We did. RCS was made over a decade ago by mobile phone OEMs
Except now that everything runs Android and theres so few OEMs left, Google gets to dictate a ton of stupid requirements even though it's open source and runs off the Linux kernel.
They already paid Samsung to remove RCS from their messages app so that google messages would be the only major app with support.
Incidentally, it runs like complete garbage compared to even the OEM SMS apps of Android jellybean.
So when they go around making a hissy fit about imessage, I really don't care because I can't even use RCS without using their shitty gapp.
The current alternative is a data based app like signal.
Google Messages is a mess. It NEVER falls back to SMS if you lose data connection, making it very unreliable.
As a result I've had several messages fail, with no notice unless I open the app and see the "failed" message.
As a result I disabled RCS and the app and installed QKSMS and only use SMS. It's 100% reliable. For chats I use WhatsApp.
Add to that they are now blocking rooted users WITHOUT TELLING THEM, and it's really a pile of steaming sh!t.
Suchai needs to go. Google as a whole is getting worse under his leadership.
Even Android has stagnated under him. It should be way better than it is but he doesn't inspire creativity and excitement in the staff. They are all playing it safe, with zero innovation.
I used to unlock the bootloaders for a couple of years on all my phones, 10 years ago or so. I installed cyanogenmod and used it the way it was supposed to: rooted. But then Google Pay came along as well as banking apps that actually did their jobs better then the banks' web sites. You couldn't use either of that reliably with a rooted phone. So now I am back to stock android and I am actually quite happy with it. I like the google services, including Google Pay. Also, stock android improved a lot since the early 10s.
No youre not. Calyx is a joke, sorry. DivestOS may be okay but its still very different from GrapheneOS.
And no tiny custom Android can fix the issue that hardware manifacturers will not supply a single byte of firmware updates after their contract is done.
CalyxOS implements many random 3rd party stuff as if that was their own.
Apart from 2 (QKSMS and Bromite) being unmaintained, installing random apps as system apps (if this is what they do) means a system update may cause data loss for users, when removing those apps. And it has the problem of a way too high goal that can not be reached. They simply dont maintain those apps, so dont ship them.
How much maintenance does a simple SMS app need? What random apps are system apps? Beomite is not installed, not even sure qksms is, but I always use it. Never had a single issue removing any apps. Seems like you're just very uninformed
They had this on their homepage, advertizing QKSMS and Bromite as if they were project apps. Which they are not.
So either A: they preinstall apps as system apps or B: they have some form of installer that installs them as normal user apps.
You should have as many apps as user apps as possible.
Maybe they changes this idk. But QKSMS is not a simple SMS app like the one that GrapheneOS implements (the old and hardly maintained AOSP one) and Bromite is an unmaintained Browser which is a huge problem. Cromite and Quik are maintained forks.
I am pretty happy with GrapheneOS. Things like separate toggles for internet, or long powerbutton press foe torch are missing.
But you cannot imagine how much effort it is to maintain such a project, and their base is stable, the updates are damn fast.
First stability and security, then features.
Their core OS is minimal on purpose. I use the phone, vanadium (hardened chromium, with JIT toggle, now with adblock, completely degoogled), their attestation app, etc.
Most of the other stuff are random FOSS projects, I dont even use sandboxed play, but if I wanted to I could create a separate user profile and install it just in there.
DivestOS is doing sandboxed microG which is way more secure than unsandboxed, but still tons of effort and will break a lot.
Okay but I'd rather hear this from someone who is actually using a 5+ year old phone, not a guy who has a 1 year old work phone that he "plans" to keep for an undefined amount of time. Everyone says this and then they break it and decide the cost of a repair isn't worth it, or just cave to the first trade in deal they receive in their inbox. There is a lot of virtue signalling about e-waste and the environment from these tech reviewers and influencers on YouTube but very few of them actually follow their own guidelines.
I have a Galaxy S10e, purchased the day it launched, 6 March 2019. Today, March 25 2024, it is 5 years old.
My phone is in good physical shape and running fine. The battery isn't quite what it used to be, but it loads web pages and apps well, the UI is responsive, I look at new phones and there's not a single thing there I want. When my previous phone, an S4 Mini, was this old (yes I had an S4 Mini in service for 5 years) it was getting kind of slow, there were apps in the app store that wouldn't run, I had replaced the battery...I still wasn't really looking forward to upgrading. My S10e is...fine. If it kept getting updates, I'd gladly keep it in service.
What's more, I look out at what they're advertising on phones now and I'm like "don't need that. Actively don't want that. Want to not have that. Okay the anti-glare coating would be nice. Don't need AI. Don't need titanium. I don't game on my phone..."
I never thought flip phones to count as mini phones. Does people who want small phones actually buy them? I always thought people who want small phones do so because they prefer small screens that can be easily operated with one hand while still maintaining practicality. A flip phone's external screen is too small to be practical as primary screen, and the main screen is even larger than most phones screen.
flip phone owner here! I love my razr+/40 ultra. the small screen is entirely reachable by my thumb, and is plenty big enough to read emails, messages, etc. i even use it to play passtime games, like into the breach, or attach it to an 8bitdo zero with a 3d printed case to use as a Gameboy.
There's two main reasons to want a smaller phone. A smaller overall physical size so it fits better in a pocket, or a smaller screen so it's more reachable when used with one hand.
I suppose the new flip foldable phones might satisfy the first but not the second.
Some people, like myself, prefer small phones because they are easily pocketable. I don't have any problems operating a larger screen but I don't like carrying around a larger device all the time, especially since I've cut back on usage significantly and it spends a lot more time in my pocket. Flip phones are the modern solution to this problem.
It seems crazy when a list of the 12 best "small" phones have an average screen size above 6 inches.
Phone
Screen Size (in)
Galaxy S24
6.2
Xiaomi 14
6.36
Google Pixel 8
6.2
Google Pixel 7a
6.1
Asus Zenfone 10
5.9
Motorola Edge 30 Neo
6.28
Apple iPhone 13 mini
5.4
Apple iPhone 15
6.1
Apple iPhone SE 3
4.7
Sony Xperia 5 V
6.1
Motorola Moto Razr 40 Ultra
6.9
Oppo Find N2 Flip
6.8
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
6.7
Average
6.13
The iPhone 13 mini has also been discontinued, and the reviewer discourages the iPhone SE 3, describing it the "smartphone equivalent of herpes". So that removes 2 of the smallest of the "small" phones which makes the situation even worse.
Stop comparing it by screen size. Bezels are waaay smaller now than they used to be.
I see a lot of people saying "small?! How could this be small, the screen is X inches! My phone from 2014 was only Y inches!" while completely ignoring that slim bezels mean the phone is about the same size.
Comparing the S24 to the S5 from a decade ago, the S24 has a frontal area of 10,437mm², and the S5 is 10,366mm². The newer one is marginally smaller.
You wouldn't think that comparing screen sizes, though. You'd look at the screen size and say "Omg it's over an inch larger, this phone must be MASSIVE!"
Granted, if you go back to like the iPhone 4 era and earlier, phones genuinely were smaller. But phone sizes haven't really changed much at all in the past decade, yet people act like they get larger every generation.
The small phone debate is not just about the overall physical size, it's also about how reachable UI elements are when using a phone with one hand.
For one handed operation, screen size does matter regardless of bezel size. The larger the screen becomes, the harder it is for the thumb to reach the top of the screen because the top gets ever further away from the thumb.
I downsized from a Fold 4 to a Flip 5, after having used the Note series since it came into existence, and can attest that the minimal weight and size are perfect. I can control media and respond quickly to messages on the external screen then flip it open for browsing the Internet. I'm sold on this form factor.
No! I recently started going back to the office, so the Google One VPN was an easy way for me to bypass the restrictions on my company's Wi-Fi network.
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