Threads Usage Overtakes X On Mobile
New data from Similarweb shows Threads has overtaken X in daily mobile users. However, X still dominates on the web with around 150 million daily web visits compared to Threads’ 8.5 million daily visits. TechCrunch reports: Similarweb’s data shows that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of January 7, 2026, after months of growth, while X has 125 million daily active users … ⌘ Read more
Asus Confirms It Won’t Launch Phones in 2026, May Leave Android Altogether
Asus won’t release any new smartphones this year, and that may signal the brand’s exit from the Android space altogether. From a report: Asus Chairman Jonney Shih confirmed the news at an event in Taiwan on Jan. 16. According to a machine-translated version of quotes reported by Inside, Shih said, “Asus will no longer add new … ⌘ Read more
Google Will Now Only Release Android Source Code Twice a Year
Google will begin releasing Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source code only twice a year starting in 2026. “In the past, Google would release the source code for every quarterly Android release, of which there are four each year,” notes Android Authority. From the report: Google told Android Authority that, effective 2026, Google will publish new s … ⌘ Read more
Linux Kernel Rust Code Sees Its First CVE Vulnerability
Longtime Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced that the Linux kernel has received its first CVE tied to Rust code. Phoronix reports: This first CVE (CVE-2025-68260) for Rust code in the Linux kernel pertains to the Android Binder rewrite in Rust. There is a race condition that can occur due to some noted unsafe Rust code. That code can lead to memory corrupti … ⌘ Read more
Google Translate Expands Live Translation To All Earbuds On Android
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google has increasingly moved toward keeping features locked to its hardware products, but the Translate app is bucking that trend. The live translate feature is breaking out of the Google bubble with support for any earbuds you happen to have connected to your Android phone. The app is … ⌘ Read more
Man, I have no idea where the last build of the Yarn android client went to (even though it wasn’t all that good when I first used it, but it was relatively useful otherwise)
Xbox Is Bleeding Out
Microsoft’s Xbox consoles were conspicuously absent from Black Friday’s winners, failing to crack the top three in U.S. sales during one of the retail calendar’s most important weeks. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 captured 47% of Black Friday week console sales ending November 29, followed by the Nintendo Switch 2 at 24% and – somewhat remarkably – the NEX Playground, a Kinect-like Android device … ⌘ Read more
SmartTube YouTube App For Android TV Breached To Push Malicious Update
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The popular open-source SmartTube YouTube client for Android TV was compromised after an attacker gained access to the developer’s signing keys, leading to a malicious update being pushed to users. The compromise became known when multiple users reported that Play Protect, And … ⌘ Read more
Vim shortcuts in Android Studio ⌘ Read more
Netflix Kills Casting From Phones
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix has removed the ability to cast shows and movies from phones to TVs, unless subscribers are using older casting devices. An updated help page on Netflix’s website, first reported by Android Authority, says that the streaming service “no longer supports casting shows from a mobile device to most TVs and TV-streaming devices,” and instead directs users to navigate … ⌘ Read more
Android’s New Dual-Band Hotspot Mode Pairs 6 GHz Speed With 2.4 GHz Compatibility
Google is testing a new Wi-Fi hotspot configuration in the latest Android Canary build that pairs the 6 GHz band’s superior throughput with the 2.4 GHz band’s broad device compatibility, eliminating the trade-off users previously faced when choosing between speed and legacy support. Android’s default hotspot sett … ⌘ Read more
Google’s ‘Aluminium OS’ Will Eventually Replace ChromeOS With Android
Google’s long-rumored plan to merge ChromeOS and Android into a single desktop operating system now has a name: Aluminium OS, AndroidAuthority reports, citing a job listing.
The job listing explicitly tasks applicants with “working on a new Aluminium, Android-based, operating system.” The job listing confirms Google intends to eventually … ⌘ Read more
You Can Finally AirDrop Files Between Android and iPhone, Starting with Pixel 10
Android’s Quick Share file transfer service can now work with Apple’s AirDrop, allowing users to send files between iPhones and Android devices. Google has started rolling out the feature to its Pixel 10 family of smartphones. The cross-platform compatibility includes security protections that the company says indepen … ⌘ Read more
Will Apple Kill Google’s Surprise Android to iPhone AirDrop Interoperability?
Earlier today, Google made a surprise announcement that the Quick Share file transfer feature on Pixel 10 smartphones was able to work with AirDrop, enabling first-party file sharing between Android devices and Apple devices.
Typically, Apple and Google wor … ⌘ Read more
To everyone previously asking, what my (and other developers) endless complaining about Google, to both every EU body, with a form on their website and every relevant team at Google accomplished…
WE FUCKING WON!!!
“While security is crucial, we’ve also heard from developers and power users who have a higher risk tolerance and want the ability to download unverified apps.”
-source
I was also able to work with my new webhost, to bring back “🐕.fr.to” - everyones favorite vanity redirect domain, for my site, Googles changes to SSL warnings in Chrome, killed at the beginning of this year.
The lesson: I NEED TO COMPLAIN MORE
Rust in Android: More Memory Safety, Fewer Revisions, Fewer Rollbacks, Shorter Reviews
Android’s security team published a blog post this week about their experience using Rust. Its title? “Move fast and fix things.”
Last year, we wrote about why a memory safety strategy that focuses on vulnerability prevention in new code quickly yields durable and compounding gains. This year we look … ⌘ Read more
Google To Allow ‘Experienced Users’ To Install Unverified Android Apps
Google says it will build a new “advanced flow” to allow experienced users to install Android apps from unverified developers, easing up on restrictions it proposed in late August. The company said earlier that Android would block such installations starting next year. The new flow will include clear warnings about security risks but wil … ⌘ Read more
Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without verification
Article URL: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-developer-verification-early.html
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45908938
Points: 501
# Comments: 192 ⌘ Read more
Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Good Android Tablets Out There?
Longtime Slashdot reader hadleyburg writes: For a user with an Android phone and who’s happy to stick within the Google ecosystem, an Android tablet might seem like the more obvious choice over an iPad. Of course, iPads are a lot more popular, and asking about Android tablets is likely to invite advice about sticking with what everyone else has.
The Slashdot … ⌘ Read more
Google Announces Even More AI In Photos App, Powered By Nano Banana
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Big G is finally making good on its promise to add its market-leading Nano Banana image-editing model to the app. The model powers a couple of features, and it’s not just for Google’s Android platform. Nano Banana edits are also coming to the iOS version of the app. […] The Photo … ⌘ Read more
Plasma Mobile 6.5 keeps improving
As part of the KDE Plasma 6.5 release, we also got a new release of Plasma Mobile. As there’s a lot of changes, improvements, and new features in Plasma Mobile 6.5, the Plasma Mobile Team published a blog post to highlight them all. The biggest improvement is probably the further integration of Waydroid, a necessary evil to run Android applications until the Plasma Mobile ecosystem manages to become a bit more well-rounded. Waydroid can now be managed straight fro … ⌘ Read more
Android shopping list apps disappointed me too many times, so I went back to writing these lists by hand a while ago.
Here’s what’s more fun: Write them in Vim and then print them on the dotmatrix printer. 🥳
And, because I can, I use my own font for that, i.e. ImageMagick renders an image file and then a little tool converts that to ESC/P so I can dump it to /dev/usb/lp0.
(I have so much scrap paper from mail spam lying around that I don’t feel too bad about this. All these sheets would go straight to the bin otherwise.)
‘Nintendo Has Too Many Apps’
The Verge’s Ash Parrish writes: Nintendo has released a new store app on Android and iOS giving users the ability to purchase hardware, accessories, and games for the Switch and Switch 2. When I open my phone and scroll down to the N’s, I get a neat, full row dedicated entirely to Nintendo. That’s four apps: the Switch app, the music app, the Nintendo Today news app, and now the store. (The tally increases to five if … ⌘ Read more
Gemini Starts Rolling Out On Android Auto
Gemini is (finally) rolling out on Android Auto, replacing Google Assistant while keeping “Hey Google,” adding Gemini Live (“let’s talk live”), message auto-translation, and new privacy toggles. “One feature lost between Assistant and Gemini, though, is the ability to use nicknames for contacts,” notes 9to5Google. From the report: Over the past 24 hours, Google has quietly started the rollou … ⌘ Read more
Keep Android Open
Article URL: http://keepandroidopen.org/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45742488
Points: 516
# Comments: 112 ⌘ Read more
F-Droid Says The Bible is Safe For Work… for Now
The story of the F-Droid Android App Store listing The Bible as NSFW (”Promotes Pornography”) continues as developers de-list their Apps from F-Droid & Code of Conduct shenanigans. ⌘ Read more
Intel, AMD to bring memory tagging to x86, at some point
Now that ARM’s memory tagging, used extensively by Android ROMs such as GrapheneOS and now also by Apple, is becoming the new norm to aid in improving memory safety, the x86 world can’t sit idly by. As such, Intel and AMD have announced a ChkTag, x86’s version of memory tagging. ChkTag is a set of new and enhanced x86 instructions to detect memory safety violations, such as buffer overflows and misuses of freed memory (u … ⌘ Read more
F-Droid Hides Bible Apps as “NSFW” & “Promotes Porn”
The Open Source Android App Store warns users that Bible Apps have, “features you may not like. ⌘ Read more
Unveiling Hidden AWS Keys In My First Android Pentest
We often find our greatest challenges — and lessons — in the most unexpected places. For me, it was during a casual, personal e … ⌘ Read more
GrapheneOS is finally ready to break free from Pixels and it may never look back
Comments ⌘ Read more
LineageOS 23 released
The LineageOS project has released version 23 of their AOSP-based Android variant. LineageOS 23 is based on the initial release of Android 16 – so not the QPR1 release that came later – because Google has not made the source code for that release available yet. Like other, similar projects, LineageOS also suffers from Google’s recent further lockdown of Android; not only do they not have access to Android 16 QPR1’s source code, they also can’t follow along with the latest security patche … ⌘ Read more
DebDroid - Debian on Android (v1.1)
Hello guys! I’m happy to share DebDroid, a free and open-source project that aims to bring a real Debian environment to Android devices. It is not Termux-based, nor a simple proot-based wrapper, but a real, near-native chroot environment running on top of the Android kernel.
The project is built around a heavily modified version of the Kali Nethunter’s script I’ve developed 3 years ago. This new version (DebDroid) brings greatly improved security, isolation and additional compatibility patch … ⌘ Read more
I noticed Google put out this article: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/09/lets-talk-security-answering-your-top.html it’s very current day Google, but the comments under the YouTube video are pretty on point and I saw a few familiar faces there. There is also, unexpectedly, ways to contact Google.
First a form for “teachers, students, and hobbyists”, that I filled politely, as someone who falls under their hobbyist category. It can be filled both anonymously, or with an e-mail attached, to be contacted by them (I chose the second option).
Also a general feedback and questions form, that I was not as polite in and used to send them the following message:
I have already provided some feedback, in the teacher, student and hobbyists form/questionaire, as well as an open letter I’ve recently sent to the European Commission digital markets act team, as I do believe your proposal might not even be legal, given the fact it puts privacy-focused alternative app stores at risk (https://f-droid.org/cs/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html) and it was proposed this early, after Google lost in court to Epic Games, over similar monopoly concerns. Why should we trust Google to be the only authority for all developer signatures, right after the European courts labeled it a gatekeeper?
Assuming this gets passed, despite justified developer backlash and at best questionable legality, can you give us any guarantees, this will not be used to target legal malware-free mods, or user privacy enhancing patchers, like the ones used for applying the ReVanced patches? I have made a few mods myself, but I am in no way associated with the ReVanced team. I just share many peoples concerns, Google Chrome has been conveniently stripped of its manifest v2 support, that made many privacy protecting extensions possible and now you’re conveniently asking for the government IDs, of all the developers, who maintain these kinds of privacy protections (be it patches, or alternative open-source apps) on Android.
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My open letter, to the European Commission digital markets act team:
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@movq@www.uninformativ.de I submitted it via the form on their website (https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/contact-dma-team_en) and got the following response:
Dear citizen,
Thank you for contacting us and sharing your concerns regarding the impact of Google’s plans to introduce a developer verification process on Android. We appreciate that you have chosen to contact us, as we welcome feedback from interested parties.
As you may be aware, the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’) obliges gatekeepers like Google to effectively allow the distribution of apps on their operating system through third party app stores or the web. At the same time, the DMA also permits Google to introduce strictly necessary and proportionate measures to ensure that third-party software apps or app stores do not endanger the integrity of the hardware or operating system or to enable end users to effectively protect security.
We have taken note of your concerns and, while we cannot comment on ongoing dialogue with gatekeepers, these considerations will form part of our assessment of the justifications for the verification process provided by Google.
Kind regards,
The DMA Team
MicroPythonOS: an Android-like operating system for microcontrollers like the ESP32
MicroPythonOS is a lightweight, fast, and versatile operating system designed to run on microcontrollers like the ESP32 and desktop systems. With a modern Android-like touch screen UI, App Store, and Over-The-Air updates, it’s the perfect OS for innovators and developers. ↫ MicroPytonOS’ website It’s quite neat to see this running in such a constrained environment, e … ⌘ Read more
My open letter, to the European Commission digital markets act team:
Hello,
I am joining other developers, concerned about Googles new plan, to approve every app and effectively destroy most of the competing 3rd party stores this way. The biggest one of these alternative stores, most known for their focus on user and developer privacy, already states, this would make it impossible for them to operate: https://f-droid.org/cs/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html
Even communities like the XDA forum, where new developers are often introduced to the world of Android development, would likely be strongly impacted, as making, publishing and installing Android apps is made less accessible.
I am not just writing on their behalf, I run a small website myself (https://thecanine.ueuo.com/), that both provides legal modifications, for some android apps - for example adding an amoled dark theme, to the most popular XMPP chat client for Android, or increasing one of Androids keyboard apps height. This all comes after Googles previous changes to the Android operating system, that prevent users from installing old apps (old to Google, can mean only a couple of months, without an update - https://developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk and the target version gets increased every year). I rely on apps developed by a single developer, even for things like making the pixel art presented on my website and sideloading as a way to make these apps work, before developers can catch up to Google’s new requirements - if Google is allowed to slowly kill these options, us digital artists will soon lose the tools we need to create digital art.
Under pressure from US government, Apple removes ICEBlock application from the App Store
Your lovely host, late last night: Google claims they won’t be sharing developer information with governments, but we all know that’s a load of bullshit, made all the more relevant after whatever the fuck this was. If you want to oppose the genocide in Gaza or warn people of ICE raids, and want to create an Android application to coordinate such efforts, yo … ⌘ Read more
Google details Android developer certification requirement, and it’s as bad as we feared
Google has been on a bit of a marketing blitz to try and counteract some of the negative feedback following its new developer verification requirement for Android applications, and while they’re using a lot of words, none of them seem to address the core concerns. It basically comes down to that they just don’t care about the consequences this new requiremen … ⌘ Read more
Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 released
With Google closing up Android at a rapid pace, there’s some renewed interest in mobile platforms that aren’t either iOS or Android, and one of those is Ubuntu Touch. It’s been steadily improving over the years under the stewardship of the UBports Foundation, and today they released Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0. Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 is the first release of Ubuntu Touch which is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, a major upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04. This might not be as big compared … ⌘ Read more
Google’s Android developer registration requirement will kill F-Droid
The consequences of Google requiring developer certification to install Android applications, even outside of Google’s own Play Store, are starting to reverberate. F-Droid, probably the single most popular non-Google application repository for Android, has made it very clear that Google’s upcoming requirement is most likely going to mean the end of F-Droid. If it were to be put into effect, the … ⌘ Read more
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The original twt is unavailable. It may have been edited or deleted, or is from an unknown or muted feed.
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@zvava@twtxt.net love the direction this is heading, hope this soon evolves into a basic Android app, usable with any instance.
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Since Google announced their intentions to heavily limit sideloading on Android, starting end of 2026, I've been looking for potential solutions, for this policy change, that threatens the majority of projects I maintain, in some way. Google already killed my browser project years ago, but I have no other choice, than to fight this, any way I can.
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@bender@twtxt.net Believe me, I’ve never been more tempted to switch, than now, as Google is one by one, removing (or at last trying to remove) all the reasons why I chose Android, over iOS. In fact, many friends who were fellow “Android diehards”, ended up switching recently.
Sadly what I need is a headphone jack, ability to modify apps on device (decompile, change file, recompile), many specific mods, strong XMPP support, Pixel Station,… nothing switching to iOS, would give me.