Google is about to make life more difficult for custom ROM fans
androidauthority.com
androidauthority.com
The main difficulty for custom ROMs are not these standard apps. The real issues are bootloaders which cannot be unlocked, undocumented binary&buggy firmware blobs, SafetyNet, Google Play Services, and so on. Just look how Google effectively broke the AuroraStore App recently. It's getting more and more difficult to use Android without a Google Account.
For anyone who has been hit by this, you can workaround the api issue by long pressing on a playstore http link and clicking open in app (aurora icon).
So you can't search using the app anymore, but if you have the link to what you want you can still install without playstore or a google account.
It's frustrating but isn't the end.
Personally I mostly just use it with github, and checking the integrity of those apks is easy enough.
For me, the better solution would be F-Droid. Easy update process but the apps are mostly open-source etc.
I haven't really dig into Messages source code these days, but a few years ago I was making an app that can send MMS messages and it was insane how much heavy lifting a messaging apps have to do in order to send MMS reliably on any carrier. Losing the default Message app might be a big blow considering so many 3rd party message app still can't do MMS right (at least the last time I checked). For example, people are still posting MMS issues on the github repo for SimpleMobileTools app you mentioned.
I haven't run in to that lately, but an issue I find much more annoying is the lack of support around re-locking with a custom root of trust. I think a few others support it, but I've only seen mention of it on the Pixel phones (and I won't buy Google hardware after they wouldn't replace my Pixel 3 that was bricked by their EDL hardware issue).
According to John Wu, author of Magisk, it is not possible anymore to hide the bootloader/safeboot status via Magisk (https://nitter.lacontrevoie.fr/topjohnwu/status/123783055552...). I don't think that situation has changed.
This is Widevine DRM, most devices with the Magisk workarounds will get at least L3, which gives you standard definition netflix. Need L1 for HD and only a few phones unlock bootloader reliably and keep it (my Oneplus 8T does, 9 pro does not)
"You can see this apps, and you can develop for them. But you can't use them on your own device ..."
GPL explicitly demands that a method is provided to replace the binaries on devices that the software runs on. Which is one of the reasons the tech giants are so opposed to it. The other reason is cloud.
They use slightly modified AOSP versions. This isn't the first time a major AOSP app was dropped, the biggest was the built-in email client like 4 major Android releases ago. Also the calendar app was replaced by Etar a few releases ago (can't remember if AOSP's calendar was deprecated or just a piece of shit).
Good that is how they shoot themselves in the foot. The more they do this, the more people will realise they need alternative and ditch Android.
Not saying the grievance isn't valid, but don't fool yourself
For the few people who distrust Google enough to install LineageOS or some such, they probably distrust Google enough to not care too much about not using Google. Who is in this sweetspot where they want (i.e. install and use, not merely aspire to installing and using) a custom ROM but having no access to proprietary Google APIs is a bridge too far?
- Stopped listening 30 seconds ago
On the other hand, I can see Google's arguments and "plausible deniability" that this is not Embrace, Extend, Extinguish: really nobody expects them to "Don't be Evil" anymore, security vulnerabilities in these apps are probably the last thing in their priorities, and the target audience for these apps is really small.
I think you probably greatly overestimate how much normal people worry about things like that.
Look out your window and count how many tinfoil hats you see people with. If there's more than maybe one or two, you live in a fairly atypical part of the world and it might be time to move house.
That being said, it's Google. Even you didn't sign anything that says you're not allowed to do Google-less Android, when you launch a non-Google device, Googly devices may just "mysteriously" fall into "oops sorry we are understaffed, we don't have time to handle your requests".
I absolutely loathe today's smartphone landscape. You can have a semi-locked-down phone from a company that wants you to put all your data in the clown, or you can have a fully-locked-down phone from a company that wants you to put all your data in the clown. Worse, the only alternative that had a chance just had to be Microsoft. Watching the horror show of post-7 Windows, I think we dodged a bullet with Windows Phone going nowhere.
The masses aren't going to flock to any potential alternative unless it offers something they find truly compelling.
Users are lazy and don't want to take such a risk, but they do have a choice.
This is a wild exaggeration.
How is that not "pretty easy"?
People don't care about Android. They care about their apps. Some are fun, some are necessary. In my country, cash has been almost replaced by an app (just one), and it's getting harder to exist here without it (as I try to). That's just one example. I've heard of other places where compulsory national ID systems only exist as apps. And so on.
Unless those apps becomes available outside official app stores, switching is going to be de facto impossible, and people will take whatever shit Google and Apple roll out.
Apple is completely different of course: you're either in or you're out.
It would be nice if the alternative Android roms were better supported.
But you're completely correct; some apps really are almost necessary for daily life these days, depending on where you are.
Also, maybe at some point the UE countries will start to enforce the CJUE directive that banned US companies (and especially GAFAMs) in 2015 (after the war is over ?), this would open quite a space for competition !
You are already in a lot of national databases, you're easily trackable already. You already are subject to all of your alleged downsides without the benefits of having a single document.
Do you really believe that an American has more freedom than, let's say, a Switzerland citizen? Really????
Such a bizarre take.
Many countries have national ID systems that are compulsory (or effectively compulsory) and do not fall under any reasonable definition of a "police state"
Have a country with a single party you can vote for? This country will be called a dictatorship, dystopian shithole, undemocratic, whatever... Have a country with two parties which are marginally different you can vote for? Now it's just a normal democracy.
AOSP hasn't been a useful Android distribution for years. Luckily, you can make it useful through third party apps like the Simple apps: https://www.simplemobiletools.com/
Theoretically you can run an AOSP GSI on your phone and yes then you do need to find apps on F-Droid, but I don't think anyone but ROM developers do that.
F-Droid also has alternative dialers, so I don't see how this is a big issue.
The problem with MMS is that there is no built in system-level support for the protocol on Android, and due to legacy of 3G network/WAP, the protocol is quite odd when compared to modern alternatives.
I always thought that sure, they're deprecating old apps for the closed source Google version, which sucks, but at least AOSP still comes with barebones versions.
But now AOSP, a mobile phone operating system, will come without calling and texting ability? How can Google even do that? These apps, old as they may be, can also still serve as useful reference points for making your own OEM-branded app.
That would break the alternative implementations.
This is how location services work. Location has an obvious local-only fallback, but it is broken in practice. I imagine they can break phone calls/sms/rcs equally badly using the same technique.
It's not there yet. I need my phone to be reliable and IMHO, it would need to reliably let me place an emergency call if I ever needed it. It's not yet the case. For now, I'm using my first phone, which is not a smartphone, and the PinePhone serves the smartphone-specific needs I have on the go like look something up on the internet or display a map. Which is already something.
The Linux mobile ecosystem has greatly improved though, I still have hope that it'll be usable in a few years.
And the PinePhone Pro is a brick: 160.8mm x 76.6mm x 11.1mm and 215 grams. I'm looking at the 11.1 mm and the 215 grams. Granted, 200 grams is becoming worryingly normal for the new flagships but it's still a brick and those flagships are bricks too. I'm not buying something like that. If they want me to go around with 200 grams in my pocket they pay me. The A40 is 140 grams. I'm afraid there won't be alternatives for that in a few years too, and I don't buy stuff from Apple or one of the old SEs would be a solution until they will also grow big and fat.
(*) I'm also not logging in into GitHub since they forced me on 2FA, because of the extra pass. I currently don't need it for my job and I don't have to open issues to open source projects. The first time I'll have to I'll count to ten and see what to do.
I googled and found this from HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35083499#35086708
I'll give it a try. It doesn't change that 2FA is a pain and I'll log into GitHub only if strictly necessary. Maybe reduced logins are part of their security plan.
Makes all of this very simple.
While large orgs help maintain relevant FOSS, to them, AOSP is left to rot. In our case, several k employees, we have teams dedicated to relevant FOSS tools. My wife, at a startup, have 20% paid worktime a week to contribute to whatever they want.
Your analogy, at face value, makes sense. Adding a few more lenses to the analysis weakens it severely.
Because going for a mobile linux distro does not involve jumping through hoops?
> While large orgs help maintain relevant FOSS, to them, AOSP is left to rot.
Not sure what you mean by that. AOSP is still maintained, and there are quite a few de-Googled ROMs (LineageOS, GrapheneOS, /e/OS, CalyxOS, ...) that are really becoming very good.
Parent said "add more hoops to jump through".
We are speaking about the direction and intents. Google makes it harder and harder to avoid the Google ecosystem.
Mobile Linux does not add hoops to jump through. The intent is making things easier as time passes.
Of course today all this is still experimental and of course you need to jump through many hoops.
> Not sure what you mean by that. AOSP is still maintained
Yes, the base system is still maintained, but the concern is that Google increasingly adds features into proprietary gapps instead of AOSP proper. And the post we are discussing is exactly a sign of this tendency.
But parent was talking about a comparison with running a Linux mobile distro on a PinePhone. Using PostmarketOS or similar (and don't get me wrong, I find PostmarketOS very cool) is still orders of magnitudes harder than using a custom ROM like /e/OS or CalyxOS. And those custom ROMs are improving fast, too.
> Mobile Linux does not add hoops to jump through. The intent is making things easier as time passes.
Same for custom Android ROMs. Except that they are already much more usable than Mobile Linux.
> Yes, the base system is still maintained, but the concern is that Google increasingly adds features into proprietary gapps instead of AOSP proper.
Google's strategy and lock-in with the Play Services is nothing close to a surprise. But again, I think dropping support for those two (basic, let's be honest) apps is really not a problem.
Actually a bigger problem, to me, is app developers who rely on the Play Services because it's easier for them, and because they don't care about custom ROMs. And of course Google pushes for that, but in the end, app developers can pretty easily do their part to not make life more difficult for custom ROMs.
But the comparison works. No mobile linux distro adds hoops to jump through.
Of course (Almost?) nobody thinks that mobile linux is as convenient / usable as Android right know.
For many of us it's about developing an ecosystem that's truly open source / that does not rely on Google.
> But again, I think dropping support for those two (basic, let's be honest) apps is really not a problem.
No, indeed. The custom rom will survive. There seems to be correct alternative apps, and someone might even put the effort in maintaining the AOSP ones.
It's just a symptom / a clue of the broader issue.
Right. Sounds a bit pedantic to me, but okay :).
I guess my point is that AOSP is open source, and in a much better shape for mobile than Mobile Linux.
It is great to see work going on with Mobile Linux, and I find projects like PostmarketOS really cool. I just don't like how (some) Mobile Linux fans apparently seem to jump on every opportunity to say that Android is doomed and Mobile Linux is the only way.
Ah, the distinction is important indeed :-) The expectation is that things are improving.
I think many people in the mobile Linux do think Android is doomed, or at least is not an interesting path anymore for the long run. That's what drives them. Android works, but has some flaws this ecosystem can't see being avoided. Being stuck with the custom kernel and the proprietary drivers is one of them.
Personally, I'd be happy with an Android phone that can run free of proprietary drivers with the mainline kernel.
Thanks for the discussion :-)
Android already works on the kernel. You don't need a custom kernel.
>and the proprietary drivers
If it uses proprietary Linux kernel modules they will still be proprietary kernel modules without the rest of Android.
Most Android devices use a downstream kernel that has modifications that were made specifically for the device. In other words, most Android devices are not mainlined. I guess it is reasonable to call "custom" anything that is not the mainline kernel, isn't it?
Librem 5 doesn't use them.
> unless you make them yourself
You almost never can write free drivers yourself, because the hardware specs are closed. You would need to do reverse-engineering, which is too costly.
There's no way to get the latest AOSP on these devices forever. Hard work is required to port any new version and that's not always possible because AOSP comes to rely on newer kernel versions but you are stuck with the heavily customized one (+ the blobs) the manufacturer provided.
Of course you need to choose a supported phone, but these days there are plenty. And those alternative ROMs are getting really, really good. I have been running /e/OS for two years and I can't tell you a single thing I cannot do because of that (maybe a banking app started crashing once, and after I updated it, it was fine?).
The biggest thing really is that instead of Google Maps, I use one of the awesome OSM apps (Organic Maps and OSMAnd, in my case). And maybe it takes a little bit longer to get a GPS fix (I'm talking a couple of minutes, sometimes).
> And maybe it takes a little bit longer to get a GPS fix (I'm talking a couple of minutes, sometimes).
That's probably related to A-GPS. The modem should be able to receive A-GPS data from the phone. It might even be able to fetch this data by itself. Have you tried microG? I had no such issues when I was using an Android phone with Lineage / microG.
Yes that's what I think, too. I use microG, and it's using the "Mozilla Location Service" (which could use some love, maybe?).
Also it's not bad, just a bit slower than Google phones (but Google is really good at tracking, so I expect their A-GPS to have better data, I suppose) :-).
This is how you would typically do it on a phone running mobile Linux / ModemManager:
wget -N http://xtrapath2.izatcloud.net/xtra3gr.bin
sudo mmcli -m any --location-inject-assistance-data=xtra3gr.bin
I don't know how it works on Android, I didn't know how this stuff worked back then, I would expect something in the OS to fetch and inject A-GPS data on a regular schedule but that might be something to look into on your side. Some devices are just worse than others when it comes to get a GPS fix, regardless the OS.
There is no "Android drops support for them". It's "Google drops support for them". Google maintains AOSP, but if they stopped doing that, probably AOSP would survive in some form. Also I am not convinced that companies like Samsung would be happy to go with a completely proprietary Google OS, so chances are that they would get more involved into AOSP.
Pinephone has nothing to do with the OS, it is a smartphone. You can install Linux mobile distros (like PostmarketOS) on many mainstream phones (like Samsung, etc), and you can install Android on your Pinephone. That is completely orthogonal.
To run Linux mobile distros on regular Android phones, you need to have an Android base because essential features of these phones are implemented in closed source user space drivers that expect an Android system. You are basically stuck with the kernel your phone came with, plus some of its user space. That's what libhybris is for.
In practice, development of this is slow as far as I know, and you need someone to port your specific device to it so you can run linux distros on it. But distros maintainers are more or less focusing on the Pinephone and the Librem 5 now that devices not requiring such blobs.
As for running Android on the PinePhone, that's technically possible but in practice not much works AFAIK because people are focusing on the Linux mobile ecosystem instead.
> There is no "Android drops support for them". It's "Google drops support for them".
In which ways the distinction is useful? In any case, when your Android phone manufacturer drops support for your device, you are pretty much stuck on your heavily customized Linux kernel and your closed-source userspace drivers that expect this old kernel and its specific patches. They also expect the specific version of Android the phone comes with because Android may change APIs and drop features they are relying on. Porting to newer Android versions is not always impossible, but it's hard work.
The PinePhone I boot in 2020 runs the latest mainline kernel, which is the whole point of this kind of device.
Yes, devices that work with the mainline kernel are better supported. Both for Android and for Mobile Linux.
> In which ways the distinction is useful?
Because people not making the distinction tend to conclude "you should move to a Mobile Linux instead". Which is completely wrong: while there are active Mobile Linux projects, there are active AOSP-based projects.
Android, today, is completely functional without Google (I have been running a de-Googled ROM for 2 years). I played a lot with PostmarketOS, and while it is very cool, it is still very, very far from Android. Even more so if you don't run waydroid and hope for people to write good mobile apps with some kind of C++ cross-platform framework like Qt.
I know, I have used microG and all that stuff.
My point is that the way they are produced, Android phones are not built to last / be kept up to date. I don't believe it's a problem with AOSP proper, I could run the latest Android on a 12 year old intel tablet (difficult with 1G of RAM, but still). But that's because it can run a mainline Linux kernel when no Android phone currently can.
Agreed, most Android phones are not built to last. Some are, though (I own a Fairphone, for instance). And some mainstream Android phones (talking Samsung and the likes) are maintained by custom ROMs like LineageOS. I mean GrapheneOS explicitly targets the Pixel line.
Also projects like PostmarketOS have been mainlining many phones, I think. I would guess that this also benefits Android?
> Also projects like PostmarketOS have been mainlining many phones
There's only so much they can do, but if they manage to mainline Android phones, that's obviously great news for their owners, including if they want to stay on Android because this probably eases porting new versions a lot.
For example, RCS only works with Google messenger and there's no sign of that expanding (unless your Samsung). Even Visual Voicemail which should/is an open standard has a lot of carrier specific code (I think it can still be extracted from the Google Phone app but I'm not sure on the license).
NFC payments (tap2pay) seem to be impossible outside the few blessed implementations and even running those is a cat & mouse game with SafetyNet (now called Play Integrity).
Android is still the most open source mobile OS (that's functional and has real security; mobile Linux doesn't count). But IMO it better remember why people pick it over iOS.
I'm still optimistic, if open standards for the basic functionality is going to survive; it will be on Android.
- Sent from my Google Fold running GrapheneOS.
I don't get how Google can continue to call RCS an "industry standard" and do their campaigns publicly shaming Apple for not implementing it when this is the case.
Not to mention RCS messages are mostly being routed through Google's own servers anyway because no carriers have implemented it. No wonder they want Apple to get on board with this "standard," it replaces SMS with a Google service.
You're of course right about Google being hypocrites because they want to route messages for Apple users through Google servers. The RCS standard doesn't support E2EE natively, so Google will see everything unless you use Google Messages which implements E2EE, but who knows that data they collect there..
I wonder if Google would agree to RCS with Apple running the servers. I seriously doubt it.
It's individual apps that need fold and/or tablet support like I have the use Gboard to get a decent tablet mode keyboard and the Pixel Camera to support the different camera modes.
Overall it's quite obvious that it's really a phone + tablet which means a lot of things work OK but won't handle the 90 degree fold mode (table top) well. Also the tablet UI of many apps (especially FOSS) are unpolished.
The first iphone was released in 2007. That's like 15 years ago. People were probably toying with "smart" phones already few years before that. Its not that the world doesn't know how to manufacture smartphones and/or write software for them.
How come in 2023 there isn't an open source mobile phone that is reliable as a daily driver phone? With a financially healthy entity behind it. NB: It doesn't matter if its android or linux or firefox os or anything else.
Surely there is a market for such a device. 1% of a billion is a big number.
Is it because (pick all that apply or please add the true reason):
* Are manufacturers a cartel and won't allow breaking the duopoly? (Doesn't seem plausible, Samsung toyed with Tizen)
* Are governments happy to strike deals with the duopoly? (Doesn't seem plausible, at least in the EU)
* Is it the telecoms that somehow don't want this to happen? Why would that be?
* Is it the FOSS community that can't get its act together? (Doesn't seem plausible, both F-Droid and e.g., KDE mobile communities seem more than on top of supporting this)
So where is the bottleneck? A free mobile device is maybe the most important piece of technology one could have at this moment. I can imagine various actors that would not want it to happen but at the same time all sorts of other actors that would very much want it to happen.
Remember that there’s also not really that many open source computers either. The difference is mostly that computers are designed to be general purpose OS booters, whereas phones are locked down consumption slabs.
>* Are manufacturers a cartel and won't allow breaking the duopoly? (Doesn't seem plausible, Samsung toyed with Tizen)
I don't think it's a simple duopoly, but an application of Conway's law across the whole globalized tech industry [1]. Keep in mind that originally Android was the open source option, and it's been gradually become less and less amenable to that.
In my mind, I think of the "progress" of the consumer electronics industry (especially in the last 20 years) as undergoing constant and aggressive "distillation" process, converting people away from the FOSS side of the spectrum which offers freedom and control towards the locked down centralization side which offers dependence, convenience, and safety. The 1% market is basically the left over Azeotrope that can't quite be gotten rid of.
The experiments to harness that 1% market are the exception that proves the rule. Locked down centralized solutions are optimal for the tech market as it exists today. Samsung thought they could squeeze some money out of the 1% by being the "master" of Tizen, but realized that the game theory works out such that they would be better off as a servant of Android.
On top of all that, I think as the smartphone capture gets deeper and deeper, being in 1% is not even necessarily a 1-to-1 for FOSS values anymore. I used to fantasize about having a cool handheld Linux computer I could control freely. Now I'm more obsessed than ever about avoiding globalized tech, but I just don't care about smartphones anymore. I carry around an iPhone as the mark of the beast, but at least (I tell myself) I don't let it into my soul.
The best we’ve got so far are exactly custom android builds like grapheneOS or lineage that replace software on phones other companies build. Apparently google doesn’t like that, though, so they’re going to continue to make AOSP worse and worse to protect their spyware.
The best case currently probably varies between something like grapheneOS on a pixel phone or lineageOS which is less privacy focused but has a much wider range of supported devices.
I appreciate that, but in 2021 there were like 1.8 billion phones manufactured and sold.
Are you saying that none of those existing manufacturers can afford or is interested to offer a FOSS mobile?
I agree with you. But you are assuming everyone in the world thinks logically, let alone understands why FOSS is a better option.
I know and I have accepted this argument for a long time. But as things get ever more commoditised and the unease with the existing arrangements keeps monotonically growing the silence is kinda deafening.
If we could somehow get a basic white-label device going the magic of FOSS would work its miracle eventually. Think of modern linux desktops and servers. They are not for everyone but they are indispensable in their niche.
Thanks for the Volla tip. Will check it out.
Manufacturers do not care about orders less than 10,000 units. They make their money off of volume.
The only government that seems to care about these topics is China, although the rest of the world seems to be catching up on a strong desire to tie the individual to a device.
Telecoms require $500,000 per device for certification through GSMA.
FOSS can only do so much with closed modems. Porting to new devices comes with a heap of issues that require time, which means scaling to market is not viable without $$$.
This is not peanuts but it also doesn't strike me as a serious bottleneck. It is a rounding error in the budget of any serious entity that might want to get involved in this.
Most people don't care about hacking their phone. They just want one that works.
At the end of the day, while there are many who want FOSS-products, not many are willing to cope with bad experience for they beloved tools. So the actual market is very small if you can't deliver the daily drivers.
I can now leave all banking apps out of my xiaomi phone running lineage.
On GrapheneOS (bootloader is locked at the end of installation) I get no problem nor warning.
Google Wallet does does not allow to add a card, though, due to that failure of the "CTS Profile Match", which I assume is what you mean by "device fingerprint".
Google is just deprecating AOSP Apps that neither them nor anyone else is using.
There are plenty of better FOSS alternatives than what's in AOSP.
I think this will have precisely zero impact on "custom ROM fans".
[1]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.smsmes...
[2]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.thanky...
[3]: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-SMS-Messenger
When Android was new, you had to wait for eventually Skype to do an Android release. Then there was Hangout, Talk, Duo, Meet, ... and of course the built in SMS app.
There are many linux mobile distributions, I think the most mature / widespread ones are Mobian, PostmarketOS and Manjaro. And UBPorts of course.
Mobian has been upstreaming most of its work to Debian proper, which is cool. I'm using Mobian but there's not much Mobian-specific stuff remaining. I think they nailed the development model.
I feel like people tend to really under-estimate the difference between "proper linux distros" (why "proper", btw?) and Android. Android was designed for smartphones, good luck catching up with "proper" distros.
There are tons of things to criticize google for, but the fact that they won't maintain a client app that's so barebone it's practically unusable anyway, isn't one of them.
Google is slowly but surely turning more and more components of Android into closed source code. This is a targeted effort to kill AOSP and lock consumers into their ecosystem. The end result will probably look a lot like macOS: a few open source parts, but primarily a proprietary stack.
What? Just checkout the sources and go through them, maybe?
> not having properly supported open source apps is not the best
If your definition of "properly supported" means "supported by Google", I guess...
I think you misread my comment, or I wasn't clear enough, I work on AOSP daily so I know very well what's in there :)
I think I made my weekly phone call a couple of days ago, only because my ISP doesn't allow cancellations via email.
Your comment does make more sense if you're talking about non-Android ROMs. None of the existing ones convince me. See also: https://drewdevault.com/2023/06/16/Mobile-linux-retrospectiv...
What are "two key open-source apps"?
> Google has quietly deprecated support for the Dialer and Messaging apps in AOSP. This means brands need to use their own apps or Google’s latest phone and messaging apps.
Don't custom ROMs use either their own dialer apps or Google's apps already? What are the options other than Goole and your own?
> Custom ROM developers might need to develop their own phone and texting apps
How is this a problem? Developing a basic dialer or a messaging app seems a trivial task (perhaps I'm wrong, I can only judge on the UI/functionality and don't know the internals).
Here are my problems with Simple SMS that are fixed in QKSMS:
1) Long delay updating conversation after receiving a message (>5s).
2) Date sorting broken (old messages appearing at top of queue for no reason).
3) "Failed to send" sms users experience is bad (still testing on qk).
4) MMS sender ID almost always wrong (all messages in group MMS appear to be from the same person until you examine details).
5) Sending MMS with attachment/image always fails without verbose error (still testing qk)
This is pretty abysmal. Do I use the unmaintained app that fixes 3-5 of these issues, or the apparently actively developed one with all the warts? I guess this is the state of basic phone functionality in vendor-free, google-free android.
The case for the Pine phone and other divergent devices is incredibly urgent.
There are many things Google can do to make like more difficult for custom ROMs, but I don't think this is one.
You know that xkcd with n standards, let's add another, now it's n+1? That's kinda how I feel about Android ROMs these days. I'm hopeful we can join forces to a greater extent, and make these platforms easier for less-technical folks to access.
LineageOS, GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, I think all those are becoming really good.
Personally, I daily drive it with compromise. Had I been a secretary, it wouldn't cut it.
Don't get me wrong: I like mobile Linux distros (played with PostmarketOS), but I think it is completely off topic.
All this article says is that Google will stop supporting 2 apps. Open source apps maintained by others will replace them, for sure.
AOSP is still open source, they just stopped maintaining two apps.
You can't escape google even if you want to, whereas with Apple you only need to switch phones.