Android 15 is on the way. And it's pretty bad ( youtu.be )

Sorry for a kinda clickbait title but it is what it is. I just watched a video about Android 15 changes and a lot of them are either not important or straight up bad.

I want to specifically mention increased background sensor usage (such as microphone) and the Find My Device network. These are serious privacy issues that just make lives of custom ROM developers and users harder by having to disable more and more stuff (that's turned on by default of course), as well as a contribution to ewaste generation and general decrease of battery life.

I guess we are getting into the era of complete death of digital privacy and absolute surveillance. This is scary but not too unrealistic I guess. I just hope the devs of privacy-focused ROMs will be able to do something about it and purge these changes.

Alphane_Moon ,
@Alphane_Moon@lemmy.ml avatar

Android OS updates have been somewhat lackluster since Android 8/9. The OS and smartphones in general are increasingly becoming mature products with little true differentiation.

They will try to leverage "AI" to accelerate upgrade cycles, but we'll see how that goes.

BeMoreCareful ,

Yep, and as someone that has carried a work iPhone and a personal Android for years now, they're pretty close to the same too.

I mean, as far as usage/usability they do sort of what we want at this point.

HiddenLychee ,

Literally the only reason I use android is because of custom launchers and the ability to use a file explorer. Everything else is just the same

Alphane_Moon ,
@Alphane_Moon@lemmy.ml avatar

Yeah, I can't imagine using a smartphone without a custom launcher and file explorer.

Lotarion ,
@Lotarion@lemmy.world avatar

When the Find My Device network came to my device I was literally asked if I want my device to be part of it, so even though by default it's an opt-out feature, everyone whose device can be connected to the network is asked if they want that to happen.

Seems like it's just another switch toflick off and forget about

GolfNovemberUniform OP ,
@GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

It doesn't look like it's going to ask the user on first setup of new phones though

brokenlcd ,

From asking to activate to forcefully activating is an insignificant step.

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