Contact with VW

[Fjoerfretter]

Had contact with VW about their “my VW app” not working anymore on /e/OS on my Fairphone 6. It’s the only app not working. I have no problems with banking apps, government apps, ID apps, etc. etc. only the “my VW app” since the beginning of June. After e-mailing back and forth, here is my final e-mail:

“Hi,

I bought my Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. That is a de-Googled OS. It does not have Google Play Protect certified, because it has no Google Play store or any Google apps for that matter. (It uses microG instead, an open source, free, Google Play Services alternative.) All my banking apps, government apps, etc. work perfectly fine! The only app not working is your “my VW app”, but the “my VW app” used to work perfectly fine on my Fairphone 6 with /e/OS! Since the last couple of updates it doesn’t work. I can’t log in, I get an error message (see mail with attachments before). Something has changed in the app and that is the reason it does not work. See here: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Volkswagen-blocks-custom-ROM-users-from-VW-app-11370557.html

According the article, VW said they were looking into the matter. It’s been a couple of months now and I would love to know the status. Is VW actively working on a solution for this? If so, what is the status and when can we expect it to be fixed? That’s all I want to know.”

Their standard response:

“…Thank you for your message.

Please note that the use of the Volkswagen app is only supported on iOS devices and Android devices with supported operating system versions.

On devices on which alternative operating systems (so-called custom ROMs, e.g. GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or similar solutions) are installed, limitations or a lack of functionality of the Volkswagen app may occur. These systems are not part of the supported application environment of Volkswagen AG for the Volkswagen app, which is why we unfortunately cannot offer technical support in such cases.

The reason for this is that the Volkswagen app relies on security-relevant system components and certified Android standards to ensure reliable and secure use of our digital services.

Of course, we will be happy to assist you with any questions regarding the use of our official applications and services.

…

Best regards
Your Volkswagen Team”

Guess I am not done e-mailing with them.

[GabrielT]

@Fjoerfretter

custom ROMs, e.g. GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or similar solutions) are installed, limitations or a lack of functionality of the Volkswagen app may occur. These systems are not part of the supported application environment of Volkswagen AG for the Volkswagen app, which is why we unfortunately cannot offer technical support in such cases.

So what we can do is:

1. Use the competition to make VW realize that those practises do not bring more safety but instead a loss of customers and therefore a loss of revenue. Implying changing car brand.
2. In parallel, contact the EU comission and your EU member of parliament to pass regulation that forbids to close a system to one or two app stores. Actually it is quite possible that no new law is needed and that we just have to enforce the existing ones. You could contact the legal service of an open-source association/fundation to ge to know that. I am convinced that forcing a user to use a single or a bi-monopoly tool (here an app-store) is against anti-trust and market-concentration laws that already exist. It is the same fight with music and film platforms, I guess the EU parliament is already trying to find ways to force any owner of intellectual property to share its item on any catalogue and platform (the platform can anyhow pay the owner according to the views). With Google app-store it will be easier, there are already many talks to force them to open Google-play (especially for government apps) and in practise Google tolerates AppLounge/Aurora-store and Huawei-type-stores specifically because they would risk a lawsuit they would very likelylawsuit that

[Taurus]

Reported here as well: https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/daily-surveillance-briefing-august-25-2026/#volkswagen-grapheneos

[Chr1]

Opened also an official ticket

Lets see

[tcecyk]

car manufacturers have a long history of protecting their profits in replacement parts for many decades. They’re very familiar with the basic ingredients of what Google does with playintegrity.

Kartellrecht can help, or any other consumer protections. Without individual cases (independent replacement part producers) and the courts, consumers would have a much degraded offering and higher prices. Same thing for Smartphones.