cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/45277582

Opening my weather app this morning I was greeted by this warning:

Google has announced that, starting in 2026/2027, all apps on certified Android devices will require the developer to submit personal identity details directly to Google. Since the developers of this app do not agree to this requirement, this app will no longer work on certified Android devices after that time.

It’s the first time I hear about this, seems to be about:

Tech crunch article from august, “google will require developer verification for android apps outside the play store”

Cirrus app: Github

Was this a big thing I somehow missed? I hope more devs will follow suit.

      • Railcar8095@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Why the Chinese phone would work? In Europe they have Google play services and thus are also affected. Maybe it’s the Chinese version of those? Not sure if they have Google play services there

        • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          That’s a fair point. It depends on the manufacturer. Some brands don’t have google play preinstalled. I probably should have mentioned that before, sorry mate. The Xiaomi I had didn’t have playstore installed, so I had installed fdroid and aurora store. I’m actually not sure about the future of aurora store with this play store integrity bs.

      • Zangoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Note that if you’re in the US, Samsung doesn’t unlock the bootloaders at all and afaik Motorola is also hit or miss. Importing a phone is also risky as international versions might not have the cell bands required for US carriers.

        If you want a custom ROM in the US you basically have to buy a pixel, and at that point you might as well go with GrapheneOS since it’s the most secure

      • jcarax@beehaw.orgEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Just to note, Calyx currently has a questionable future, and at best has frozen new installations while they work out new signing keys after some developers left the project. My understanding is that there will be one or no further updates to anyone that has a current installation, and a fresh install will be required if they do continue development.

          • jcarax@beehaw.orgEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            Man, I hope so. I’m on Graphene for now, but I’d like to move away from Pixel devices.

            A security chip is great if you know what it’s doing, but we really have no idea what Titan might be doing in the background. And Google is becoming more and more abusive to the FOSS community.

            I’m seriously considering trying to import a Jolla C2. I ported my number to jmp.chat, so as long as I can run Cheogram or some other XMPP client that handles the PSTN gateway well, I honestly don’t even care much about cellular connectivity anymore. My phone is basically a wifi phone with Signal, downloaded maps, authenticator app, and my music at this point.