It feels like we’re losing to Google, day by day. They aren’t killing AOSP directly, but they are making it useless step by step.
Now it’s Google Play Services, Play Integrity checks, installation source checks… more and more apps just refuse to run without GMS. Banking apps? Most of them don’t work. And it’s only getting worse. I run vanilla AOSP on my main profile, no Play Services. I keep GMS only in my work profile for the apps that absolutely need it. But now even some regular apps that don’t need any play services won’t work on my main profile anymore. They simply block your from running , like le chat.
Maps is google’s most important app there is no way to run without play services. Sure we can use webview or gmaps wv, but they don’t provide turn-by-turn directions. I tried alternatives, but none come close to google. Maps is the only Google app that I can’t replace. Earlier maps used to work without play services, but two years ago, an update stopped it from working. Now that old version is out of date and no longer works.
Google is slowly making GMS very important to run. The problem with GMS is they require to run as system app and has to have all the permissions by default. Now with android safety core they deepscan your phone. And chats will be used by gemini.
And play integrity is just way to only run on google approved OSes.
Hope EU puts pressure to make google allow apps to run independently without GMS or atleast install them as user apps(like graphene os sandboxed play services).
If we keep going on like this, AOSP can only run fdroid apps in the future.
The crackdown started 4 years ago and their primary target was obviously Magisk to break safetynet and then things started to fall. The dev also shifted his focus leaving the project open to whoever wishes to take it further. There are few new magisk variants now with none guaranteed to work without everyday headache and blocking by google.
And so with original Xposed also gone which was purely dependable on a workable magisk- The days are already fading for rooting.
I was an avid rooter and a cfw fan for many yrs but I gave up only due to the fact that magisk and safetynet are in jeopardy because the era of rooting once and be at peace is gone.
They didn’t block bootloader unlocking. Basically they kept it open to manufacturers after significant lobbying by Samsung on security grounds.
They did enforce a 5-year support period. After that the manufacturers can decide what to do but of course they won’t support it as they need to sell new devices.
Google does have a valid reason to check integrity of devices for payment apps and Pixels still remain the most unlockable of all the devices.
It is mostly for the user to let go of Google apps, use something like Fairphone, if they want the so-called freedom, as Google will of course try to monetize through data gathering and ads which are blocked more easily on unlocked devices.
Be braced to use your smartpohnes as a sheer dumb device sooner or later. You have to do with what all the manufacture/brand offers to you where during root and roms, you had the liberty to have all those eye-candies and settings across brands packed into one single rom.
Only if someone cheats google and makes his own dark world to feed the enthusiastic custom public there’s no ray no hope..
Yes, indeed. I’m on CRDroid, and a day ago, GPS stopped working all of a sudden. The next day, an update came, and I hoped it would fix the issue. After installing it, things got worse Google Play Services stopped working, and some banking apps and others broke. I thought about downgrading, but even that didn’t work it’s still the same. I don’t know if this is a Google issue or a ROM issue.
I was so much into custom ROMs and jailbreaking a decade ago when you couldn’t do a bucket load of things due to the restrictions.
Now the custom ROMs are usually in a much worse condition, cobbled together by students as a hobby with poor coding and optimisation. Veterans left the scene long ago.
On the user side, it is more about the feeling of freedom, more than anything else. The benefits that are available pale in comparison to opening up your device to unsigned code, especially as people manage their whole life now on such devices.
For security, something like GrapheneOS with a locked bootloader makes sense. Keeping the bootloader unlocked does negate the benefit of a security patch because, for example, unauthorised root access can bypass any security restrictions on a standard OS.
There were even recent instances of Play Store apps being able to use silent root access. Not having root access enabled is better but then an unlocked bootloader does allow custom code to be run on boot, so it keeps that door wide ajar.
I feel you. There’s no freedom anymore. Your entire life is now in hands of google. I use my android TV as my monitor, and the lack of control is insane. And it’s not like TV has some important banking apps, but there’s not much of a custom ROM scene for TV hardware. I just want it to be a dumb hdmi display, but instead they want to display ads and monitor what’s on screen as long as the TV is connected to internet. It doesn’t even provide ipv6 settings, so most budget routers can’t restrict the TV to local wifi networks. It’s either, connect to internet or completely forbid wifi.
Honestly, there should be a law that when a device/software is unsupported, companies should release the driver/source code to extend its life via foss communities. We have so much great hardware in phones (camera, gps, bluetooth, wifi, sim etc.) but we can’t actually use it. Instead we have to buy separate (way weaker) hardware like raspberry pi.
Roms are developed by college going students and not by prof.. working professionals and worse is these kids have tons of ego and attitudes. Very rare devs are humble to behave or converse with.
Most likely something to do with google. I am also on CRDroid, and it takes a lot of workarounds to make bank and google stuff work. Everything works for me except Google Pay. But I now use SuperMoney more anyways so it fine
Does linux phones have FOSS UPI apps? Honestly, if whatsapp supports web client properly and I can use UPI payments, I might actually make the jump to linux phones.
Getting Most Apps run stable on Pure Vanilla is Difficult , back in 2023 and 2024 I’ve Used Calyx OS with Microg. Essential Apps like GMaps Worked fine with that.
Closest is using USSD Method to make Payments *99#
If you don’t mind me asking, what benefits do you get these days, running custom ROMs these days. For me, I dont really use my phone that much to invest significant amount of time in installing custom roms, but i think there’s a niche of people that are into this. So a question for them, is it really worth it?