this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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[–] MTK@lemmy.world 82 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Title is misleading, they are moving away from google services.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Yeah I was going to say there is very little alternative from iOS and Android or its derivatives. There used to be Windows Phones very breifly, but they're gone now.

Anthing else has to emulate the other OS to run mobile apps.

[–] nightlily@leminal.space 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nokia also had Meego but an ex-Microsoft exec sabotaged that.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 points 3 days ago

I had a phone that ran on Nokia's Symbian OS before I got my first android. I kinda miss it.

[–] 13igTyme@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I actually had a Windows phone around 2011-ish. It had some pretty cool features and was a Nokia.

[–] Numenor@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Dude 2011 was like 6 years ago

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Aww, and I here I was hoping multiple vendors were FINALLY going to contribute to mobile linux.

Year of the Linux phone

[–] haych@feddit.uk 147 points 4 days ago (4 children)

So that title is just a straight up lie. They want to use a de-googled Android.

To be honest I was hoping for an alternative OS, competition is always good. But a de-googled Android could possibly be good, but being Chinese I assume instead of Google telemetry you'll just be replacing it with CCP telemetry.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 11 points 3 days ago

Indded but as an Australian, if I have to have an anal probe i'd rather it from the CCP as they wont share it with my Government.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 22 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Honestly, I think a person in either nation should consider using the opposing nation's stuff. Harder for the US to backdoor Chinese encryption, or for Chinese to backdoor into an American phone. Play the bastards off each other.

Odds are, that the Trump Regime will use American apps and phones to identify and track targets for ICE traffickers. China probably does the same to Uighurs. The less attack surfaces they have, the better for their respective peoples.

[–] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 20 points 4 days ago

That sounds funny, but In that reality, the government with all its power will find a way in (they probably already have programs (as in departments) for finding their way into other countries tech).

Better to just install a proper de-googled android build (grapheneos, etc) and only use wifi (if data/phone num not needed) for the best odds.

In a couple of years (with more r&d, development and investment) I bet this will change to being use a linux phone.

[–] jaxxed@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Except that there are credible reports of the CCP running police operations on foreign soil.

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[–] WarlordSdocy@lemm.ee 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean judging by the current American government id much rather my data is going to the CCP then the American Government via Google as a proxy.

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] WarlordSdocy@lemm.ee 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Would love that if it was an option.

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[–] itisileclerk@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (3 children)

US telemetry == CCP telemetry, I can't see how CCP will be more damaging to regular person.

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 14 points 4 days ago

I think it’s just that they were saying his won’t end up benefitting us. It’s just changing who is holding the binoculars.

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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

USA is being horrible at the moment, but China has a LOT of convincing to do before I'll let them deliberately have my data.

Best way remains to raise as high a digital moat against everyone. If you need a smartphone, get a Pixel, install Graphene on it and as few apps as possible.

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I would love getting a Pixel but the 100% price premium and no official support is making it hard.

[–] cristo@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices

It's my understanding that the latest model pixels have official support for Graphene. I could be wrong but their FAQ says they do. I'm installing it on mine

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[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 393 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (20 children)

Before anyone gets too excited, the headline is clickbait. The bigger Chinese phone brands are looking into de-googled Android. They are still going to use Android.

several prominent Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus, are exploring the possibility of developing versions of the Android operating system that do not rely on Google Mobile Services.

Chinese laptop makers are also in search of an OS that isn't Windows. Queue a race to prop Linux with Android support on that side of things.

[–] LMurch@thelemmy.club 149 points 4 days ago (9 children)

de-Googled android sounds even better. The story is cooler than the title!

[–] eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de 105 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I like your spirit, but I don't think a Chinese equivalent to Google Play Services would be more desirable

[–] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

All I want is unified push really. Then you just choose your server or host your own.

Or just Linux. Like furios or phosh, etc.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 35 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I mean they just replace Google with their own Chinese data-mining services so, no, not cool.

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 33 points 4 days ago

de-Googled android sounds even better.

They are already degoogled for the Chinese market. What the Chinese Android variants to not have is a shared replacement for Play Services and a shared app store because everyone is doing their own thing for maps API, payment, ...

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[–] agitated_judge@sh.itjust.works 35 points 4 days ago

It also says:

It is currently unknown whether these companies would aim for compatibility with existing Android apps or follow the path of Huawei's latest HarmonyOS NEXT, which removes Android app support entirely

So, it's not clear yet.

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[–] kepix@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago

arent there mods on the sub to delete clickbait crap like this?

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago

We are going to move away from Google, by basing our new future on AOSP, which is also primary maintained by Google.......I smell another FireOS level product on the horizon. Still Android, but worse.

[–] als@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

PostmarketOS for everyone!

[–] cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

I really want to get to a point I can transition to using this or another mobile Linux distro. My phone is fairly (hehe, it's a Fairphone) well supported, but my impression is that basic phone features are still not functioning properly making it more of a pocket computer and less of a phone. I still need phone features. As for mobile apps, I don't have many needs and I think Waydroid will get me far.

[–] Lembot_0002@lemm.ee 146 points 4 days ago (33 children)

We need phones with standard Linux. Without strange "Java only mediator" or something. Just a normal OS.

Android is a pain in the ass.

[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 51 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Exact! And please no bloatware!!

Oh wait, before anything else : NO, and I really mean NO AI and/or VR shit. Just none. None A T A L L

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So you exclusively want ai. Got it.

-Microsoft, probably

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 31 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I don't believe that they're likely to do GNU/Linux. I bet that they're going to do a fork of Android off AOSP or something like that.

Android's had a huge amount of work put into it to make it suitable to be a consumer mobile phone OS, and the companies here aren't doing this because they want stuff that GNU/Linux does, but rather because they're Chinese companies worried about a US-China industrial decoupling and its risks for them. Like, they were okay with the technical status; what changed was that they started to worry about having the rug pulled out from them.

That being said, I can at least imagine that helping GNU/Linux phone adoption. So, think about what happened with video games. There were some major platforms out there -- MacOS, iOS, Windows, various consoles, Android, GNU/Linux. That fragmented the market. Trying to port software to all platforms became a huge pain. What a lot of game developers did was to target a more-or-less platform-agnostic engine and let the engine handle the platform abstraction.

If the mobile OS space fragments further -- like, Android splits into "Google Android" and "China Android"


my guess is that that'll help drive demand for platform-agnostic engines to help improve portability, and porting one engine to GNU/Linux is a lot easier than every individual program.

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[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 40 points 4 days ago (6 children)
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[–] gencha@lemm.ee 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A rumor of plans??! Tell me everything!!!

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Gurl let me spill the tea, there's word floating round in China that some bde powa playas be considering maybe kinda putting something together.

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If it's not proper linux I don't care

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[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What ever happened to that other OS that was named after a color

[–] Overshoot2648@lemm.ee 6 points 3 days ago

Fuschia? That was a Google alternative to Linux that never panned out. It was weird with streams instead of files.

[–] libra00@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (17 children)

You probably should've led with the fact that this is Chinese phones, not like Samsung and shit.

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[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago (6 children)

It makes sense for Chinese smartphone OEMs to move away from the Google version of Android. In the medium to long term you are setting up yourself for failure if you are reliant on an American company.

Unfortunately, the United States cannot be trusted.

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