Google actively shooting themselves in the foot. Why would I choose an Android phone over an iPhone if Google continues to remove features and user freedoms that set it apart from apple's "walled garden"
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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If Android and iOS are on par in terms of locked down software, I'd probably go back to an iPhone. Not before desperately trying to find a feasible alternative to the duopoly though
I'm really hoping more adoption of Ubuntu Touch and other alternative mobile OSs will come from this, and with that, more support and development to make them feasible alternatives for the average user
This is actually why I ended up switching a couple years ago. I started when Android was balls-to-the-wall customization and there were tons of custom ROMs. You could theme all of Material UI and my phone looked nothing like when I first got it. By the time I left, you could get like one of 5 very expensive phones that had unlocked bootloaders and even those had very few ROMs.
Even with the custom ROMs, the joy was dead. You couldn’t wildly theme everything from the boot logo to the lock screen to the notification bar. It had been boiled down to pretty much the same set of customizations as the iPhone and the iPhone was more reliable. I didn’t want to switch, necessarily, but for my use cases as least, it just ended up being the easier choice.
Unfortunately 99.9999999999999999999% of Android users don't care and won't even notice this happen
99.999999% if Lemmy users hate iPhone but think Android is safe. The other 0.000001% use a Linux phone.
I'm willing to switch to Linux Phones if Waydroid works reasonably well
I use Waydroid on desktop and it works well.
I know. I wonder it works well on my $40 Pixel 3a as well
I really wonder what their logic is here. I'm very excited to hear that GOS will be partnering with an OEM to hopefully get more support for the project, more frequent security updates, etc.
I'm on the take that they're working together with the US government to limit access to apps that can be useful and aren't government controlled and aren't riddles with spyware or would give consumers choice
If I had to guess, I would speculate that their motivation is a long-term play to squash the general perception that Android has more malware (and is therefor less secure) than iPhone. Just about every article I've seen to that effect includes (1) enable unknown sources, and (2) install this malware app; so they probably see the current hurdles as insufficient and intend to perma-ban dev accounts that they find signing malware apps.
I've never encountered this "bias". Where is this common?
Mainstream
The FSF phone can't come quick enough.
It wasn't too long ago that I got a new Samsung A series phone. Not really wanting to get another phone but I've messed up the charging port and now I don't know what I'll want to replace it with. Not doing iPhone. Either LineageOS, GrapheneOS, or similar. Is it will be some Linux OS. Don't know that there are daily drivers options for Linux phones and I'm not sure even DeGoogled Android will be a good option. Hope we can break our dependence on big tech companies.
I was doing some research the other day and found this list:
Google is about to start requiring ID verification from developers to allow installation of their apps. "Unverified" apks will be blocked without GUI bypass.
Check "Google app developer verification", I don't have an article ready and my time is up.
This is what happens with fewer competition and the iPhone stagnating. Windows Mobile had it succeeded even marginally, Google wouldn't be doing this.
Replace Windows Mobile with Blackberry, Meego, etc... The competition doesn't need to be open, they just need to motivate Google to be open.
The competition doesn’t need to be open, they just need to motivate Google to be open.
...but could that actually happen? I'm not sure what WOULD motivate Google to be open. Even if there were three or four more major mobile players (all with equal market share), and Google had the only platform that allowed unblessed software to be installed, I'm not sure that would pressure Google to continue to be "the open choice", but more likely to take this same action as "the odd man out".
At a fundamental level, there is an illusion/concept planted in the human mind that "force answers everything", and when they run out of ideas (or all the ideas that they have would require too much [re]work to their liking) the tendency is to fall back onto "just use force" as an easy "solution".