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deng
Grimburger
> Just look how Google effectively broke the AuroraStore App recently.
For anyone who has been hit by this, you can workaround the api issue by long pressing on a playstore http link and clicking open in app (aurora icon).
So you can't search using the app anymore, but if you have the link to what you want you can still install without playstore or a google account.
It's frustrating but isn't the end.
namro
It's infuriating how hard Google makes it to manually update apps. We really need to dig down that awful play store. Aurora is just there, at the start. Really hope the community finds a way to keep aurora working
pyeri
Not a very clean solution but if someone (power user) wants to avoid the playstore entirely, they can perhaps do so by simply force-disabling the app (using tools like adb), and then use something like apkmirror[1] or apkpure[2] or aptoide to install the APKs for the apps directly and bypass the store entirely?
vodkapump
Have you looked at Obtainium? https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium It can use apkmirror and apkpure as sources. Along with lots of others.
4ggr0
The problem with installing APKs directly is that you probably never update these apps again, as you'd have to manually check if you still have the current version and then download the new APK and install it again. At least that's what happened with the apps I installed that way.
tetris11
For anyone who is unable to get the "Open in App" to open in Aurora (and not F-droid), check that you've actually clicked on the App webpage and that you're not just in the search page (play.google.com/search?app=blah, for example is bad)
deng
Actually, it seems they have mostly fixed this, but I had to clean the app data to make it work again. Sometimes you get "Oops, you are rate limited", but that was just temporary.
prometheon1
Search was broken for me a week ago, but it suddenly worked a few days ago.
neurostimulant
After spelunking into the dialer source code a bit, it seems the important stuff related to receiving and initiating calls are already handled by android's TelecomManager and the dialer only provides interface for users to interact with TelecomManager.
I haven't really dig into Messages source code these days, but a few years ago I was making an app that can send MMS messages and it was insane how much heavy lifting a messaging apps have to do in order to send MMS reliably on any carrier. Losing the default Message app might be a big blow considering so many 3rd party message app still can't do MMS right (at least the last time I checked). For example, people are still posting MMS issues on the github repo for SimpleMobileTools app you mentioned.
nine_k
QKSMS which I installed through F-droid works pretty well for me for years, FWIW.
Ruthalas
I can second the recommendation for QKSMS, it's simple and reliable in my experience.
namibj
Telefonica in Germany is sunsetting MMS end of this year (sending and receiving).
uni_rule
In this problem, RCS is far more of a potential loss than MMS due to how few other apps support that cluster of a standard.
kenmacd
> The real issues are bootloaders which cannot be unlocked
I haven't run in to that lately, but an issue I find much more annoying is the lack of support around re-locking with a custom root of trust. I think a few others support it, but I've only seen mention of it on the Pixel phones (and I won't buy Google hardware after they wouldn't replace my Pixel 3 that was bricked by their EDL hardware issue).
deng
You are right, this is another issue. With an unlocked bootloader, you'll not be able to fully pass SafetyNet, for instance. I've also seen some forum posts that this should be possible for Motorola Moto G phones, but there were some warnings that if you do that, you might not be able to unlock your phone ever again, so I've never tried...
hollow-moe
You can bypass safetynet even with an unlocked bootloader. I'm using Lineage 20 with microg and with a bit of work with magisk modules you can get it to work. I just feel like this is again another "security feature" to make it harder for people who don't want google in their phones.
eloisant
Yes, but this title is much more clickbait than just "Google stops developping 2 open source apps".
mavhc
if only they were open source, then anyone else could take over
candiodari
Yeah it really shows why the GPL is necessary.
"You can see this apps, and you can develop for them. But you can't use them on your own device ..."
GPL explicitly demands that a method is provided to replace the binaries on devices that the software runs on. Which is one of the reasons the tech giants are so opposed to it. The other reason is cloud.
joecool1029
>LineageOS ships with their own version of Dialer/Messages anyway.
They use slightly modified AOSP versions. This isn't the first time a major AOSP app was dropped, the biggest was the built-in email client like 4 major Android releases ago. Also the calendar app was replaced by Etar a few releases ago (can't remember if AOSP's calendar was deprecated or just a piece of shit).
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quaintdev
> It's getting more and more difficult to use Android without a Google Account.
Good that is how they shoot themselves in the foot. The more they do this, the more people will realise they need alternative and ditch Android.
nickelpro
99.9% of consumers do not care about this and are totally willing (and expect) to connect their phone to their Google/Apple account
Not saying the grievance isn't valid, but don't fool yourself
nirimda
99.9% of consumers probably have never heard about custom ROMs, and I'd reckon 99.9% of consumers who do hear about custom ROMs have boring old fashioned objections like "will it break my warranty" and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and "I wonder what's on Netflix tonight/I think I shall be washing my hair".
For the few people who distrust Google enough to install LineageOS or some such, they probably distrust Google enough to not care too much about not using Google. Who is in this sweetspot where they want (i.e. install and use, not merely aspire to installing and using) a custom ROM but having no access to proprietary Google APIs is a bridge too far?
colordrops
It doesn't take a 100 million people to build a new phone ecosystem. Only a few thousand, if even that. If there is no alternative, it will get built and be usable. I avoid other open phone projects because I don't have the time and AOSP works fine, but if Google breaks it beyond usability, you better believe I'll be jumping onto one of the fully open projects even if it has major limitations.
maksimur
It's part of the recurring pattern of blindness towards the actual level of caring among average service users. Reddit is another example of this pattern. Mind you I say this as the minority who cares.
thunderbong
Well, it's not like they have a choice, isn't it?
rvense
Just like they've ditched Windows?
People don't care about Android. They care about their apps. Some are fun, some are necessary. In my country, cash has been almost replaced by an app (just one), and it's getting harder to exist here without it (as I try to). That's just one example. I've heard of other places where compulsory national ID systems only exist as apps. And so on.
Unless those apps becomes available outside official app stores, switching is going to be de facto impossible, and people will take whatever shit Google and Apple roll out.
midoridensha
To be fair, other OSes can use the Google Play store, at least. Way back, Blackberry was somehow able to run Play Store apps, and as I understand it, many of the alternative Android roms can also use the Play Store if you wish. I'm not sure how well apps from that actually work on these phones, but most of these custom roms are AOSP anyway, so in theory it should be fine.
Apple is completely different of course: you're either in or you're out.
It would be nice if the alternative Android roms were better supported.
But you're completely correct; some apps really are almost necessary for daily life these days, depending on where you are.
sharikous
Where do you live?
BlueTemplar
A compulsory national ID system already means they are living in a police state, so they have worse issues to worry about than this.
Also, maybe at some point the UE countries will start to enforce the CJUE directive that banned US companies (and especially GAFAMs) in 2015 (after the war is over ?), this would open quite a space for competition !
midoridensha
And go where? Apple? How exactly is that any better in this regard? It's even more of a walled garden. If you mean custom ROMs, they have huge issues of their own making them a non-starter for 99.99% of the population.
pjc50
Following the death of Windows phone and the earlier death of Symbian, the two options are "Android" or "iOS". This is apparently "not a monopoly".
Arch-TK
Well, it's a duopoly. Which, since it is not literally a monopoly, often gets a pass.
Have a country with a single party you can vote for? This country will be called a dictatorship, dystopian shithole, undemocratic, whatever... Have a country with two parties which are marginally different you can vote for? Now it's just a normal democracy.
elzbardico
For all practical purposes, customers don't care about that. And the minority who cares is going to do what? move to an even more restrictive walled-garden?
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jeroenhd
Most custom ROMs don't seem to use the AOSP dialer anyway. I've mostly seen forks with some nice features Google's dialer still lacks (call recording, for one).
AOSP hasn't been a useful Android distribution for years. Luckily, you can make it useful through third party apps like the Simple apps: https://www.simplemobiletools.com/
yjftsjthsd-h
Yeah, my first thought after reading the article was something like, "so I guess everyone will have to start grabbing phone/SMS apps out of F-Droid now". Annoying, but not that big of a deal, and I suspect the replacements will be better anyways. Worst case, the community and/or individual ROMs just fork the old AOSP versions, which has happened before as Google abandons things.
UncleSlacky
I use Koler for dialing: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.chooloo.www.koler/ and QKSMS for messaging (already recommended here).
jeroenhd
Most ROMs I see just fork LineageOS, which has a dialer of its own built in already.
Theoretically you can run an AOSP GSI on your phone and yes then you do need to find apps on F-Droid, but I don't think anyone but ROM developers do that.
jraph
if QKSMS still exists, it seems like a good replacement for the messaging app. That's what I used when I used Android a few years ago.
hans_castorp
It still exists.
F-Droid also has alternative dialers, so I don't see how this is a big issue.
tracker1
I'm using Google Voice for my dialer... really hope they don't break this outright though. Have thought it would be nice to replace GV with a FLOSS option I can self-host, but every time I've looked into it, it feels like such a convoluted mess.
tripdout
Very interesting article that talks about the progression of Google's closed source app alternatives: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on...
I always thought that sure, they're deprecating old apps for the closed source Google version, which sucks, but at least AOSP still comes with barebones versions.
But now AOSP, a mobile phone operating system, will come without calling and texting ability? How can Google even do that? These apps, old as they may be, can also still serve as useful reference points for making your own OEM-branded app.
jeroenhd
They're just saying they've stopped maintaining it, I'm pretty sure that puts these apps in the same situation as the Android 2 style music player that's still part of AOSP.
luca020400
Their plan is to remove them altogether. Still those apps have not been maintained in years, that's the normal course of action for apps in AOSP.
hedora
I think the big question is whether they “improve” the APIs these apps require at the same time.
That would break the alternative implementations.
tripdout
Oh wow, you're one of the guys from LineageOS right?
jraph
This is the kind of shit I thought could theoretically happen and it was one of the reason I got rid of Android a few years ago and got a PinePhone when my smartphone died. I've been counting on the Linux mobile ecosystem to develop so we have an good alternative to Android and iOS.
It's not there yet. I need my phone to be reliable and IMHO, it would need to reliably let me place an emergency call if I ever needed it. It's not yet the case. For now, I'm using my first phone, which is not a smartphone, and the PinePhone serves the smartphone-specific needs I have on the go like look something up on the internet or display a map. Which is already something.
The Linux mobile ecosystem has greatly improved though, I still have hope that it'll be usable in a few years.
pmontra
There are no real alternatives. I'm installing apps on a factory reset Samsung A40 from 2019. The last ones of all the process are banking apps, github (only because they decided I need 2FA (*)) and a digital identity one for my country, basically another 2FA. I really don't have an alternative for them. In theory I could leave an Android phone in a drawer at home for those apps, use WhatsApp web on the Pine, maybe Telegram desktop, maybe Gnome maps or Google Maps web, but I'm not paying for two devices.
And the PinePhone Pro is a brick: 160.8mm x 76.6mm x 11.1mm and 215 grams. I'm looking at the 11.1 mm and the 215 grams. Granted, 200 grams is becoming worryingly normal for the new flagships but it's still a brick and those flagships are bricks too. I'm not buying something like that. If they want me to go around with 200 grams in my pocket they pay me. The A40 is 140 grams. I'm afraid there won't be alternatives for that in a few years too, and I don't buy stuff from Apple or one of the old SEs would be a solution until they will also grow big and fat.
(*) I'm also not logging in into GitHub since they forced me on 2FA, because of the extra pass. I currently don't need it for my job and I don't have to open issues to open source projects. The first time I'll have to I'll count to ten and see what to do.
jraph
I have a PinePhone Pro, it's not too bad really. It's quite large for someone who wants a tiny phone but PinePhones are still experimental devices and its form factor is kinda the least of my concerns. I'm sure various form factors will follow with a mature Linux mobile ecosystem.
doctor_lollipop
FYI, you can use oathtool on your PC for 2FA, you don't need custom apps for that.
pmontra
That's not going to work with my bank, maybe GitHub?
I googled and found this from HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35083499#35086708
I'll give it a try. It doesn't change that 2FA is a pain and I'll log into GitHub only if strictly necessary. Maybe reduced logins are part of their security plan.
charcircuit
The Pinephone can suffer from the same issue where people maintaining the software included may decide they no longer want to maintain their software anymore. It's no different for this. Either someone needs to step up to mountain it or you replace it with something else. Wanting to get rid of the rest of Android just because dialer and messenger are no longer maintained is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
0xedd
The difference is one is planned. Google promotes dependency on their services. There are alternatives to gapps. There are also alternatives to paved roads. The problem is they add more hoops to jump through. They care about the 99 percentile. Those won't keep chasing said hoops.
While large orgs help maintain relevant FOSS, to them, AOSP is left to rot. In our case, several k employees, we have teams dedicated to relevant FOSS tools. My wife, at a startup, have 20% paid worktime a week to contribute to whatever they want.
Your analogy, at face value, makes sense. Adding a few more lenses to the analysis weakens it severely.
palata
> There are alternatives to gapps. There are also alternatives to paved roads. The problem is they add more hoops to jump through.
Because going for a mobile linux distro does not involve jumping through hoops?
> While large orgs help maintain relevant FOSS, to them, AOSP is left to rot.
Not sure what you mean by that. AOSP is still maintained, and there are quite a few de-Googled ROMs (LineageOS, GrapheneOS, /e/OS, CalyxOS, ...) that are really becoming very good.
surajrmal
A few questions: 1. Given the existence of FOSS alternatives, is it important that these apps live as part of AOSP? It seems to me that this is an improvement as a bad default is worse than no default. 2. Given the apps were not maintained by Google, did anyone else volunteer to maintain them? Has anyone tried to upstream an alternative app to AOSP which will be maintained?
gostsamo
Pinephone has multiple compatible os-s, while most android phones don't have alternatives and become unusable if android drops support for them. Also, Google and the big OEM-s have the incentive to break compatibility to provide you with the newest gadget, which is not true for the pines. yet.
charcircuit
Plenty of android phones have alternatives. It's what custom roms in the title of this article is referring to.
palata
Wow... people, can you please just read a bit about AOSP before dropping such complaints?
There is no "Android drops support for them". It's "Google drops support for them". Google maintains AOSP, but if they stopped doing that, probably AOSP would survive in some form. Also I am not convinced that companies like Samsung would be happy to go with a completely proprietary Google OS, so chances are that they would get more involved into AOSP.
Pinephone has nothing to do with the OS, it is a smartphone. You can install Linux mobile distros (like PostmarketOS) on many mainstream phones (like Samsung, etc), and you can install Android on your Pinephone. That is completely orthogonal.
KingMachiavelli
The real concern is not the loss of the AOSP apps but the lack of new but mandatory features in AOSP and even more undocumented APIs.
For example, RCS only works with Google messenger and there's no sign of that expanding (unless your Samsung). Even Visual Voicemail which should/is an open standard has a lot of carrier specific code (I think it can still be extracted from the Google Phone app but I'm not sure on the license).
NFC payments (tap2pay) seem to be impossible outside the few blessed implementations and even running those is a cat & mouse game with SafetyNet (now called Play Integrity).
Android is still the most open source mobile OS (that's functional and has real security; mobile Linux doesn't count). But IMO it better remember why people pick it over iOS.
I'm still optimistic, if open standards for the basic functionality is going to survive; it will be on Android.
- Sent from my Google Fold running GrapheneOS.
hbn
> RCS only works with Google messenger
I don't get how Google can continue to call RCS an "industry standard" and do their campaigns publicly shaming Apple for not implementing it when this is the case.
Not to mention RCS messages are mostly being routed through Google's own servers anyway because no carriers have implemented it. No wonder they want Apple to get on board with this "standard," it replaces SMS with a Google service.
martin8412
Google should not even have the slightest say when it comes to messaging. They've launched and killed so many messenger services throughout the years.
You're of course right about Google being hypocrites because they want to route messages for Apple users through Google servers. The RCS standard doesn't support E2EE natively, so Google will see everything unless you use Google Messages which implements E2EE, but who knows that data they collect there..
I wonder if Google would agree to RCS with Apple running the servers. I seriously doubt it.
Catholic_Tree
I am curious, how is the experience of running GrapheneOS on the Google Fold? On my Pixel 6 it runs quite well, but I would imagine that the Folding aspect brings in quite a bit of additional complexity.
KingMachiavelli
So far it's been good, it's a lot faster than my Pixel 5 on GOS. I didn't play with the stock OS much but basic UI for the fold works the same.
It's individual apps that need fold and/or tablet support like I have the use Gboard to get a decent tablet mode keyboard and the Pixel Camera to support the different camera modes.
Overall it's quite obvious that it's really a phone + tablet which means a lot of things work OK but won't handle the 90 degree fold mode (table top) well. Also the tablet UI of many apps (especially FOSS) are unpolished.
nologic01
Ok, naive question but I would dearly love to have an informed answer as another phone of mine is dying, it is still TINA and I can't for the life of me project how this will play out:
The first iphone was released in 2007. That's like 15 years ago. People were probably toying with "smart" phones already few years before that. Its not that the world doesn't know how to manufacture smartphones and/or write software for them.
How come in 2023 there isn't an open source mobile phone that is reliable as a daily driver phone? With a financially healthy entity behind it. NB: It doesn't matter if its android or linux or firefox os or anything else.
Surely there is a market for such a device. 1% of a billion is a big number.
Is it because (pick all that apply or please add the true reason):
* Are manufacturers a cartel and won't allow breaking the duopoly? (Doesn't seem plausible, Samsung toyed with Tizen)
* Are governments happy to strike deals with the duopoly? (Doesn't seem plausible, at least in the EU)
* Is it the telecoms that somehow don't want this to happen? Why would that be?
* Is it the FOSS community that can't get its act together? (Doesn't seem plausible, both F-Droid and e.g., KDE mobile communities seem more than on top of supporting this)
So where is the bottleneck? A free mobile device is maybe the most important piece of technology one could have at this moment. I can imagine various actors that would not want it to happen but at the same time all sorts of other actors that would very much want it to happen.
malwrar
Not an expert, but have worked on phones before. My guess: much more aspects of mobile phones are patented or secret, parts aren’t available to small purchasers, weak OSS culture around PCB design at the level of complexity a mobile phone achieves, lack of support from carriers, general complexity and variety of disciplines required to successfully construct a phone.
Remember that there’s also not really that many open source computers either. The difference is mostly that computers are designed to be general purpose OS booters, whereas phones are locked down consumption slabs.
rcktmrtn
> Surely there is a market for such a device. 1% of a billion is a big number.
>* Are manufacturers a cartel and won't allow breaking the duopoly? (Doesn't seem plausible, Samsung toyed with Tizen)
I don't think it's a simple duopoly, but an application of Conway's law across the whole globalized tech industry [1]. Keep in mind that originally Android was the open source option, and it's been gradually become less and less amenable to that.
In my mind, I think of the "progress" of the consumer electronics industry (especially in the last 20 years) as undergoing constant and aggressive "distillation" process, converting people away from the FOSS side of the spectrum which offers freedom and control towards the locked down centralization side which offers dependence, convenience, and safety. The 1% market is basically the left over Azeotrope that can't quite be gotten rid of.
The experiments to harness that 1% market are the exception that proves the rule. Locked down centralized solutions are optimal for the tech market as it exists today. Samsung thought they could squeeze some money out of the 1% by being the "master" of Tizen, but realized that the game theory works out such that they would be better off as a servant of Android.
On top of all that, I think as the smartphone capture gets deeper and deeper, being in 1% is not even necessarily a 1-to-1 for FOSS values anymore. I used to fantasize about having a cool handheld Linux computer I could control freely. Now I'm more obsessed than ever about avoiding globalized tech, but I just don't care about smartphones anymore. I carry around an iPhone as the mark of the beast, but at least (I tell myself) I don't let it into my soul.
LegitShady
Because manufacturing mobile phones is hard and expensive. Companies have large teams of hardware and software people will incentivized to develop phones and lots of them fail.
The best we’ve got so far are exactly custom android builds like grapheneOS or lineage that replace software on phones other companies build. Apparently google doesn’t like that, though, so they’re going to continue to make AOSP worse and worse to protect their spyware.
The best case currently probably varies between something like grapheneOS on a pixel phone or lineageOS which is less privacy focused but has a much wider range of supported devices.
nologic01
> Because manufacturing mobile phones is hard and expensive
I appreciate that, but in 2021 there were like 1.8 billion phones manufactured and sold.
Are you saying that none of those existing manufacturers can afford or is interested to offer a FOSS mobile?
euniceee3
Check out the Volla phone. Then look at the price and imagine a retail scenario where a person is going to purchase a "no name" FOSS phone or a Samsung. The scale of the marketing is unfathomable.
I agree with you. But you are assuming everyone in the world thinks logically, let alone understands why FOSS is a better option.
LegitShady
What advantage does offering a FOSS based phone offer them?
euniceee3
1% of a billion in RETAIL sales is a big number.
Manufacturers do not care about orders less than 10,000 units. They make their money off of volume.
The only government that seems to care about these topics is China, although the rest of the world seems to be catching up on a strong desire to tie the individual to a device.
Telecoms require $500,000 per device for certification through GSMA.
FOSS can only do so much with closed modems. Porting to new devices comes with a heap of issues that require time, which means scaling to market is not viable without $$$.
fsflover
Here is why Librem 5 phone was very hard and expensive to build: https://puri.sm/posts/breaking-ground/
nologic01
> This development comes at a high price. We have a team of about 15 developers full time working on this for almost two years.
This is not peanuts but it also doesn't strike me as a serious bottleneck. It is a rounding error in the budget of any serious entity that might want to get involved in this.
sourcecodeplz
Because just like with the iPhone mini, a small but vocal minority is not worth serving if development costs are too high.
Most people don't care about hacking their phone. They just want one that works.
PurpleRamen
Building a high quality device is a very different beast from the "small" software-projects or gadgets we get from the FOSS-sphere. And even in software there are not that many big projects who carry their whole own ecosphere. There were many projects building FOSS-Smartphpones over the years, most of them failed because of lack of ability I would say.
At the end of the day, while there are many who want FOSS-products, not many are willing to cope with bad experience for they beloved tools. So the actual market is very small if you can't deliver the daily drivers.
Dwedit
The much bigger thing making life difficult for Custom ROM fans is the "device fingerprint" nonsense making your device condemned to fail SafetyNet. Hope you never want to run a banking app.
mcny
I got a locked iPhone SE 2020 from a prepaid carrier and never inserted the SIM card. It cost me under USD 200 including the one month of service but I just wanted to use this device on WiFi.
I can now leave all banking apps out of my xiaomi phone running lineage.
neurostimulant
Interestingly, Netflix was the one that give me problem (refused to run with unlocked bootloader). I can run all banking apps I need (5 of them) on my phone with unlocked bootloader just fine.
NoGravitas
Hmm. My phone runs LineageOS for microG, and both Netflix and my banking apps work fine. The bootloader remains unlocked. microG settings say that Google SafetyNet is on.
fifteen1506
That is probably the unlocked bootloader.
On GrapheneOS (bootloader is locked at the end of installation) I get no problem nor warning.
Google Wallet does does not allow to add a card, though, due to that failure of the "CTS Profile Match", which I assume is what you mean by "device fingerprint".
palata
Running banking apps on my /e/ OS, no problem there.
tpush
This is a total nothing burger with a terrible headline.
Google is just deprecating AOSP Apps that neither them nor anyone else is using.
There are plenty of better FOSS alternatives than what's in AOSP.
sanitycheck
I got a new Android phone two weeks ago, Google's default messaging app has turned into such a mess that I've replaced it with one from F-Droid already - and I'm liable to do the same with Photos.
I think this will have precisely zero impact on "custom ROM fans".
oars
What app do you recommend from F-Droid? I've been looking for an alternative as well but none of the ones in the Play Store look appealing to me.
genpfault
Check out Simple SMS Messenger[1], been using it since Signal dropped SMS support.
[1]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.smsmes...
[2]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.thanky...
[3]: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-SMS-Messenger
sanitycheck
Slow response, sorry - too soon to say I recommend it but I'm currently using Simple SMS Messenger as mentioned in a sibling comment. Not at all fancy, works fine so far.
ranting-moth
Google could have pretty much owned the entire messaging ecosystem today had they just done it properly to start with.
When Android was new, you had to wait for eventually Skype to do an Android release. Then there was Hangout, Talk, Duo, Meet, ... and of course the built in SMS app.
ocdtrekkie
Title could just be "Google deprecates open source Dialer and Messages apps". But yeah, this is hardly a surprise, almost every app Google had on Android used to be open source and nearly all of them have been replaced with proprietary variants over time.
behringer
Just another step towards Ubuntu or another proper linux distro to take over the phone space.
jraph
Ubuntu actually pioneered the domain with Ubuntu Phone, and then abandoned it. It's been taken over by UBPorts, a community effort, with Lomiri for it's graphical environment. I don't know these much, as I think they don't let you run regular Linux apps.
There are many linux mobile distributions, I think the most mature / widespread ones are Mobian, PostmarketOS and Manjaro. And UBPorts of course.
Mobian has been upstreaming most of its work to Debian proper, which is cool. I'm using Mobian but there's not much Mobian-specific stuff remaining. I think they nailed the development model.
glodalitazic
SailfishOS is totally usable. It is not as open as some others, but they get more stuff to work
palata
I strongly disagree. It's just another step towards other open source apps taking over those two use-cases on alternative Android systems. AOSP is still open source, and maintained by Google. So this doesn't seem like a big deal to me, like at all.
I feel like people tend to really under-estimate the difference between "proper linux distros" (why "proper", btw?) and Android. Android was designed for smartphones, good luck catching up with "proper" distros.
PufPufPuf
This has absolutely zero consequences for custom ROM fans. Google hasn't been maintaining these open source apps for years. All custom ROMs use forks, alternatives, or even the proprietary Google ones.
albertopv
How can you call Android an open source mobile OS anymore given even these basic functions will be dropped?
Xeamek
Is Linux not open source because it doesn't ship with client apps by default?
There are tons of things to criticize google for, but the fact that they won't maintain a client app that's so barebone it's practically unusable anyway, isn't one of them.
hans_castorp
There are open source alternatives available (e.g. on F-Droid). So I don't see why this is such a big issue.
crote
Would you call Windows "open source" just because you run a few open source apps on it?
Google is slowly but surely turning more and more components of Android into closed source code. This is a targeted effort to kill AOSP and lock consumers into their ecosystem. The end result will probably look a lot like macOS: a few open source parts, but primarily a proprietary stack.
charcircuit
If the bootloader, all of the services, the kernel, the window manager, etc were open source, but edge was closed source and bundled in a separate version of Windows then yes I would consider Windows an open source operating system.
CrampusDestrus
Windows is not open source, AOSP is
ars
The OS and the default apps it comes with are really not the same thing.
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Has the author of this article ever used a custom ROM? There are so many free alternatives for these apps out there. If I remember correctly, LineageOS ships with their own version of Dialer/Messages anyway. I usually replace them with the versions of SimpleMobileTools, which work just fine.
The main difficulty for custom ROMs are not these standard apps. The real issues are bootloaders which cannot be unlocked, undocumented binary&buggy firmware blobs, SafetyNet, Google Play Services, and so on. Just look how Google effectively broke the AuroraStore App recently. It's getting more and more difficult to use Android without a Google Account.