I mostly use apps installed from F-Droid, so I’m not sure how I’ll use the phone, except that it’s sometimes required as a contact method.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
    43·
    5 days ago

    Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance?

    Not really.

    I’ve not been following things super closely, but the idea would be that each user would get their own developer key and then locally compile and deploy whatever apps they want as though it were a project they themselves were working on. The first bit is not too dissimilar from how a lot of people with XBOXes made dev accounts to install emulators. But the latter is going to get real messy and REAL compromised REAL fast as people just use third party tools and binaries that will inevitably be compromised.

    I’m feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path

    It really depends on what your use case is. If you actually just talk to people on phones? Uhm… I am not even sure where you would find a dumb phone at this point, but that will probably work for voice calls and SMS using just your carrier and MAYBE wifi. But anything that involves apps, which is a shockingly large part of the world, will be a mess. Some you can (and should) do workarounds (banking apps, for example) but others you are kind of up a creek since your options are to use a modern phone or not be able to (for example) see your kid’s daycare schedule.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
        1·
        4 days ago

        I’ve seen differing reports on that one. One Q&A with a google rep that made it sound like android studio (? The IDE/toolkit) could still do whatever without a key but with a lot of vague reference to other modes and programs.

        Which, to me, reeks of “Sooner than later, all devs will need a key”. Because if it were really that clean cut, they would be screaming it from the mountain top.

        • PoisonedPrisonPanda@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          4 days ago

          I think that goes similarily with the plan that app publishers need to be authorized to publish on play store? same as with a key. KYC everywhere

          so you mean unauthorized apps wont be running on android?

          that would be anyway the enshittification of android.

          • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
            1·
            4 days ago

            so you mean unauthorized apps wont be running on android?

            That is indeed the plan and what is meant by “starts restricting FOSS apps” (which is an incorrect statement but whatever)

            https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/google-will-block-sideloading-of-unverified-android-apps-starting-next-year/

            However, making that happen outside of its app store will require Google to take a page from Apple’s playbook and flex its muscle in a way many Android users and developers could find intrusive. Google plans to create a streamlined Android Developer Console, which devs will use if they plan to distribute apps outside of the Play Store. After verifying their identities, developers will have to register the package name and signing keys of their apps. Google won’t check the content or functionality of the apps, though.

            (…)

            Google says that only apps with verified identities will be installable on certified Android devices, which is virtually every Android-based device

            What was argued was that people can basically just compile/download and deploy their own apps via development tools. Which is unfeasible for the vast majority of users for skill reasons but also, as I said, likely to be blocked by google themselves in the not too distant future.