this post was submitted on 02 May 2025

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389

Several phone brands rumored to be planning a major shift away from Android (www.phonearena.com)

submitted 1 month ago by commander@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 393 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (14 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 150 points 1 month ago (9 children)

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

[–] eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de 106 points 1 month 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 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 month ago

Exactly what happened with Indonesian release of Huawei.

Also, more ads everywhere. Even your lock screen.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 11 points 1 month ago

No no no, it's not Chinese data mining.

it's just socialised data with Chinese characteristics! Much better.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month 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, ...

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 month ago

When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called “the People’s Stick.”

—Mikhail Bakunin

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[–] agitated_judge@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 month 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.

[–] radiohead37@lemmynsfw.com 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The US/China decoupling is happening everywhere.

[–] libra00@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The front line is everywhere, there be no shelter here.

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[–] troed@fedia.io 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Waydroid is pretty nice, integrating the Android apps as regular apps in the Linux UI.

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[–] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought android in China was already de-googled

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[–] haych@feddit.uk 146 points 1 month ago (7 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.

[–] SabinStargem 22 points 1 month ago (5 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 1 month 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.

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[–] itisileclerk@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month 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 1 month 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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[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 11 points 1 month 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.

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[+] Lembot_0002@lemm.ee 145 points 1 month ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (21 children)

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[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 51 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 1 month ago (1 children)

So you exclusively want ai. Got it.

-Microsoft, probably

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[–] tal 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 19 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Is this the year of the Ubuntu Touch Smartphone?

Probably not, but it should be.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I would love to have a phone that I could just plug into a USB C dock and use as a normal computer. They've got plenty of processing power for that now. Every single program I use except for games could run on a phone if it used normal GNU/Linux.

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[–] MTK@lemmy.world 82 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 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.

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[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 40 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Linux-mobileOS!

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month 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.

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

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[–] libra00@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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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[–] gencha@lemm.ee 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] YiddishMcSquidish 12 points 1 month 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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[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (1 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.

[–] radiohead37@lemmynsfw.com 16 points 1 month ago (5 children)

It’s not like China can be trusted either. This is a matter of not relying on your adversary.

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[–] vermaterc@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 month ago

Please, do not post clickbait

[–] kepix@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

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

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

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

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

PostmarketOS for everyone!

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[–] altphoto 14 points 1 month ago

Google meet Zune!

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