r/Android • u/ControlCAD Google Pixel 10 Pro XL • Mar 01 '26

Video Google Is Closing Android. 37 Orgs Are Fighting Back. - Techlore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MZfGq5F1NU
2.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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582

u/fermentedbolivian Mar 01 '26

If Google makes Android more closed, might as well buy an iPhone then.

234

u/oli_ramsay Mar 01 '26

Google forgot what made them great. I don't like the direction they're heading, hope a competitor comes along soon

169

u/seedless0 Nokia 6 Mar 01 '26

They didn't forget. They decided closing up will make them more money.

There's no moral in business. Only balance sheets.

75

u/webguynd Mar 01 '26

It’s the epic lawsuit. Apple won because they’ve “always been closed” it was ruled because Apple offered no illusion of openness, they were in the clear.

Google saw that, and saw that being an open platform brought them more trouble than it was worth when trying to exert control, so now they are going to lock it down so they don’t give any illusion whatsoever of being an “open” platform.

So yeah, it’s about money. But it also demonstrates that the US protects monopolies instead of busting them, so Google might as well further cement itself because that’s what the current regulations favor.

edit all this to say is that yeah, we should be pissed at Google, but we should all be more pissed at our governments for failing to nip this in the bud, and continuing to fail at creating strict regulations that force Google (and Apple’s) hand.

16

u/yodeiu Mar 02 '26

apple is in an ongoing war with the EU on being so closed. they now have to allow 3rd party app stores for example

1

u/digidado Galaxy S23 Ultra Apr 22 '26

Any developments? I am legit curious

1

u/yodeiu Apr 22 '26

yeah, 3rd party app stores are now available, but apps still have to be notarized by apple so DMA (the EU law) is still not quite fulfilled in the commission view. they’re also opening up airdrop, samsung phones already support it and they’re also opening up support for quickly connecting 3rd party earbuds like the airpods do.

1

u/digidado Galaxy S23 Ultra Apr 22 '26

Good stuff, hopefully that starts happening in U.S. soon too

6

u/Thundergod250 Mar 01 '26

I figured this too. They probably ran a simulation and thought that the money they'll lose by closing it is negligible to the money they'll get / save after they closed it.

24

u/drinksoma Mar 01 '26

Google will never allow that. Just as they didn't with Windows Phone.

42

u/oli_ramsay Mar 01 '26

Didn't windows phone die because of Microsoft's incompetence?

17

u/JamesR624 Mar 01 '26

No. Windows Phone died because there "were no apps for it", and by "no apps", I mean the crucial Google Apps. Microsoft tried to make some themselves using Google's open APIs and Google purposefully changed the APIs JUST THEN, JUST to make sure Windows Phone died.

Make no mistake, if the iPhone wasn't so big, they would have done the same to iOS.

8

u/MythologicalEngineer Mar 01 '26

They went as far as to make sure their online versions of apps would break on IE at the time. Yes IE wasn’t great but a lot of the online Google apps would work until they were altered so that they didn’t.

40

u/jfinn1319 Mar 01 '26

Windows phone died because of apps. Users wouldn't buy the phones because there wasn't app parity, and devs didn't want to put in effort to make the apps because there weren't enough users. It wasn't incompetence it was just that the market wouldn't allow for a third option by that point.

34

u/Kardinal Mar 01 '26

The point is that the most important apps for many people are made by Google.

Specifically YouTube.

17

u/jfinn1319 Mar 01 '26

Right and iPhone had a similar conflict around YouTube access (for while during that fight there was no native YouTube app on iphone because Google didnt renew the licensing agreement) but the user base for iOS was big enough that they were able to force a deal. By the time Windows Phone hit the market that simply wasn't possible. App access allowed for the creation of a two plank monopoly. That's not incompetence, that's anti-trust and we all suffer from it still.

14

u/Flunkedy Mar 01 '26

Third party apps were developed. i had 3rd party versions of Vine, Instagram, reddit, snapchat and other clones of popular apps some with features that the native apps later adopted. Instagram snapchat and Vine all had their versions shutdown. Rudy Huyn was a one man developer that made a lot of them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsphone/s/VBl2w7dSnW

1

u/AuburnSpeedster Mar 01 '26

That, and the fact they would sleep all the apps when the screen went dark.. so.. forget it being a music player..

-2

u/anonshe Mar 01 '26

No they died because M$ had no idea on running a mobile OS. Remember Win7 devices not getting Win8 or being able to run apps specifically designed for Win8 and above?

Or changing policies regarding background activities willy nilly.

2

u/jfinn1319 Mar 01 '26

Gonna disagree there. The rollout from 7 to 8 was ass, yes. But they didn't know what they were doing yet they just wanted to rush to market. That was the whole Windows 8 failure all over., not mobile in general. But Windows Phone 8 and 10 SHOULD have been knockouts. Apps killed any chance of that.

-1

u/anonshe Mar 01 '26

How do you expect app devs to develop when you introduce stupid policies which reduce your user base?

There were plenty of indie devs from the Maemo/MeeGo scene who wanted to help both BB OS and WP but both platforms were run by absolute dumbos hence losing interest leading to decline of apps and the vicious cycle.

Compare that to how much more friendlier Android was to devs till 2015ish and it just made more sense to head there.

24

u/GaTechThomas Mar 01 '26

It's complicated. First, Windows Phone was awesome.

But, MS didn't prioritize it. Phone companies were already locked in with phone manufacturers. iPhone was all the hype. And Google intentionally f*#ked MS by repeatedly blocking youtube usage on Windows Phone. You know, the things that MS got Federally nerfed for were the things that Google and Apple were given free pass on.

3

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

This old windows phone commercial shows you how out of touch Microsoft's marketing can be.

https://youtu.be/55kOphD64r8?si=xiQVXYCiZcOGE-OL

2

u/GaTechThomas Mar 01 '26

What was out of touch? Marketing just needs to be entertaining and nothing more.

3

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

The commercial was trying to make smartphone sales by making fun of smartphone users. Pretty dumb to me.

0

u/Kooky-Bandicoot3104 Mar 02 '26

like google pixel's ads don't do that to iphones ?

0

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 02 '26

Show me one like that. I'll wait.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

Also, we were looking at our smartphones like that because they were cool gadgets we had never seen before and we were in love with them. Microsoft was like, nah man, with our phone you won't want to look at it.

I remember at the time people were making fun of the ad all over the place. It was definitely out of touch.

21

u/TunerJoe Xiaomi Mi 9 SE LineageOS 22 Mar 01 '26

Mostly yes, but Google has always refused to make their apps for Windows Phone, which I'm sure contributed to its failure

5

u/Joker1661 Mar 01 '26

Thanks Clippy!

-1

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

Here is how Microsoft thought they should market their smartphone.

https://youtu.be/55kOphD64r8?si=xiQVXYCiZcOGE-OL

17

u/FerociousSmile Mar 01 '26

The Sundar era has been a shitty one. Hes a stock manager. The founders actually wanted to do something great with the company. Then decided stepping back and enjoying their billions was better.

11

u/webguynd Mar 01 '26

Google isn’t alone in that pattern either. This whole new crop of tech CEOs have transformed their companies into financial products. Sundar, Tim Apple, Satya Nadella, etc. all following the same playbook.

3

u/Antoak Mar 01 '26

They'd just buy and then shutter the competition.

1

u/TrueHarlequin Mar 02 '26

Windows Phone revival!

1

u/merlinxseventysix Mar 03 '26

This is always where it was going eventually. It's only a matter of when.

1

u/Kawi_rider_zx6r Mar 03 '26

I'm sad Windows Phone failed.

43

u/ModernTenshi04 Incredible, GNex, One M8, 6P, Pixel 2 XL Mar 01 '26

This is my reasoning. I use a Mac for my laptop, my wife has an iPhone, MacBook Pro, and iPad Mini, we got our kid the base model iPad last year to replace the absolutely terrible Fire Tablet we previously bought for them, and loads of other family members also have iPhones. Their AI is going to be backed by Gemini, they added call screen (not as good but it's a start), finally support USB-C, and their base model iPhone has a 120Hz display with 256GB of storage to start.

If Google is going to make me pick a walled garden, I'm gonna switch to the one where all the toys work really well together and are supported really well and for longer.

24

u/BlueScreenJunky Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Depends on your reasons for buying an Android phone in the first place.

If it was for the sole purpose of side loading apps and they remove that then yeah you might as well get an iPhone (or maybe switch to HarmonyOS or GrapheneOS to keep side loading ?).

If it was because you prefer to have everything in Google's ecosystem rether than Apple's, or you want a foldable phone, or you want a specific phone that has a gigormous battery, or an IR camera, or a headphone jack, or a 120Hz screen for under 300€... Then it won't really change anything.

For me personally it was the lack of USB C that was a deal breaker, so iPhone have been a viable option for a few years and I'm mostly staying on Android because iPhones are still more expensive (but the gap is closing) and I'm used to Google's apps. But yeah, it's not like we need to be faithful to a particular brand, when the iPhone makes more sense I'll get an iPhone, and it does look like it might happen pretty soon. 

21

u/tiradium S24 Ultra 1TB Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Gap has closed and Apple won if we consider Samsung to be "the" Android analog. 1TB iPhone 17 pro max msrp is $1600 whereas Samsung is asking $1800 for the 1Tb S26 Ultra.

1

u/OhWhatsHisName Mar 01 '26

I'd like to know how many people actually pay full retail, for either iPhone or Android.

Every major carrier offers them both for free, and both always have some sort of trade in deal.

2

u/cancerBronzeV Mar 01 '26

I always pay full retail for my phone. I have a really cheap plan going from like almost 10 years ago (100GB data anywhere in Canada+US for 35 CAD or ~25 USD). I need to have my own device for that plan though, and I'm not gonna swap my plan to a significantly more expensive one just to get the "free" device.

0

u/OhWhatsHisName Mar 01 '26

I don't know about in Canada, but in the US many manufacturers offer trade in deals even for unlocked.

1

u/cancerBronzeV Mar 01 '26

Ya, there are the trade in deals, but I tend to only get a new phone when my current one is in tatters and will fetch like $25 in the trade in.

0

u/OhWhatsHisName Mar 01 '26

Yeah if you can't time it, that sucks

1

u/SharkDad20 Mar 01 '26

Yeah I’m paying $190 a month for my wife and i to have the base storage 17 pro max with unlimited data at Verizon. I can get Mint Mobile for $60/month plus the cost of the phone. If i upgrade yearly like a consumerismidiot, im paying ~$1000/year for both phones after trade in (wouldn’t get pro max if it was out of my own pocket, dont need it tbh), that comes down to $143/month with mint Mobile, which is $45 per month savings. I can make that way way way cheaper by not upgrading my phone every year, too, because the main benefit is i buy everything up front, in the moment, when i can afford it and find it worth it, rather than staying perpetually locked in to overpriced data plans with offers of a “free” phone every year

It takes some effort up front, but breaking free of carriers puts you in a much better place.

Idk why i went on the is tangent but i hope it helps someone

1

u/catch_dot_dot_dot Z Fold 8 Mar 02 '26

And the fingerprint reader! People ignore that but I unlock my phone 100 times a day and I don't want to have to put it in front of my face each time. The ultrasonic readers are great now.

1

u/zaphod777 Pixel 8 Mar 02 '26

The Google ecosystem is less and less a priority for me. Any neat thing will eventually be abandoned, left to rot, and then buried in the Google cemetery.

I do prefer Android though, I'm not really a fan of the way things work on my iPad.

-4

u/kvothe5688 Device, Software !! Mar 01 '26

also side loading is not going away in this change only devs making apps need to verify themselves. and even without verification you can always sideload with adb. for end users things are not changing much so all these comments about going for iPhone are stupid

10

u/randomredditor575 Mar 01 '26

“You can side load with adb , so for end users tyres no change “ . Are hit for real ? The average user won’t even know what adb is . And why would devs making piracy apps , vanced , etc… wanna register themselves

5

u/Cry_Wolff Pixel 7 Pro Mar 01 '26

The average user wasn't installing APK apps from the beginning.

1

u/randomredditor575 Mar 01 '26

They were . Many apps that didn’t get approval in play store had apks

-1

u/Cry_Wolff Pixel 7 Pro Mar 01 '26

Your mother, sister or other non tech friend had a need for those non approved apps?

3

u/randomredditor575 Mar 01 '26

When betting apps were banned, everyone were installing apks . So yeah

2

u/fermentedbolivian Mar 01 '26

I know a lot of people with sideloaded iptv apps.

-2

u/mdwstoned Mar 01 '26

Step out of your zone, the vast majority aren't doing sideloading.

1

u/Auntypasto GrapheneOS Mar 02 '26

 I sideload too. But I can't remember the last time I used ADB.

0

u/ihateslowdrivers Mar 01 '26

No but they had a need for something else

-3

u/Khai_1705 Mar 01 '26

out of touch

-5

u/kvothe5688 Device, Software !! Mar 01 '26

sideload with adb is for unverified devs. users can still sideload with current method if dev is verified. 3rd party stores will still be there. do you even know what the issue here is. i mean revanced app is piracy with extra steps.

1

u/randomredditor575 Mar 01 '26

I literally mentioned why devs won’t wanna verify their apps

-5

u/kvothe5688 Device, Software !! Mar 01 '26

yeah and you gave one app name. vanced. which is a piracy app.

3

u/pendelhaven Mar 01 '26

vanced is dead, stop beating it.

-1

u/degggendorf Mar 02 '26

The average user won’t even know what adb is .

Yeah I think that's the point. It's easy for grandma to tap "install" on the sketchy apk a scammer sent her to, but no way in hell is she ADBing from her computer.

Meanwhile it's quick and easy for you and I to do it.

1

u/ImDonaldDunn Mar 01 '26

You can do that on iOS as well. It’s a slightly bigger pain in the ass than on Android, but there is plenty of solutions that make it easy.

-2

u/InsaneNinja iOS/Nexus Mar 01 '26

If it was because you prefer to have everything in Google's ecosystem rether than Apple's

Preferring the company that looks at your data vs the one that doesn’t. I assume it’s more because you prefer the apps rather than this being about deciding where your data is actually stored.

9

u/xyuster Mar 01 '26

On iPhone I can't have the Niagara launcher Or App tiles in the settings Or tasker and all it's functions Or the way better notification handling Or Firefox with extensions and so on

Don't get me wrong, I also hate this change. But if it was to come, I'd still be far from switching to an iPhone

11

u/zhiryst Pixel 9Pro XL, Sony x950g Mar 01 '26

That's my plan. I've owned 16 Android devices, starting with the 2nd android device ever made, the HTC Sapphire on Android cupcake. I miss those days even with their horrible battery life. It was fun and new. I know things have settled down a lot, but it really does feel like the spirit of Android is gone.

2

u/M4NOOB Galaxy Flip7 Mar 01 '26

I've been on Android since the very beginning with the HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1 (depending on your market). Never thought I'd think about trying an iPhone for the first time, but it might happen soon I guess..

2

u/Patron_Roly Mar 01 '26

pretty much they are becoming Apple these companies always lying.

11

u/punio4 Mar 01 '26

Not really. Apple's feature offering outside the USA is extremely limited.

Their multilingual / global approach mostly focuses on some variant of English + Spanish. Their keyboard sucks ass. They are weaponizing DMA compliance to justify delaying and removing features (AI, iPhone mirroring, WiFi sync, notification access...)

Safari is a terrible browser compared to any Chromium-based one, and every browser on iOS is just a Safari skin. While on the topic – Firefox mobile for android is not an option as it's the worst garbage on the market, with many features that are "supported", being outright broken.

14

u/Pallortrillion Mar 01 '26

Outside of the US, the EU forces Apple to comply with anti-competition measures such as allowing sideloading and third party apps, alternative payment methods outside of Apple Pay, alternative browser engines, interoperability with third party hardware (and hardware related things like forcing them to adopt usb c instead of lightning).

9

u/punio4 Mar 01 '26

Side loading and 3rd party stores are mostly performative for now, and Apple is still using anti-competitive practices: https://developer.apple.com/support/core-technology-fee/#:~:text=Fee%20for%20each%20first%20annual,in%20the%20past%2012%20months.

1

u/Auntypasto GrapheneOS Mar 02 '26

 Whatever "anti-competitive practices" they do is beside the point of the previous comment. How are 3rd party stores "performative"?

6

u/somersetyellow Mar 01 '26

Although people are saying the European side load process is fairly convoluted and still subject to various levels of approval.

Sounds like they maliciously made a system that maliciously follows the letter of the law. It also very stringently only works in EU countries and I think Japan. The rest is still locked down like the US.

I need to go out and get an old iPhone on swappa so I can just try all these things out

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Inprobamur OnePlus 6 Mar 02 '26

Seems like they need more fines.

5

u/nerdzilla33 Pixel XL Mar 01 '26

I'm not sure how to interpret the page you linked about Firefox on Android, I've been using it exclusively for years because I could install an adblock on it, am I missing things by using it?

7

u/Iz__n Mar 01 '26

And the keyboard is also reskin if you download 3rd party one.

My recent switch to iPhone reminded me why I'm on android instead. I use it not because Android is particularly amazing, but because iOS is just plain insufferable on many things

1

u/Methilian Mar 02 '26

While on the topic – Firefox mobile for android is not an option as it's the worst garbage on the market, with many features that are "supported", being outright broken.

I have no idea what that means, but every page I open in Firefox works fine. Also, Firefox supports extensions so I can use uBlock origin and Privacy badger. The way the internet is right now any browser which doesn't let me block ads is infinitely more useless than the one which does let me block ads.

0

u/kvothe5688 Device, Software !! Mar 01 '26

USA is turning autocratic might as well go to Russia

1

u/PickledPlumPlot Mar 01 '26

Apple actually has the advantages of a closed ecosystem

1

u/stephenkingending Mar 02 '26

This is what our family will do. I want everything in one ecosystem and I liked being able to side load when needed. Everyone else in the family, who isn't paying lol, wants iPhone so they will get their wish once this rolls out.

1

u/Loud-Possibility4395 Mar 02 '26

yup - Apple is more and more opening their Walled Garden and Google is more and more CLOSING it.

The best part is Apple products cost THE SAME PRICE and Pixel or Galaxy products or are even cheaper and the MOST FUNNY thing is - Apple rip off on RAM price upgrades these days (RAM prices crisis) is... cheaper than RAM on Amazon

0

u/TurnDownForTendies Mar 01 '26

Only if you like paying higher prices, having far more restrictions, and dealing with iOS 26 bugs.

8

u/tape99 galaxy nexus Mar 01 '26

Higher prices?

Most competing phones are the same price or even higher then apple.

Pixel 10=$799 Iphone 17=$799 Samsung s26=$899.

The years of apple being more expensive is long over.

5

u/TheCookieButter Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

It's the resale value that's the kicker. A 2-year old Android sells/trades for a lot less than a 2-year iPhone.

1

u/TurnDownForTendies Mar 01 '26

The msrp of an iPhone holds steady until Apple releases the next generation of phones. The non-pro models get a price cut, while the pro models get discontinued. 

The base iPhone 17 is $830 and is brought down to $800 when buying through a carrier.

Google and Samsung discount their phones much more frequently. 

They even do big sales within a few months after release. The S26 price increase might be related to the massive memory and storage shortage of the past few months.

1

u/weirdcookie Mar 02 '26

my poco was less than 300 bucks what would that get me in the apple ecosystem?

1

u/tape99 galaxy nexus Mar 02 '26

my poco was less than 300 bucks what would that get me in the apple ecosystem?

Nothing, but this is why i said competing phones.

Most people get their phones from their cell provider and last time i checked poco was not sold at any cell phone carrier(cananada/USA).

For most people the 3 big options are going to be apple,google or samsung(at least in Canada/USA).

Apple was always the higher price phone back when google did the nexus phones( i miss nexus) but ever since google released the pixel lineup Andriod phones starting matching or becoming more expensive then apple.

1

u/weirdcookie Mar 03 '26

Then i guess that "competing" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for your argument (downright putting into bad faith, or wilful ignorance). I mean, you are conveniently ignoring 19/20ths of the population (us canada is about 5%) and for competing you did mention 1 and 2 but then conveniently forgot 3,4 and 5 of mobile manufacturers and that 2/3 of samsung sales are not the flagships.

1

u/tape99 galaxy nexus Mar 03 '26

Then i guess that "competing" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for your argument (downright putting into bad faith, or wilful ignorance).

Competing phones.

Iphone 17, pixel 10, Galaxy s26

iphone 17 pro, pixel 10 pro.

Iphone 17 pro max, Pixel pro XL, Samsung s26 ultra.

These lineup are competing against each other. The Samsung A17 is not competing against the 17 pro max or vice versa.

1

u/weirdcookie Mar 04 '26

The original argument is android phones are cheaper. Just because samsung has really expensive phones doesn't mean that the cheaper android phones don't exit.

Yes it is. Every model is competing against every other model. Its not a boxing match where things are tiered by weight, or in this case price. They are all competing for peoples money.

1

u/Extreme_Beautiful930 Mar 01 '26

I tried to switch from iOS to android because of being sick of iOS 26 bugs and big tech’s anti-consumer attitude in general.

There are a small handful of things Android does better, but overall I was super disappointed. The stock Google apps are lacking basic features and the app quality is horrible - far, far more bugs on a daily basis.

As more tech savvy user I found it intolerable.

What use is Firefox with ublock to get around ads if I can’t play my videos at 2x speed without stuttering? iOS handles this.

What use is a calendar app without visual editing with drag and drop? iOS has this, exactly one paid calendar app on Android does.

WireGuard is half baked on Android. Transit app flickers and tries to give seizure. MyNetDiary runs at 20fps. Google Health Connect double counts steps between watch and built in pedometer (Apple health handles this properly).

I want to break away from one duopolist not immediately be trapped with another, but Android built-in apps are trash without the Google/Pixel alternatives, which try to lock you into a Google account.

Not even RCS is better on Android - it just works on iPhone, it failed to activate after a whole day (and selling my soul to Google Messages) on Pixel.

4

u/TurnDownForTendies Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

I won’t disagree with your experience, but like the other guy mentioned, I could detail my own long list of problems about why I can’t stand my iPhone 17. I hope your experience gets better at least.

Edit: Maybe I’m being too harsh. After the past week of using my iPhone 17, I noticed that I actually do like the experience as long as I stop trying to treat it like it’s Android.

2

u/MythologicalEngineer Mar 01 '26

I switched from Android to iOS and I could almost flip this entire comment around with my experiences. So far I like it enough to stick with it, and I’m going to wait to see how this side loading thing from Google shakes out before making any moves back.

Really though I miss my networking apps so much. iOS doesn’t give enough them enough permissions to do some of the more helpful features similar to WiFi Monitor on Android and I feel like I have to keep an old Android phone around because of that alone.

1

u/TomNooksRepoMan iPhone XS -> S22 -> iPhone 15 PM Mar 02 '26

I use AirPort Utility with the scan function turned on in the Settings app. Does everything (by and large) that I need the free apps on Android to do on my work S24+.

1

u/Extreme_Beautiful930 Mar 01 '26

It really sucks that there are only two choices. 

1

u/kapsama RedMagic 10 Pro Mar 02 '26

What Android did you buy?

I just opened YouTube in Firefox and set the speed to 2x. I didn't notice any stutter.

1

u/Extreme_Beautiful930 Mar 02 '26

Pixel 10 Pro with graphene. Maybe it was related to Bluetooth headphones being involved, but other playback sources like Spotify were fine.

1

u/kapsama RedMagic 10 Pro Mar 02 '26

Not for nothing but Google uses severely outdated SoCs for their Pixel line. The 10 SoC is barely faster than the 7 I had.

If you have a phone with a competent SoC like a Snapdragon Elite or Gen3 it's a different ballgame.

1

u/Extreme_Beautiful930 Mar 02 '26

It’s unfortunate that you have to choose between a phone with good performance and a phone that lives up to Android’s promise of openness. The snapdragon elite hardware is very impressive, I don’t understand why Google is trying to make Tensor happen.

1

u/Polkawillneverdie17 Mar 01 '26

Let's not go crazy.

1

u/kapsama RedMagic 10 Pro Mar 02 '26

If I can't install Vanced, Adblocks etc. then I have zero reason left to stick with Android.

Freedom is literally the only draw for me.

0

u/degggendorf Mar 02 '26

That's great, go for it. Nothing wrong with switching.

-2

u/omniuni Pixel 8 Pro | Developer Mar 02 '26

Luckily, they aren't significantly changing anything. You will still be able to use ADB to install whatever you want, verified or not. The change is to installing via an app such as a web browser or file manager. It's the largest malware vector, by far. Further, this is a change in response to having been pushed to allow external app installers in the first place, a change that they originally warned would open attack vectors, and now companies, governments, and a lot of consumers are probably rightly concerned with the spread of malware. This is a bunch of fear mongering over a fairly minor change that is incredibly easy to bypass.

-2

u/Finsceal Mar 01 '26

I have just bought an iPhone because fuck it, why not.

0

u/bummerbimmer Mar 01 '26

I got an iPhone Air because it’s unique and it’s selling like shit, so it might be the last chance for a compromised design-focused phone like this to exist. It allows me to sorta re-live my RAZR days in a modern world.

-2

u/Mavericks7 Mar 01 '26

Now that iPhones have USB-C and are a lot more open in the EU, I have no qualms moving to iPhone for my next one.