'm reading Calyx has certain Google services removed, does it stills support push notifications from banking apps and prompts to authorise payments when making a transaction?
@spiritedaway Yep — if you want it to. On initial install you choose the level of integration you want microG to support, as detailed here: https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/microg/
Yeah...if more apps were web based or have web counter parts for mobile it would help.
In my case my main bank works exactly the same through the app than the browser mobile version, all can be done from either. That said I do not expect to be the same for all banks.
But yeah I would still have the issue with WhatsApp, if they had a web client like the telegram one it could work aswell. Although as other pointed out you might get away with some kind of bridge.
Main issue is that the two-factor authenticator app is usually only available for Android/iOS (some are still supporting SMS, but they are trying to phase that out)
Their web app now actually works almost stand-alone. And as projects like yowsup have shown, it's also possible to create your own stand-alone WhatsApp client (it's only a matter of doing the work).
Oh yeah... My main bank still uses SMS. But yeah on of my secondary banks has an app notification two factor thingy... But the SMS is still there as fall back. But true that if they end up removing that it could be a problem yes.
And good to know about the WhatsApp thing thanks for sharing.