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Several phone brands rumored to be planning a major shift away from Android
(www.phonearena.com)
Title is misleading, they are moving away from google services.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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Aww, and I here I was hoping multiple vendors were FINALLY going to contribute to mobile linux.
Year of the Linux phone
Yeah I was going to say there is very little alternative from iOS and Android or its derivatives. There used to be Windows Phones very breifly, but they're gone now.
Anthing else has to emulate the other OS to run mobile apps.
Nokia also had Meego but an ex-Microsoft exec sabotaged that.
I had a phone that ran on Nokia's Symbian OS before I got my first android. I kinda miss it.
I actually had a Windows phone around 2011-ish. It had some pretty cool features and was a Nokia.
Dude 2011 was like 6 years ago
arent there mods on the sub to delete clickbait crap like this?
USA is being horrible at the moment, but China has a LOT of convincing to do before I'll let them deliberately have my data.
Best way remains to raise as high a digital moat against everyone. If you need a smartphone, get a Pixel, install Graphene on it and as few apps as possible.
I would love getting a Pixel but the 100% price premium and no official support is making it hard.
https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices
It's my understanding that the latest model pixels have official support for Graphene. I could be wrong but their FAQ says they do. I'm installing it on mine
I think shegorath meant official support from Google.
PostmarketOS for everyone!
I really want to get to a point I can transition to using this or another mobile Linux distro. My phone is fairly (hehe, it's a Fairphone) well supported, but my impression is that basic phone features are still not functioning properly making it more of a pocket computer and less of a phone. I still need phone features. As for mobile apps, I don't have many needs and I think Waydroid will get me far.
We are going to move away from Google, by basing our new future on AOSP, which is also primary maintained by Google.......I smell another FireOS level product on the horizon. Still Android, but worse.
So that title is just a straight up lie. They want to use a de-googled Android.
To be honest I was hoping for an alternative OS, competition is always good. But a de-googled Android could possibly be good, but being Chinese I assume instead of Google telemetry you'll just be replacing it with CCP telemetry.
Indded but as an Australian, if I have to have an anal probe i'd rather it from the CCP as they wont share it with my Government.
I mean judging by the current American government id much rather my data is going to the CCP then the American Government via Google as a proxy.
Honestly, I think a person in either nation should consider using the opposing nation's stuff. Harder for the US to backdoor Chinese encryption, or for Chinese to backdoor into an American phone. Play the bastards off each other.
Odds are, that the Trump Regime will use American apps and phones to identify and track targets for ICE traffickers. China probably does the same to Uighurs. The less attack surfaces they have, the better for their respective peoples.
Except that there are credible reports of the CCP running police operations on foreign soil.
But what reason would they have to go after you on foreign soil? Unless you're like actively causing problems for China they're not gonna spend the effort to go after you for saying "China bad" on one of their phones. That only matters if you're in China at which point it's silencing internal discontent. The much bigger likelihood is the American government seeing you, through data Google gathers, organize against US support of Israel or any other position they start abducting people for and grabbing you off the street for it.
Probably not me. Most of the recorded incidents are against Chinese families that have emigrated.
I complain about the CCP here and there, but not likely enough for any attention to be warranted.
That sounds funny, but In that reality, the government with all its power will find a way in (they probably already have programs (as in departments) for finding their way into other countries tech).
Better to just install a proper de-googled android build (grapheneos, etc) and only use wifi (if data/phone num not needed) for the best odds.
In a couple of years (with more r&d, development and investment) I bet this will change to being use a linux phone.
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US telemetry == CCP telemetry, I can't see how CCP will be more damaging to regular person.
I think it’s just that they were saying his won’t end up benefitting us. It’s just changing who is holding the binoculars.
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Google is kind of being invasive. Kind but kind of.
What ever happened to that other OS that was named after a color
Fuschia? That was a Google alternative to Linux that never panned out. It was weird with streams instead of files.
Before anyone gets too excited, the headline is clickbait. The bigger Chinese phone brands are looking into de-googled Android. They are still going to use Android.
several prominent Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus, are exploring the possibility of developing versions of the Android operating system that do not rely on Google Mobile Services.
Chinese laptop makers are also in search of an OS that isn't Windows. Queue a race to prop Linux with Android support on that side of things.
de-Googled android sounds even better. The story is cooler than the title!
I like your spirit, but I don't think a Chinese equivalent to Google Play Services would be more desirable
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I mean they just replace Google with their own Chinese data-mining services so, no, not cool.
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If it's not proper linux I don't care
German brand Volla has phones with Ubuntu Touch. Even allows dual boot with their own degoogled Android OS. Might be worth checking out.
We need phones with standard Linux. Without strange "Java only mediator" or something. Just a normal OS.
Android is a pain in the ass.
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