69
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml to c/android@lemmy.world

Sorry for a kinda clickbait title but it is what it is. I just watched a video about Android 15 changes and a lot of them are either not important or straight up bad.

I want to specifically mention increased background sensor usage (such as microphone) and the Find My Device network. These are serious privacy issues that just make lives of custom ROM developers and users harder by having to disable more and more stuff (that's turned on by default of course), as well as a contribution to ewaste generation and general decrease of battery life.

I guess we are getting into the era of complete death of digital privacy and absolute surveillance. This is scary but not too unrealistic I guess. I just hope the devs of privacy-focused ROMs will be able to do something about it and purge these changes.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's important to note that Android ≠ AOSP (Android Open Source Project). Most of the actually interesting features advertised in a new Android release won't be available to you if your not installing Google Services.

~~E.g. heavily advertised features like Android 12's "Material You" adaptive themes aren't even available on AOSP and thus GrapheneOS, CalyxOS or LineageOS.~~

New privacy features often already existed for years on custom ROMs like LineageOS.

This is why since around Android 10 I'm not even following new Android releases, at least not beyond reading glancing over an article. I didn't even notice my phone updated to from 12 to 13 (GrapheneOS) until I noticed the new background apps menu, which is pretty much all of the changes.

Edit: Being able to set a language per app is a great feature of Android 13.

Edit 2: As pointed out in comments below, my Material You example was wrong.

A better example are heavily advertised translation and image editing features, which are sometimes locked to Pixel and definitely locked to installs with Google Services. Same is true for apps like "Digital Wellbeing", which don't work on AOSP but its features are advertised as Android features.

tl;dr
Android updates are even more uninteresting if your using a custom ROM, because most features won't even be available in open source Android.

[-] MightyCuriosity@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

Running grapheneos here with working material you though.

[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 months ago
[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Where do you get such information from? I'm using official LineageOS and it has Material You. There is indeed a separate implementation for Pixels afaik but the difference is very little

[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 months ago

You're right, my apologies for confidently spreading misinformation and thank you for pointing it out. Material You colors are available on LineageOS and GrapheneOS, probably CalyxOS too.

With Android 12 GrapheneOS and CalyxOS choosing different colors was not possible, maybe because they didn't implement something at first, but with 13+ Material You works as intended.

I've edited my parent comment accordingly.

this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
69 points (69.5% liked)

Android

27259 readers
503 users here now

DROID DOES

Welcome to the droidymcdroidface-iest, Lemmyest (Lemmiest), test, bestest, phoniest, pluckiest, snarkiest, and spiciest Android community on Lemmy (Do not respond)! Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules


1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.


2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.


3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.


4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.


5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.


6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.


7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.


8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.


Community Resources:


We are Android girls*,

In our Lemmy.world.

The back is plastic,

It's fantastic.

*Well, not just girls: people of all gender identities are welcomed here.


Our Partner Communities:

!android@lemmy.ml


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS