Sideloading?

[Quoth]

https://keepandroidopen.org/

The indies and programming for your self are under threat.

[shuvashish76]

Originally Posted by UrsiD3

I noticed the same thing with the grid pattern at first, too. It’s definitely a bit of a trade-off for having color, but I found that bumping the brightness up just 10-15% makes the texture way less noticeable during normal reading. You get used to it pretty quickly!

Are you saying the official F-Droid app/web KeepAndroidOpen banners aren't clearly visible on android color e-ink devices? Can you share the picture?

[shuvashish76]

Open Letter Opposing Android Developer Verification
- https://f-droid.org/en/2026/02/24/op...ification.html
- https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/

[Rbneader]

If Google is actually serious about this, I'll be buying an iPhone this fall. If the only choices are walled gardens, I'll take the one that's well-managed.

Potential silver lining: all the big companies migrated to Android because it was easy and right there, but this may provide incentive for companies to back other mobile OSes. Or people may all start getting behind AOSP phones. Chinese phones are already not usually Google certified, I think?

[JSWolf]

I think this is going to be a boon for apple if Google really does go through with this.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Rbneader

Potential silver lining: all the big companies migrated to Android because it was easy and right there, but this may provide incentive for companies to back other mobile OSes.

Big companies don't want wide open. They want things locked down tight. And then they want to lock things down even tighter than the basic OS locks. Ask anyone who works in a large company's I.T. department

Big companies will applaud this move. Some individual techie users will resist, but by in large, the general user community won't even notice. I don't like the move myself, but I realize that I am probably only one in a million, and the other 999,999 don't care. Petitions are worthless - it doesn't hurt to try - but I wouldn't expect any positive results.

[PeterT]

Just came across this info.

Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026...-android-apps/

[Quoth]

A ghastly theft of control of your device. Imagine if MS / IBM had done this on the PC, or Apple on Apple II, or Amstrad on the PCW.

Of course Apple has been obnoxious on iOS and taking more control of Mac OS, as is MS on Win 10 /11.

[Rbneader]

Originally Posted by haertig

Big companies don't want wide open. They want things locked down tight. And then they want to lock things down even tighter than the basic OS locks. Ask anyone who works in a large company's I.T. department

That's precisely why I think we might see a slow movement away from Google's version of Android. You think Samsung is going to want to pay a competitor fees for every Samsung app? They'll compare the cost to dusting off Tizen, which they're using in smart TVs, or something like GrapheneOS or another AOSP project. Or maybe sue about it.

The big Chinese phone makers have already ditched Google certification, as far as I can tell. The more Google tries to assert control over the Android ecosystem the more companies which are powerful enough to tell them to take a hike have an incentive to actually do that.