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.

The best choice to deal with this, will probably be the Android Debug Bridge, which can be used not only to install apps unrestricted, but also to uninstall, or remove, almost any unnecessary part of the OS. Shizuku, combined with Canta Debloater, is the winning combination for now.

I’ve already removed most Google apps from my device: the annoying AI assistant, the stupid Google app adding the annoying articles, left of your homes screen, Google One, Gboard, Safety app… it’s amazing, no distracting Google slopware, like in the good old Android 2 days! And I absolutely intend to keep it this way, from now on, no new Google apps or services on my devices, unless Google can give me a good enough reason, to allow them there and whenever the app that verifies signatures, to block installing apps not approved by Google, I’ll just remove it from my device and advocate others do so too.

JMP: Newsletter: (e)SIM nicknames, Cheogram Android updates, and Cheogram iOS alpha
Hi everyone!

Welcome to the latest edition of your pseudo-monthly JMP update! (it’s been 7 months since the last one 😨)

In case it’s been a while since you checked out JMP, here’s a refresher: JMP lets you send and receive text and picture messages (and calls) through a real phone number right from your computer, tablet, phone, or anything else that has a Jabber client. Among other things, JMP has these features: Y … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net have you seen how many Google apps, get shoved into the new releases of Android. MicroG, Google Play, maybe Chrome is fine, but everything else, I can’t get rid of, is just bloatware to me.

@thecanine@twtxt.net I think Google’s Android is as vanilla as it can be, coming from the “source”. The bloatware is more often than not vendor’s provided, no? I don’t consider Google apps and services bloatware, but an intrinsic part of the Android “vanilla” experience.

@prologic@twtxt.net @moveq@twtxt.net I think it’s mostly the serious lack of competition. All the Android phone manufacturers just use the Google version of Android, bundle in piles of Google bloatware and do whatever Google tells them to. If some of them installed Lineage, or any other versions, with their own stores and rules, or even just offer a less Googly version of their phones, as an option, for more experienced users, Google wouldn’t be able, to push everyone around.

@prologic@twtxt.net, the very first sentence addresses something that needed to be addressed. Maybe tech savvy people will not have these issues, but many non-tech savvy people (and old people) I know has had, and has, cyclically, a myriad of malware, pestware, etc., issues on their Android based phones. It is a wild-west.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de @prologic@twtxt.net this is extremely concerning and I hope there is enough push back to stop this! The ability to modify apps, is one of the two biggest reasons, I’m still using Android. If they remove that option, I’ll be forced to switch to one of the de-Googled forks.

That might not be a good solution either, because I need banking and identity verification apps on my main device and already had to get a second device for work, which has tighter sideloading restrictions and I would very much not like to be forced into using three Android phones simultaneously, to do what should be possible, with just one.

To combat malware and financial scams, Google announced today that only apps from developers that have undergone verification can be installed on certified Android devices starting in 2026.

This requirement applies to “certified Android devices” that have Play Protect and are preloaded with Google apps. The Play Store implemented similar requirements in 2023, but Google is now mandating this for all install methods, including third-party app stores and sideloading where you download an APK file from a third-party source.

RIP Android:

https://9to5google.com/2025/08/25/android-apps-developer-verification/

Since nobody is going to push back on this (I don’t even know if that would be possible), this is going to be a reality on every platform sooner or later.

I’d guess in 20, 30 years, there won’t be “PCs” anymore. No more home computing, no more “I just write my own software”. You won’t own devices anymore, it’ll all be rented and the landlord will tell you what you can do with it.

I hope that I’m wrong, but given where we are today, I don’t think that I will be.

@kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz yeah it’s pretty terrible these days. Most recent trouble I had was something as simple as installing and setting up the Tailscale client. On literally all my other devices (Linux and Android) that was a cinch, but on Windows…. ohh boy, I had to mess around with reg edits and all sorts of crap and eventually bludgeoned it into working, but it was a bloody pain.

$560 Bounty: How Twitter’s Android App Leaked User Location

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A Silent Broadcast That Let Any App Spy on You Without Asking

[Continue reading on InfoSec Write-ups »](https://infosecwriteups.com/560-bounty-how-twitters-android-app-leaked- … ⌘ Read more

Covert Web-to-App Tracking via Localhost on Android
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The flip phone web: browsing with the original Opera Mini
Opera Mini was first released in 2005 as a web browser for mobile phones, with the ability to load full websites by sending most of the work to an external server. It was a massive hit, but it started to fade out of relevance once smartphones entered mainstream use. Opera Mini still exists today as a web browser for iPhone and Android—it’s now just a tweaked version of the regular Opera mobile browser, and you shouldn … ⌘ Read more

Remove Android bloatware with Shizuku and Canta
Today, I have new app recommendation. Almost two years ago, I wrote about bloatware removal on Android without using a PC. I recommended Hail as an app to finally uninstall the bloatware apps after gaining elevated privileges with Shizuku. ⌘ Read more

Hardkernel Introduces Low-Cost Amlogic S905X5M SBC with 4K@60Hz HDMI Output
The ODROID-C5 is a compact single-board computer designed for developers and hobbyists working with Linux or Android platforms. It features improved performance, reduced power consumption, and enhanced memory and storage interfaces over its predecessor, the ODROID-C4. The board is powered by the Amlogic S905X5M processor, which combines a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 CPU running at 2.5GHz […] ⌘ Read more

Two weeks with AR glasses and Linux on Android
I recently learned something that blew my mind; you can run a full desktop Linux environment on your phone. That’s a graphical environment via X11 with real window management and compositing, Firefox comfortably playing YouTube (including working audio), and a status bar with system stats. It launches in less than a second and feels snappy. ↫ Hold the Robot In and of itself, this is a neat trick most of us are probably aware of. Running a … ⌘ Read more

Buying a TV these days, means trying to avoid endless enshitification:
-Spyware and adware
-Shitty AI upscaling/ frame interpolation
-HW that breaks after 2 - 3 years
-One off OS, dead on arrival
-Android OS, that starts lagging after the third update
-8 buttons worth of ads, on your remote

You probably have to make some kind of a compromise. I thought that was buying from some other brand like Hyundai, but that one also felt into some of those categories and just broke, after less than 3 years of use. At this point I’ll probably go back to LG and hope their HW is still reliable and the rest manageable… It has AI bullshit and knowing LG, probably some spyware you have to try your best to get rid of, can buy a remote with “only” 2 ads on it, some web-based OS shared between all their TVs, that usually gets 4 - 5 years worth of updates and works decently enough afterwards.

At this point, I’ll probably settle for anything that doesn’t literally fall apart, not even 3 years in, like the Hyundai did.

Google Intentionally Cripples Nextcloud Android App
Nextcloud is an open source competitor to Google Drive. ⌘ Read more

Google requires Android applications on Google Play to support 16 KB page sizes
About a year ago, we talked about the fact that Android 15 became page size-agnostic, supporting both 4 KB and 16 KB page sizes. Google was already pushing developers to get their applications ready for 16 KB page sizes, which means recompiling for 16 KB alignment and testing on a 16 KB version of an Android device or simulator. Google is taking the next step now, requiring … ⌘ Read more

Google accidentally reveals Android’s Material 3 Expressive interface ahead of I/O
Google’s accelerated Android release cycle will soon deliver a new version of the software, and it might look quite different from what you’d expect. Amid rumors of a major UI overhaul, Google seems to have accidentally published a blog post detailing “Material 3 Expressive,” which we expect to see revealed at I/O later this month. Google quickly removed the post from … ⌘ Read more

Hack Any Mobile Phone Remotely

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Ethically — but note — this used to work great with phone under android 10

Continue reading on InfoSec Write-ups » ⌘ Read more

GitDroid: A third party Android app manager for apps uploaded to GitHub releases
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Google is working on a big UI overhaul for Android
When Google released the fourth beta of Android 16 this month, many users were disappointed by the lack of major UI changes. As Beta 4 is the final beta, it’s likely the stable Android 16 release won’t look much different than last year’s release. However, that might not hold true for subsequent updates. Google recently confirmed it will unveil a new version of its Material Design theme at its upcoming developer conference, and we … ⌘ Read more

Garmin Pay: yes, you can do NFC tap-to-pay in stores without big tech
Late last year, I went on a long journey to rid myself of as much of my remaining ties to the big technology giants as I could. This journey is still ongoing, with only a few thin ties remaining, but there’s one big one I can scratch off the list: mobile in-store payments with NFC tap-to-pay. I used Google Pay and a WearOS smartwatch for this, but neither of those work on de-Googled Android – I … ⌘ Read more

“Move to iOS” app continuously refused to run as intended and expected, so couldn’t migrate mum’s Android based phone data. Most of her stuff is on a Google account, but not the SMS/MMS/RCS messages. Haven’t found a way to export, then import those into iOS.

She isn’t too happy having to keep the old phone just for the messages. Need to find a way to go through them, export multimedia attachments, and import them into iOS. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I am not letting her know yet. 😅

Google moves all Android development behind closed doors
Up until now, Google developed several components of Android out in the open, as part of AOSP, while developing everything else behind closed doors, only releasing the source code once the final new Android version was released. This meant that Google had to merge the two branches, which lead to problems and issues, so Google decided it’s now moving all development of Android behind closed doors. What will change is th … ⌘ Read more

Budget phone wars: The three cheaper Androids taking on Apple’s $1000 iPhone 16e
Google has just unveiled its new cut-price Pixel phone to join a crowded field. ⌘ Read more

Pebble unveils new devices, and strongly suggests you dump iOS for Android
It’s barely been two months after the announcement that Pebble would return with new watches, and they’re already here – well, sort of. Pebble has announced two new watches for preorder, the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2. The former is effectively a Pebble 2, upgraded with new internals, while the Core Time 2 is very similar, but comes with a colour e-ink display and a metal case. Th … ⌘ Read more

Google makes Vulkan the official graphics API for Android
Google’s biggest announcement today, at least as it pertains to Android, is that the Vulkan graphics API is now the official graphics API for Android. Vulkan is a modern, low-overhead, cross-platform 3D graphics and compute API that provides developers with more direct control over the GPU than older APIs like OpenGL. This increased control allows for significantly improved performance, especially in multi-threaded a … ⌘ Read more

acx submits CCS proposal to develop and maintain ‘Monfluo’ XMR wallet
acx1 has submitted their first CCS proposal2 looking to continue developing and maintaining Monfluo 3, a pure Monero wallet for Android:

About six months ago I have forked Mysu (an abandoned Android wallet) and continued its development and maintenance. The fork is named Monfluo [..] a very simple wallet, and one of the goals is having no “integrations” such as swapping services, se … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm gives OEMs the option of 8 years of Android updates
Starting with Android smartphones running on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, Qualcomm Technologies now offers device manufacturers the ability to provide support for up to eight consecutive years of Android software and security updates. Smartphones launching on new Snapdragon 8 and 7-series mobile platforms will also be eligible to receive this extended support. ↫ Mike Genewich I mean, good news of cou … ⌘ Read more

[LTH] [Bounty] [0.35 XMR] Silent.Link - Develop android widget for displaying of account balance
Link: https://bounties.monero.social/posts/179/

b4n6_b4n6 (Github) ⌘ Read more

Raspberry Pi-Like Board Incorporates RK3568 CPU, GbE Port, and M.2 2242 Slot
Graperain’s RK3568 single board computer is a compact platform for embedded applications, powered by a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU at 2.0GHz. It supports Android 11, Linux, Ubuntu, and Debian, features an ARM G52 2EE GPU for 4K video decoding, and offers versatile connectivity for industrial, consumer, and commercial use.   The Rockchip RK3568 processor is built […] ⌘ Read more

Cake Labs releases Cake Wallet v4.23.2, Monero.com v1.20.2
Cake Labs1 has released Cake Wallet version 4.23.22 with a Monero Android crash fix, Zano and Ethereum enhancements, Ledger bugfixes and UI improvements:

We’re excited to announce the latest update, which brings a host of enhancements to improve performance, security, and user experience.3

”`

• Significant improvements to Zano functionality
  
• Enhanced Ethereum integration with improve … ⌘ Read more”`

acx releases first beta for Mysu Wallet fork ‘Monfluo’
acx1 has announced2 the first beta release of Monfluo 3 (v0.6.04) - a pure Monero wallet for Android that was forked from Mysu Wallet5 last year:

Monfluo is a fork of Mysu (previously known as MyNero) originally developed by pokkst. Mysu was a fork of Monerujo developed by m2049r. [..] There are no unique features (except the lack of features), it is a very simple wallet for minimalists. There is no su … ⌘ Read more

GTK announces X11 deprecation, new Android backend, and much more
Since a number of GTK developer came together at FOSDEM, the project figured now was as good a time as any to give an update on what’s coming in GTK. First, GTK is implementing some hard cut-offs for old platforms – Windows 10 and macOS 10.15 are now the oldest supported versions, which will make development quite a bit easier and will simplify several parts of the codebase. Windows 10 was released in 2 … ⌘ Read more

Why Samsung’s latest Ultra can claim to be the best android available right now
Phones aren’t the competent AI assistants of sci-fi just yet, but Samsung’s blend of high-end hardware and Google smarts indicates the way forward. ⌘ Read more

Android 16’s Linux Terminal will soon let you run graphical apps, so of course we ran Doom
Regardless, the fact that Android’s Linux Terminal can run graphical apps like Doom now is good news. Hopefully we’ll be able to run more complex desktop-class Linux programs in the future. I tried running GIMP, for example, but it didn’t work. Eventually, Android should be able to run Linux apps as well as Chromebooks can, as I believe one of the goals … ⌘ Read more

Android 16 Beta 1 has started rolling out for Pixel devices
Basically, this seems to mean applications will no longer be allowed to limit themselves to phone size when running on devices with larger screens, like tablets. Other tidbits in this first beta include predictive back support for 3-button navigation, support for the Advanced Professional Video codec from Samsung, among other things. It’s still quite early in the release process, so more is sure to come, and some … ⌘ Read more

(#3hg26iq) @doesnm@doesnm It stores it in the devices secure store, whatever that is on the device. It’s different for Android and iOS.
@doesnm @doesnm.p.psf.lt It stores it in the devices secure store, whatever that is on the device. It’s different for Android and iOS. ⌘ Read more

Introduction to GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS (written GOS from now on) is an Android based operating system that focuses security. It is only compatible with Google Pixel devices for multiple reasons: availability of hardware security components, long term support (series 8 and 9 are supported at least 7 years after release) and the hardware has a good quality / price ratio. The goal of GOS is to provide users a lot more control about what their smartphone is doing. A main profile is used by default (the owner … ⌘ Read more

[LFF] [5K EUR] XMRpos app development

This crowdfunding campaign aims to further develop a Free and Open Source Android app (XMRpos), which is designed for use by merchants on a dedicated Point of Sale (POS) device with thermal printer.

Links:

• https://pay.monerokon.org/apps/4P3tCgWYEB73Pu35H2F5cnVhwzd7/crowdfund
  
• /monerokon-proposes-bounty-monero-pos-android-app/
  

ajs-xmr (Github) ⌘ Read more

@kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz i think what i love about “retro” (relative to me because i was born 2004) is that it has friction but in a different way than modern tech does. sure there’s friction with getting a video from your phone to a computer unless you’re a nerd like me with android and syncthing. but not only is that something that could be but isn’t easier, it’s just… it makes sense for a camcorder from ~2009 to have the kind of friction it does

(#fktqbyq) @kat Yeah sorry but maintaining a mobile app with Flutter became too hard and complicated as the whole mobile ecosystem is just a gia …
@kat @yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz Yeah sorry but maintaining a mobile app with Flutter became too hard and complicated as the whole mobile ecosystem is just a giant PITA 🤦‍♂️ Every new version of Xcode, Android, Flutter, etc… Something would break 😢 ⌘ Read more

tried building the yarn social app for android but wahhh android studio and flutter scare me… big ass IDEs and SDKs and shit not worth it

Solving Android app issues with OpenTelemetry: Beyond local profiling
Member post originally published on the Embrace blog by Francisco Prieto Cardelle OpenTelemetry is a powerful observability framework that can help engineers monitor and resolve common Android performance issues. We’ll dive into a few of these… ⌘ Read more

Cake Wallet adds ‘full support’ for XMR hardware wallets via Ledger
Cake Labs1 has released Cake Wallet v4.22.02 with full support for Monero hardware wallets via Ledger3 (Flex, Stax, and Nano X) on Android and iOS:

This release of Cake Wallet includes full Monero hardware wallet support via Ledger, including USB + Bluetooth on Android and Bluetooth on iOS. It also contains a bevy of bug fixes and quality of life improvements, including proper seed … ⌘ Read more

Why I’d never switch to an 🍎 iPhone
Recently, Kev announced he’s switching back to Android, and judging by his first impressions, he seems to be enjoying it. Coincidentally, I came across a video from Linus Tech Tips, where Linus shared his thoughts after using an iPhone for 30 days – and let’s just say, he wasn’t impressed. ⌘ Read more

Easy Wi-Fi Speed Test Works on Mac, PC, iPhone, Android, iPad, etc
If you’ve just setup a new wi-fi network or ISP, or perhaps you just joined a new wi-fi network, one of the first things you might be inclined to do is run a speed test. Speed testing helps to evaluate the performance of an internet connection, measuring download speed, upload speed, and latency, allowing you … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/2024/11/27/easy-speed-test-for-wi-fi-works-on-mac-pc-iphone … ⌘ Read more

Firefox Has 9 Months of Income Left (Possibly Less)
Also: Will Google be forced to sell off Android (when they sell off Chrome)? We’ll know next August. ⌘ Read more