Google has been trying to make Android proprietary for a few years now, and that’s not news, as many AOSP default apps have been abandoned over time in favor of proprietary Google ones. This was never a huge problem for me, as you can still use those apps without network access or use open source alternatives like Fossify on a custom ROM.
However, the situation is quickly getting worse, now that Google is actively trying to prevent the development of custom ROMs and taking a page from Apple’s book by forcing developers to beg them for permission to release apps on the Android platform, even outside of the Play Store - giving Google full control.
Is there still any hope left for privacy respecting Android ROMs? What do you think will happen next? And what would be your suggestions for those looking for a phone in 2025?
If you have a different perspective on the situation, also please comment below!
Plain burner flip phone and a wifi only Linux device that connects to a hotspot. F google and Apple.
Until substantially more people join the fight for privacy or something else fundamentally changes, I think there is a very real possibility of Google completely clamping down on Android while governments and workplaces mandate apps that only run on phones with all of Google or Apple’s bells and whistles.
But the folks at GrapheneOS, Calyx, and Murena seem to be a devoted and resourceful bunch, so I am hopeful that they can give something for us to work with, even if Google pulls the plug, whether it’s a fork of Android or rebasing to mobile Linux.
If that all falls through, I’ll look for whichever phone supports Linux best and eventually move everything over. The vast majority of the apps I use regularly on my GrapheneOS phone aren’t very demanding and have a decent alternative on Linux. And whatever apps are forced on me by other people will reside on a dedicated Android phone, ideally with a removable battery.
For this year, I’d still recommend a secondhand or reseller Pixel with GrapheneOS. Everything just works on it.
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As of right now, it’s looking like GrapheneOS will be unaffected, and Google has yet to lock down the bootloader. So this should remain a valid option for at least 2 years.
Other than that:
- Any smartphones with an unlocked bootloader + any ROMs without gapps
- Chinese smartphones with non-Google Android builds
- Linux smartphones
- Bonus: Huawei is about to release their own non-Android OS, but I wouldn’t expect it to be privacy-friendly
Honestly there probably isn’t any good, long-term solution. Personally I’m somewhat shocked we’ve gone this many years with reasonably open smartphones. Next step is probably closing bootloaders in new laptops, as part of the switch to ARM (which is already undergoing).
I’m pretty seriously considering the pinephone. I think it’s super neat there’s a LoRa module backplate you can buy with it, although my understanding is nobody has made it work with meshtastic yet.
I’m a huge fan of Pine64, but I wouldn’t expect the PinePhone to be a great replacement for an Android smartphone. Personally I have quite extensive experience with PineBook Pro, PineTime and PineBuds Pro. I haven’t had the chance to try the PinePhone, but I’d definitely go for the Pro.
Even then, prepare for a junky experience and forget about lixuries such as good camera, nice screen, smooth UI/UX. Their devices are great, and the ideas behind them more so. But unfortunately they rarely work well, perhaps with the exception of PineBuds Pro.
FYI, the Pro has been discontinued: https://pine64.org/2025/08/14/august_2025_short_update/
Hey everyone! As many have noticed, the PinePhone Pro is currently out ot stock on the Pine Store. Unfortunately we have to deliver you the following news: the PinePhone Pro is officially discontinued. We were told it didn’t sell well enough to keep production going. But the good news for current owners are that spare parts will still be made for up to two years, depending on demand. Meanwhile, the trusty PinePhone (A64) is still alive and kicking, and Pine Store plans to keep it rolling for about two more years.
Well, that sucks. So I guess the better move here would be to wait for something new? I don’t think the regular PinePhone is at all viable as a daily driver.
Depends, if it is used as a dumbphone (calls, SMS, being in sleep most of the time), it is okayish. However, going outside dumphone sphere, it becomes cumbersome to use.
If it can handle basic calling and texting, mp3 playback, and occasionally open my banking/email (both of which have acceptably usable mobile websites) I think I can work with that. If I’m home I use my computer, if I’m out and about I’m too busy to be on my phone for more than it takes to transfer money or fire off a quick text.
Yes, absolutely there is hope.
Phones that don’t support Google play services (AKA any hardcore privacy phone) will not be directly effected by Google restricting sideloading. The restriction is only for phones that use the Google suite. (source: https://9to5google.com/2025/08/25/android-apps-developer-verification/ “This requirement applies to ‘certified Android devices’ that have Play Protect and are preloaded with Google apps.”) Graphene OS isn’t going anywhere, AOSP is open source, even if Google tried to make that change in the OS, the community would hard-fork AOSP instantly and continue like nothing ever happened.
Realistically this is going to squeeze people “in the middle” towards fully-google controlled Android (one exteme) and towards fully-de-googled Android (the other extreme). Its just elminating the middle. Which is bad for people trying to gradually de-google their life, but not as dire as it might seem.
On the bright side, this is an opportunity for play-services spoofing to become commonplace and easy, and could cause more apps to avoid google play services. The EU also has a shot at forcing google to allow sideloading, since they’ve recently been forcing Apple to move in that direction.
So, while not a bright future, its far from hopeless for privacy respecting Android phones.
This is the point, isn’t it?
Lock down their own ecosystem because they’re jealous of how Apple does it, so they can herd all users into their walled garden. Then close the gates behind them. There’s no easy way out, you can’t just wander back and forth anymore. You have to scale a wall in the dead of night and shed a tear as you look back and see everyone else having a lovely life, then set off into the dark forest of privacy on your own.
People hate friction in the first place. This is as much friction as they can realistically make on their own without triggering anti-trust cases and EU fines.
Linux phone will hopefully become realistic thing.
But the more this goes on the more my attitude has changed. I now do far less on my phone, I’m more careful about what I expose to it. As a result I spend very little time on it and that’s been great.
To be clear I hate what’s happening, it’s just been working out to improve my time.
Fuck it, I’m going back to Landline
It’s more expensive than you think, and it’ll probably be VoIP even if you get it from a “normal” phone company
I’ve always wanted to try one of these.
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I’m not gonna go looking for it or share it, but I am here using my Librem 5 and kinda feeling like that kid in the meme hitting a bong in the background while people in the foreground fight.
How much does the Librem 5 satisfy what you want out of a daily driver phone?
I am satisfied with it. Calls/SMS/MMS all work fine. Internet and the few apps I use work fine.
I will admit though that many (most?) others might not agree. Banking apps, GPS navigation, these are things I don’t care about.
I have gripes with the L5 but I am never, ever going back. My next phone will probably be Purism’s next phone, if they have one.
Is all the talk about not recieving phones ordered and the poor customer service just a smear campaign or is there truth to it?
How do you like the kill switch?
What country/service are you on?
Have you heard any rumors regarding the inventory issues? They do not have US modem version of their phones in stock, even if you get the really expensive one or a refurbished option.
For context, I am probably as much of a Purism fanboy as you are likely to find…
Is all the talk about not recieving phones ordered and the poor customer service just a smear campaign or is there truth to it?
There is a lot of truth to it, but I do think there were a few very loud voices making it sound worse than it was. I got mine in June 2023, and I was one of the last people on the “preorder” list. I hear a few people mention not receiving theirs still every now and then. The cases I saw mostly came down to emails landing in Spam/Junk folders on the customers end.
But I do think Purism’s support was very lacking in past years. In recent months I have seen some new faces in their Matrix and forums and the new people are really great and responsive. I do not blame certain past Purism employees who were in the firing lane for these issues. Rather I blame Purism’s handling of the refunds for drawing up enough ire to make Purism’s support reps sound like the bad guys.
The refund thing was less than great, for sure. I feel they are improving.
How do you like the kill switch?
Love em. I wish the modem powered on faster but that is nit the fault of the switch, or really a big problem. It takes like 20-30 seconds maybe. The Wifi powers on in a few seconds.
What country/service are you on?
US, Mint Mobile. AT&T also worked for me in the past.
Have you heard any rumors regarding the inventory issues?
Hmmm, maybe? I know there was supposed to be stock of new Liberty Phone main boards this year, and there was hope they would go on sale as a sort of L5 upgrade path. This either did not happen, or Purism is waiting for something to announce it.
I don’t own any other Purism hardware, and so I do not pay much attention to the L14 stock or the Mini or anything.
Thanks so much for letting me know all that. The phones are in stock, but just not with the North American modem selections. Maybe I could contact the company and see if they will arrive soon. I makes me a bit nervous to pay so much with all the hoopla that has happened, but the big corpo stuff is driving me absolutely nuts.
If you don’t commit to anything in the coming months, it may be worth checking it out after Purism (finally :)) pushes out some much needed OS updates. If you go to their forums you’ll see people talking about Crimson and Dawn, this is that update I am referring to.
At this point, I’m just hoping to grab a HarmonyOS phone soon. I’d rather have China hoovering up my data than the US, 5 &14-Eyes, and fascist US tech corporation. Terrible compromise, but I don’t see an inexpensive Linux phone on the horizon any time soon.
Issue is whether you can even use it outside of China because of the wireless band difference. I had a Fairphone in Canada that suddenly stopped connecting to the network.
I’m quite sure HarmonyOS won’t even be available in the US, and probably banned being it’s Huawei. Since I don’t live there, I don’t care. Asia will be using Harmony with 6G, while the west trundles along with ever more restrictive OSes, 5G, and an ever aging internet infrastructure.
The EU. That’s where my hope lies.
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I live in EU, and that shit drives me nuts.
Stop spying on your citizens!
Denmark is.
The “EU” is a set of instances with multiple backgrounds and interests. Multiple bodies can work in totally different directions.
What about a Murena phone such as the Fairphone 6 ? Is /e/os impacted?
Any device and OS that uses standard google play services (and therefore its device integrity system) will be restricted from now on. So either go with AOSP+microG or just plain AOSP like lineage os.
e/os is lineage+microG so shouldnt be affected. Lots of apps like banking stuff are starting to prevent their apps from running on on google certified devices however. You will have to test case by case.
Yes. As long as GrapheneOS still exists there is at least some hope. The sad thing is even before this outside of GrapheneOS there really isn’t any other “ROM” actually focused on privacy.
I hear good things about this.
For some reason, this is blocked on uBlock
Looks cool, but unless I’m missing something, they’ve only published a few bits and pieces of the LibertOS code
Only if enough people support it…
I’ve heard that there’s phones that use Linux, so I imagine once modifying Android isn’t an option focus will probably go into making that more viable.
There has been focus on making it not viable in my opinion. We’re going to need to use dumb phones and faraday bags soon. I am about to give up. I can not compete with a bunch of psychos with billions of dollars that constantly need more and more money and data.
Since my Dad wasnt able to get me a Google Pixel I’m honestly considering a dumbphone at this point. Make my Samsung a glorified MP3 player.
I was thinking of selling the Samsung, getting a dumb phone or Purism. I gave an old Ipod classic thay still works. Its so nice to listen to shit with no tracking.
