this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
534 points (99.6% liked)

F-Droid

10739 readers
195 users here now

F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.

Website | GitLab | Mastodon

Matrix space | forum | IRC

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Peace be with you, F-Droid Community. 🌹

As many probably know, Google will block Android starting 2027.

Here is my hope: Google has shot itself in the foot with this Darth Vader move, because many People who loves privacy will now switch to de-googled systems, because ( Since to my knowledge), the blockade won't affect those systems.

So this is just my Openion and my HOPE.

What's your take on this?

And I kindly say to all developers: Please don't register in Google.

There are so many people using de-googled systems now, including myself. Please keep going for us, and four you too. Please

Best wishes from Germany 🌹

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

because many People who loves privacy

almost 12 of us ... i jest but seriously, everyone using Apple and >90% of Android users don't care. Google knows this and they just bang on about this being best for Android users to ameliorate any concerns around governance issues.

Even many supposed staunch, so called privacy advocates, will complain they can't change because banking or some such, so they stick with the status quo as every minor inconvenience is seen as an insurmountable wall.

So i expect some bloviating initially and then acceptance. In 5 years, no shits given (headphone jack, expandable storage saw the same sort of thing)

tl;dr press x for doubt (x)

[–] pedroapero@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

You would be surprised. Google privacy practices have a bad press. I'm hearing random people saying they got a "de-googled' phone at my local hairdresser. Also, the cheapest chinese model are not "Android-certified", so potentially also de-googled.

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, since I never took time to master phone magic, now they are going to give me a push. Thanks, I guess

[–] Cleisthenian@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I started the journey about a year ago. Huge boon to my life even if I don't work anywhere near tech.

[–] dragospirvu75@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Motorola will release a phone with GrapheneOS in 2027, it would be a good pick.

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Ironically they're the top government surveillance camera manufacturer where I live on deflock

[–] Steve 128 points 3 days ago (14 children)

I think you're overestimating the de-Google community.
I'd be astonished if there was 10 million of us. Compared to a few Billion normies, we're a rounding error in their accounting.

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's not always about "winning". Sometimes it's about what you do and what you become while doing it. Do I want to be able to influence google directly? Yes. Do I need to? No. I just need a big-enough community that shares my values, and it's OK for me that there's an even bigger community nearby that shares something else.

It's important. We're not doing an election.

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

Google still has all the opportunities to get a big "fuck you" instead of "line goes up". Why? Because when they fuck up an app on someone's phone that someone will have an option to switch away. Will everyone do it? No. But will enough people do it to send a wave of de-googling in motion? I hope so

[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 days ago

Well, Chinese people have phones, and they don't have Google either. Surely there is a way out of all this.

[–] beveradb@sh.itjust.works 64 points 3 days ago (12 children)

I'd be shocked if there was even 1 million people globally using fully de-googled phones tbh

load more comments (12 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Don't forget about the new automatic Google play services check that app developers can enable with a single click on build. That automatically blocks the app from working on any degoogled ROM

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I was doing Android development recently and apparently the official SDK builds needed to build the app aren't FOSS, and actually FOSS versions are difficult to get. I still can't wait until Linux phones are a thing, Android is such a shitshow nowadays and even GrapheneOS is still at the mercy of Google's ecosystem. (also still no aarch64-linux support for the build tools either)

[–] Newhere@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago (8 children)

So, did I understood correctly that just getting pixel with GrapheneOS is way out?

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago

it's a way out, probably the easiest and most reliable way, but not the only one.

Also you don't have to use graphene, it kind of annoys me that it keeps being pushed as THE option when lineageOS also works perfectly fine and has a long reputation as well..

[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Sooooo the way out, is to pay Google a thousand dollars for their phone......

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 48 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

I tried to open up an issue (and did a PR) suggesting a developer strike as a tactic (IE open source devs adding their names to a list to promise to remove our apps from google play if developer ID goes through) on the KeepAndroidOpen repo. As a dev whose made many android apps and have them on both f-droid and google play, I thought this would mean something.

The maintainers of that repo have been ignoring me to death since April. I was told by the maintainer that the project was "leaderless", but in reality it seems they're very opposed to a developer strike, otherwise my PR would've gotten more attention.

Developers don’t want to strike because a strike means no pay because we are not unionized. It’s hard to unionize when it’s easy to find a new job for people. Our leverage is just leaving. But publishing on specific platforms don’t have that option.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί