Google is moving toward a far more restrictive Android ecosystem, one where sideloading, alternative app stores, and even custom ROMs could become severely limited or outright impossible. The direction they’re taking is outlined here:
The implications are huge. If Android becomes a closed platform, the entire landscape of user freedom, privacy‑respecting ROMs, and independent mobile ecosystems could be at risk.
So here’s the question I’d like to open up to the community:
Has this topic been discussed internally within the /e/OS team?
And if so, what options are being considered in case Google fully locks down the platform?
At the same time, I’d love to hear from everyone else — not just the Murena team. What would you do if Android becomes a walled garden?
Would you switch platforms, support alternative OS projects, or simply accept the new reality and carry on as usual?
Doing nothing is also a valid stance, but it’s worth thinking about the consequences before the door closes.
Looking forward to reading your thoughts and seeing where the community stands on this.
Since the beginning of the /e/ project in 2018, we know that it is a workaround, a compromise solution for a transition period awaiting real linux phone solutions.
(it is how /eelo/ was presented in the first press articles i read in 2018)
i could say “cynic” as e.foundation only work (and murena try to make a bit of money) on the workaround, but not for the solution of the problem…
That announcement is the reason I came to /e/os. Google can’t control what you can and can’t run on an OS that doesn’t use their services. Maybe at some point they will restrict access to the Play Store but there are other ways to get apps.
So, for what it’s worth…here’s a partial transcript of the topic between me and ChatGPT, which I found interesting. it’s VERY long (hence the link instead of a copy/paste) Take it with a grain of salt, of course…but it was an interesting perspective to consider, if nothing else…
The most flattering of the responses was this one:
/e/ is probably the most important Android fork on Earth right now — not because it’s huge, but because it’s trying to turn “de-Googled Android” into a legitimate, regulated platform. That puts it directly in Google’s sights. Whether it survives depends less on code — and more on how hard Europe is willing to protect it. And for the first time in Android history, that’s not an empty hope.
Now, I certainly think that ChatGPT isn’t exactly the epitome of telling the future and I do think it’s being overly optimistic here…but I do think that one of the more interesting takeaways from the back-and-forth is that the bigger possibility of how Google is going to make life harder for us /e/OS folks is tacitly encouraging app developers to add Play Integrity checks into their apps.
This method gives Google a way to prove that they aren’t way prohibiting apps from running on /e/OS, they’re just providing a means for app developers to assess the status of the device. It’s a bit more legally defensible because they’re not enforcing anything, and they can shift the blame on to app developers.
To the matter at hand…I do think it’s rather unclear what would happen if Google were to manage to make Android useless without the Google parts, and the extent to which the EU is willing to make regulatory demands that ensure Murena remains viable. Perhaps Murena would find themselves making direct forks that don’t involve spoofing, and involve soliciting app developers directly for iterations of their apps that don’t require the Play Services. Google locking it up too tight brings up too much room for forks, and whether the fork is made by Samsung or Microsoft or /e/OS is that fork, the real takeaway is that the future of Google’s control over the ecosystem has enough regulatory and competitive checks and balances that Google won’t be able to make Android too dependent on them without it coming back to bite them in short order.
, reading it this way feels strangely messianic. Believers hehe)