Google says “power users” can “still install” unverified apps. Here’s what that actually looks like:
Delve into System Settings, find About Phone
Tap the build number seven times to enable Developer Mode
Dismiss scare screens about coercion
Enter your PIN
Restart the device
Wait 24 hours
Come back, dismiss more scare screens
Pick “allow temporarily” (7 days) or “allow indefinitely”
Confirm, again, that you understand “the risks”
Nine steps. A mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period. For installing software on a device you own.
Worse: this flow runs entirely through Google Play Services, not the Android OS. Google can change it, tighten it, or kill it at any time, with no OS update required and no consent needed.
Worse - that 24 hour timer? You only have a short window of time once it finishes to continue, otherwise you have to wait another 24 hours.
Under the assumption this is a non negotiable thing…
They should at least let you alter the timer if you know you might not be able to
Like if in the post 24h window you know you’ll be busy, let you make it 28h instead of 24h
It won’t be a problem on a de-googled phone. Get it running LineageOS or GrapheneOS. Then install F-Droid (and probably Aurora store too). Some Google junk won’t work, but you’ll soon be more limited by having Google services on your phone than not having it.
If one looks at the supported devices pages (which I do regularly hoping that it supports mine) it’s easy to see that 99% of devices on the market simply can’t use them.
Yeah, it’s been getting harder as time goes on. It’s basically only pixels that are supported and still on the shelf.
This is why rooting is great and if you re worried about banking apps, KernelSU is very good at blocking detection and keyboxs for the hardware attestation get leaked weekly.
This is why antitrust law is great… or would be, if we fucking had it anymore!
Technological workarounds are not the same thing as actual solutions.
I don’t have hope for a solution.
https://github.com/tiann/KernelSU
To help translate KernelSU, we no longer accept translation contributions via Weblate. All translations are now handled using LLMs.
what???
also, what do you do with the leaked keyboxes? does kernelsu handle them too, or do you use a different tool for that?
I use play integrity fix and tricky store. Everytime it is revoked, I change it to an unrevoked one. KernelSu hide the root and modules.
The same procedure applies if you want to unlock the bootloader?
Edit: OK nvm it must be done to unlock the developer’s option
Also, no autoupdates!
I recently learned that this setting actually persist after migrating to another phone.
that would be only if you chose to backup and restore your android settings
Which is perfect for them to keep tying your profile information across the board in yet another way. Fuck that.
Do you create a new Google account every time you change phones? They’re already tying everything to you
I have 1 Google account use specifically for spammy shit. That account is tied to a completely fictional person and lives inside 1 chromium browser.
My phones and computers have never seen a Google account other than inside the VM that runs that browser.
Nice. There’s just a FOSS alternative for almost everything these days. I get 80% of my apps from F-Droid.
The only non foss apps that I use are banking apps and whatsapp (forced to use it…). Everything else is foss.
Look at Beeper as a alternative, let’s you bridge your WhatsApp chats.
The only way you should trust anything bridging is if you self host it.
Matrix with WhatsApp bridge is the only way to properly use that.
WA bans your account for using it.
Curious. Do they easily find you that you use it?
If meta automatically detects that you use beeper and bans you then there is no point using it with WA. But in this case beeper wouldn’t advertise bridging to WA, right?
Same. Its great!
Now it will take them another decade to update apk on their website to the newest version.
I’ve just tried it. The UX is great and the downloads are faster than ever. It’s soo much better noww!
WTF, why is the download on the Fdroid front page still giving me 1.3.2?
Could be a gradual rollout.
Edit: saw it’s actually still a beta (and probably this is why it doesn’t show), here’s a link for the APK: https://f-droid.org/repo/org.fdroid.fdroid_2000050.apk
From the website apk download link?
I don’t know, could be. I just tried downloading and I’m getting the 1.x version too.
Yeah me too.
Edit: just like WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works said you’ll find it by searching f-droid on f-droid.org, scroll down to version 2.0 and download the apk.
Ah, right. It’s still tagged as beta, maybe that’s why it doesn’t appear in other places (like in the news article on their site).
Thanks for the tip.
Enable beta.
Ah, for me it was labeled “unstable updates.”
UX is much better. I wouldn’t say it’s great. At all.
But I’m really happy to see big improvements! And I’m finding things I had no idea were on the “store” before at all. Which ultimately is the goal.
what things you don’t like?
The new ui is excellent, much more approachable in my opinion
Still not as good as Neo Store or droid-ify.
It has indeed gotten better more pleasing to look at.
Hopefully now updates will go much smoother. I like the new design!
Saw the post after I had an update on my e/OS and wanted ti check out the new look.
Sadly not one APP showed up. Empty shell. FDroid blank.
24 hours? Will check it tomorrow. Edit: solved itself, see next comment.
Solved itself. After the packages got updated (which somehow suddenly did by itself after several hours).
Been using it since the alpha came out, absolutely love what they’ve done with the app. The installation flow is much smoother with the instant prompt for confirmation, the more granular categories and improved search make browsing so much better. I tried other stores before, but I couldn’t get myself to like any of the actively maintained ones, v2.0 is good for me.
I’ve been on neo store for a couple of years for the apps that have no APIs ready in git repos (for those, Obtainium is just the greatest). I tried the new F-Droid app, and it is way smoother than the last time I tried it, and the UI improvement is amazing. They still show you apps that haven’t been maintained for over a year up front, but that’s not a deal killer.
Do I need to delete F-Droid from my mobile and then install it again to get the latest F-Droid update ?
Go to the app page in F-Droid, scroll down to the bottom and expand versions. Clock 2.0 and install
Probably just need to wait. They didn’t roll out the new version through update channels yet, likely to have more users test it first.
well … i’ll stick with droidify
Looks quite good. I am not a fan of M3E in general, but the app is well-made.
