TL;DR
- Efforts like Graphene OS face increasing pressure from apps that refuse to run on non-standard Android.
- The custom ROM project characterizes Google’s approach to device attestation as incomplete and flawed.
- Graphene OS is prepared to take legal action if Google won’t let it pass Play Integrity checks.
I’ve got old apps that won’t work any more.
I’m actually for this. The bar to entry for the Play Store is too low with too many low quality and unmaintained apps. I’m all for booting insecure and super old apps. They cheapen the ecosystem.
Well that’s all very well, but I’ve got a bathroom speaker I can no longer access.
So how about instead of Daddy Google deciding what’s best for everyone, they let things run and give you a warning?
Hell, I’ve even got games I’ve paid for that are now gone. Honestly, fuck them for even thinking that’s acceptable.
Same, it’s why I never buy a game or app nowadays, they will just stop working when the new OS version comes around, devs already got their money so they don’t have any incentive to care, and contrary to PC I can’t do shit about it myself on my phone, there’s no “androidbox” to run old apps inside my phone.
You’re really arguing for a covenant around tech that companies want to orphan. The rule needs to be the code is opened and a slacker code owner is appointed for handover.
This is gonna embarrass Google a Lot but it’s gonna embarrass azn and m$ a whole lot more.
The forced alternative is a refund if you can bring something recognizable with a serial number to your post office or something as ubiquitous, present and staffed - have them validate in the loosest fashion and require like 10 bizdays for the cash refund.
Whether or not the post office is there for that or charges the OEM for the notary-light service is a matter for the courts, the USPS, and these days probably the fn SCotUS.
So how about instead of Daddy Google deciding what’s best for everyone, they let things run and give you a warning?
That is not what’s happening. It takes tons of work to maintain backward compatibility but you’re framing it as though it doesn’t and they’re just being a holes on purpose.
It doesn’t allow direct connection. You have to dick about with a stupid app to put it in “speaker mode” first.
The problem is allowing the APIs it uses to exist at all in the OS is a huge security hole.
So it’s my choice to run them?
If I can download an APK, I should be able to run it in a “compatibility mode” and have the OS do it’s best to run it.