The Play Integrity API has made it easier for apps to check whether you installed or bought them from Google Play.
      • Jalapeño Popper@lemmy.ml
        ·
        8 days ago

        If a phone can't be flashed to a different OS, then it can be degoogled with adb via pc, or Shizuku + Canta directly on the phone. There are other apps besides Canta that also work, but Canta is the easiest for non-techies to use.

        Never buy an Apple product if you value sovereignty. Androids can be tweaked to cut out big brother.

          • Jalapeño Popper@lemmy.ml
            ·
            8 days ago

            Google is overreaching, yet again. That's the gist of it. They want to be a monopoly. Better to get out now, than to wait until they're so engrained in our lives that they become a shadow government. Our best short-term fix is to break up the company like we did to AT&T. Our best long-term fix is to erraticate money and corporate influence from politics entirely.

            • helenslunch@feddit.nl
              ·
              8 days ago

              Better to get out now

              And again I ask, and go where? Your choices for mobile OSs are:

              1. Google
              2. Apple

              Choose Google and there's no way around this issue. Choose Apple and you've locked yourself into an even more closed ecosystem.

              Than to wait until they're so engrained in our lives that they become a shadow government

              Far too late for that, I'm afraid...

              • Jalapeño Popper@lemmy.ml
                ·
                8 days ago

                There are more options, you just have to look. GrapheneOS, LineageOS, CalyxOS, DivestOS, /e/OS... Android is not synonymous with Google. Android is open source. All the OSs I've listed are based off of Android, and are open source. Google has their own version of Android, which is closed source. But it's just another OS based off of AOSP.

                • helenslunch@feddit.nl
                  ·
                  8 days ago

                  GrapheneOS, LineageOS, CalyxOS, DivestOS, /e/OS

                  These are all various forks of #1, and thus subject to the same issue.

  • cleverusername@lemm.ee
    ·
    9 days ago

    What if I sideload purely to downgrade a bugged app? Just seems like yet another kick in the teeth by Google.

  • Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    9 days ago

    Not a single app on my phone was installed through Google Play, it's all Aurora. Guess if apps really do this i'll just have to stop using them, cause I'm not installing the play store.

    • Mwa@lemm.ee
      ·
      9 days ago

      I wish i can degoogle my phone but its a few months old so no rom support and its a samsung :<

      • Jalapeño Popper@lemmy.ml
        ·
        8 days ago

        Step 1: Shizuku

        Step 2: Canta

        Step 3: aShell You

        Step 4: SaverTuner

        You WILL want to remove Samsung Device Care, which also controls battery usage, and just so happens to be one of Samsung's worst offenders when it comes to phoning home. SaverTuner is your foss replacement for it. After that, you can find a list of safe-to-remove apps for your particular device and start debloating. Be careful; some apps you'll need a replacement for before you remove the stock counterpart.

    • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
      ·
      7 days ago

      Quick question: what is the advantage of using Aurora to get apps instead of the Play Store?

      I have Aurora but i don't understand that, afaik both use the same APKs and can update interchangeably?

      At first I thought Aurora remove some of the app's tracking beacons but that's not the case.

    • jbk@discuss.tchncs.de
      ·
      8 days ago

      Kinda makes sense. A paid app on Google Play is a license to download the .apk file(s). Then a user could make copies, and without DRM, it'd be the same situation as with copyrighted movies and whatnot.

      I'm not saying I support them, it's just that they are like this for a reason