Google’s Gemini team is apparently sending out emails about an upcoming change to how Gemini interacts with apps on Android devices. The email informs users that, come July 7, 2025, Gemini will be able to “help you use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.” Naturally, this has raised some privacy concerns among those who’ve received the email and those using the AI assistant on their Android devices.
Well I guess I’m glad I moved over to apple. But I guess the enshitification of all our phones is coming soon.
Yeah only reason Apple hasn’t done it is because they haven’t figured out a way to connect it all to its ecosystem.
Like they say, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
At least so far Samsung is letting me disable Gemini, as I try to do to any bloatware I don’t want running in the background.
I have a Pixel phone im bout to throw in the river
Second that, graphene os is really nice. I have all my intrusive work apps like team, google play stuff on a separate profile and my maim profile has all the private data and contacts. Just watch a yt for setup and follow website instructions, take maybe a few hours to set up.
Why not throw graphene or another alternative on it (if supported) instead of turning it into e-waste?
Laughs in eu
Maybe this gives me a false sense of security but I bought the adguard pro on social stack (I think…). I just turn all of the connections off on gemini, meta and Bixby. Like this
Why do you keep Gemini installed? Does it even work offline?
Android users won’t have a choice after a while.
I didn’t want Google Now. Uninstalled it, and it’s back and updated. Been fighting for years.
I assume it’s better to leave it and have it not work, then them sneak it on without me knowing or baking it into something else
If this happens, can we please all make a protest or petition with the FCC?
IMO, when Google lost most public support, it really started downhill because the people who wanted to profit the business as much as possible became more determinant than those that were still trying to throttle the company due to ethical considerations. When a company gets criticized for everything it does, its decline increased significantly. Add to that it exists under the US government and how that has completely fallen to corruption.
When a company gets criticized for everything it does, its decline increases significantly.
Gives me hope for the future of MS then! Maybe they will decline themselves out of dominance.
this can be great for a disabled person i guess, i wonder if it works locally in a degoogled way
If there’s two things that have been consistent over time with the recent LLM and AI craze, is that it have some good, helpful applications for people with disabilities, and that none of the big players are looking into them. Some are actively working against them. Probably because it’s harder to monetize “living” from a PR perspective.
I don’t have Gemini loaded to my phone and I have Google assistant voice command disabled
But a few days ago I was having a conversation with my son next to me on the couch with my phone sitting on the arm of the couch.
When I asked him a question, gemini answered with a prompt on the screen I have never seen before and haven’t since.
It still creeps me out
I looked up what the prompt for gemini is supposed to lol like and this looked nothing like that. It looked more like a popup dialogue box from a browser but the only browser I use is opera and it is set as default
Yeah a couple of weeks ago Google secretly activated Gemini on every Pixel user’s phone. I ran into the same problem, my phone suddenly activated and Gemini popped up interrupting a song that I was playing while I was away from my phone. Ended up screwing up the song and having it repeat over and over and over.
Iirc internal browsers for apps default to a system browser not to your chosen one
This has got to be a prank.
Every new stupid implementation of AI feels like a prank.
I swear all of this was predicted to happen by open source advocates of the 80s and they’d be called alarmists/whatever and then 30 years later you had Snowden leaks and all the surveillance bills and now Microsoft, Google, and Apple are all advertisement companies mining data through the software and devices they sell
The best people can do is just keep using and advocating for Linux adoption. Try out degoogled Android or a more traditional Linux phone device. Need more users and funding to get the software kinks worked out
I’ve been struggling with figuring out how to get google off my phone. I don’t know if I’m doing a bad job of searching or if I’m just dumb, but are there any good communities in Lemmy you can recommend on the topic?
Just searched degoogle in Lemmy
https://lemmy.world/c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
There are levels to it. The advanced level is using a custom Android ROM for your phone that has no Google play services/apps on it and that’ll depend on what’s available for your phone from community ROM makers. You can see if any of these support your phone or plan any future phone of yours around these
https://itsfoss.com/android-distributions-roms/
An easier first step is just starting with non-Google apps. You can start with replacing Google apps like replace Maps with Organic Maps or something similar. Replace Gmail with something like Proton Mail. Same with calendar and cloud storage. Proton has alternatives. They even have an okay Google docs feature. Use a different search engine like duckduckgo rather than Google.
F-droid as an app store. Instead of Google authenticator use Aegis. Instead of Chrome use Firefox or a fork of it.
It’s difficult so a process over time of lessening dependency on Google applications
But what about banking apps and surch?
Do you have any good material to degoogle Android??
Just saw there’s a sort of large Lemmy degoogle community
https://lemmy.world/c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
Personally I think it’s a good start to just replace Google applications. Organic Maps over Google Maps. Proton Mail/Drive/VPN/Calendar over Google stuff. Firefox and forks over Chrome. Duckduckgo over Google search. After that you can maybe find an old old Google Pixel phone and then start flashing ROMs off XDA forums as practice before you try a newer more expensive phone
Won’t be using any of those apps.
I’ve been Android and Windows user for pretty much all of my life. Vehemently anti Apple because of the company and I’ve thought the products are trash. I’ve been 100% Linux for over a year and a half, and if this Gemini stuff comes through, I will not have an android phone either. I have a Pixel and my old still functional Pixel. I need to try installing grapheneOS or something else and trial it to see if it will work for me.
If Linux isn’t an option for me in the future for whatever reason, I will be purchasing a Mac. I will never have a Windows machine for the rest of my life if I have any say in the matter, work being the obvious and uncontrollable exception. The fact that I’m even entertaining the idea of owning an iPhone or a Mac is really telling about how far Android and Windows and enshitified.
Same, I’ve always been android and windows and heavily anti-apple
It’s like people have completely forgotten what Apple was like before the iPhone
I don’t know if I’ve ever really been pro-Microsoft, they had just been what gave me the freedom to get the job done. I even had a Windows CE phone back in the day, because it worked.
When Microsoft started monetizing every little thing and became outright hostile with its users is when I made the switch to Linux, the learning curve was steep but it didn’t take very long to get a handle on it
Early on I think I made the mistake of trying to hurry to get a windows experience out of Linux when I should have started where I started with Microsoft, at the command prompt
I used DOS for a long time before Windows 3.1 was even on the scene. Thinking back, even when I was using Windows at first, I was always finding myself bringing up a command prompt to do things.
Linux brings back some of that nostalgia, but it is so incredibly more capable and customizable than windows
I’ve been using GrapheneOS for a couple months after having tested it on an older phone for a while. I’m really loving the level of control I have over what I give apps access to. If you have a spare Pixel to test on I definitely recommend it! I’ve been getting away from all Google stuff and finding free open source and self-hosted alternatives. I’m running in the opposite direction of all the AI and data-farming.
Apple isn’t gonna have your back on this either you minds well run to foss forever if this is gonna be your Hill to die on
minds well
/c/boneappletea
People say this so commonly where I’m from. I was never aware that this is not the correct way to say it.
For sure, as long as that’s a viable option for me, I’ll do it, but if I don’t have that option…
I’ve been GrapheneOS on my pixel7pro since march and I have no complaints. Everything works, and I have control over what apps have access too. The only thing I will say is that if you need the camera to take gr3at photos, its not nearly so good with grapheneOS. I pretty much always have a mirroless camera with me anyway so it dosent bother me. I just use the phone camera for quick snap shots
Hey, what camera do you use? My phone is showing its age and I was thinking of getting a secondhand pixel, but I’ve also been looking at cameras to stand in for the phone camera.
I was thinking I should go for beginner friendly and small.
I use a Sony A6400. Its pretty nice, fairly small. Pick up a used body off eBay, and a Sigma 18-55mm lens and you are pretty set. Oh and get photo processing softwear for your computer. I use Darktable on Linux.
If you want you can install Pixel Camera (official Google camera) from Aurora Store, and deny it Network permissions and any other permissions you want. It still works pretty well for point and shoot but I can’t speak for every single feature. Also you can install simulated services that the Gcam requires to function, without having to run Play Services.
Good to know! Thanks!
Graphene OS is very nice and switching was really easy. Their instrucrions are great. Furthermore, I had a tablet I had an old device I switched to test before I did anything to my phone. I recently needed to switch it back, and the process was similarly just as easy.
Not liking Apple for ethical reasons is one thing, but thinking they don’t make good products surprises me. I think the current generation of MacBooks are some of the best computers ever sold.
MacBooks are some of the best computers ever sold.
Yeah, but that’s just one generation out of many. For me MacBooks have terrible keyboards (personal preference, I know, but I hate them), had very common issues with battery, terrible reparability and stupid features like the Touch Bar (which they finally removed proving right everyone who said it’s dumb). So yeah, new MacBooks have great performance but overall the line was not that great IMHO. Very nice design, good quality, not great usability.
I was never a “Mac” person. But I took the leap to escape windows with the Mac studio ultra. I use video and photo edit tools a lot. Used my existing peripheral devices. Expensive but the most silent and powerful machine I’ve ever owned. Software is my only complaint at times but I’ll live with it. I’ll definitely continue down M series for my main device.
In context of the larger thread, I need to figure out how to get graphene on my current phone. I nerfed the AI crap Samsung was forcing on me. But who knows if I got everything. I’ll assume I didn’t. Fdroid or graphene… That’s my summer project.
I should rephrase. They don’t make cheap bad products. I think iOS, Mac OS, and their walled garden approach makes their hardware a bad product. Compound that with being exorbitantly expensive for what you get, and that’s always been too much to overcome for me to support. Now they are/have becoming the less bad option.
Yeah for sure. Every Apple device I’ve had has been well built. Every interaction I’ve had with Apple Incorporated as a company has been a dystopian nightmare, and with the walled garden it’s not possible to separate the product from the company. Therefore, it’s a bad product.
Last year’s tech for next year’s prices.
That used to be true but no longer. For anything but gaming Apple’s M series chips are amazing.
I’m a 30+ year Windows and Linux user and developer that preferred machines I could build myself. A few years ago switched jobs and was given an M1 Pro for work… it’s incredible how good, fast and low power the M series are. I’ve used my laptop 8 hours straight without plugging it in. That’s simply not doable with any other machine.
I still dislike their walled garden, and for high end gaming Apple’s a no-go, but for most things it’s hard to argue with how good they are. The machines may come at a premium, but they are high quality, work great and for battery use they don’t have a rival.
For anything but high end gaming, my kids 8 year old Chromebook is awesome and can still run for hours without a battery charge. And it cost $250 new 8 years ago.
Tbf, I’m not in the market for a new device though. I’m happy you enjoy yours.
?! Have you seen a M4 chip in action? Low energy, high performance. Silent computers, long battery life. Good value on a simple benchmark basis. Not credibly last year tech.
Pre-ARM Macs, sure, but that was five years ago.
Lots of other hardware issues to complain about, however.
Gemini can be disabled. Uninstall/disable the Gemini app if your phone has it then go to Settings > Apps > Default apps > digital assistant > Google > none.
I do have it disabled, but this article suggests that it will ignore that and it will be integrated in apps that I really really don’t want it in. I could stomach it if it was search and other functionality like that only, or even if it 100% ran local with no ability to phone home and train on my data, but it doesn’t. Not that it can be listening to calls, reading messages, etc, I’m definitely hard out.
Re-read the article. All this feature does is give you the ability to say ‘set a timer for 10 minutes’ or ‘start a phone call to John’.
If you have ‘Gemini apps activity’ off then they won’t use anything you say to train their models.
There is a clarification from Google in he article that I don’t believe was there when I first posted. It still by default allows Gemini to have access to things I don’t want it to access, which is anything. It can be blocked through the Gemini apps activity, but I don’t think that was clear in the OG text.
None the less, they claim that it will be completely offline and that no information will be used to train their models. I believe that’s probably true in the short term, but I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, and I’ve got fucked up shoulders. I’ve little doubt that they will change policy in 6 months to a year so that some data is sent anonymously.
I just want it so if I say don’t allow this thing at all, ever, that stays true and they don’t make me later opt out of that thing.
I’ve seen an article that describes opting out of the app integration as well (even though that by default it’ll be on. There should be a class action against Google doing that! That said, I can’t see Europe taking this as it is.)
…for now
The user experience of GrapheneOS is basically the same as vanilla Android, except that you have more control (you can uninstall google apps, for example), but at the cost of a small minority of apps (banking ones, for example) not working (out of the box, sometimes at all). My banking app works, and a quick google search will tell you if yours does too. If your old pixel is not too old (4 is no longer supported, 8 definitely is, not sure abt in between), you should give it a go. I think you’ll see it’s not as big of a step as you maybe currently imagine.
Web search would be a better term since a lot of people use other search engines than Google.
My old one is a 6, so I think it should be supported. I really just need to bite the bullet and do it.
My wife has been trying to get me to switch to Apple since Ive had a Droid X years ago. I’ve been on android since. It is time to switch. Probably a lateral move, but Google has gone to absolute shit.
Try lineage or graphene before jumping into the money pit maybe?
Saying “You’re not alone” is supposed to be a wholesome thing to show someone that you care. Instead, it’s AI companies squeezing as much data out of customers and injecting as much AI into everything they can.
Society really took a wrong turn didn’t it?
Society really took a wrong turn didn’t it?
Society has been circling the drain since the invention of agriculture…
No, Google is using their influence and our reliance to steer society. Please don’t forget how passive language enables the worst abusers.
You’re right, I’m an abuse enabler because I made an observation about companies being shitty. Very well said.
Surely overreacting to my correct observation that did not reflect on you directly will make you seem more reasonable.
They didn’t say you were an enabler. They said that those words are enabling. Just think about the way you phrase things so as to not hide (intentionally or otherwise) guilt.
In the absence of being able to switch to Graphene (Don’t own a pixel), I’ve done everything I can to replace Google Apps with FOSS alternatives, and disabled Google Assistant on my device entirely.
I know none of that will stop a determined Google eventually fucking with me, but at least I’m trying.
I’m so damned tired of the modern corporate world.
Did you find a Google Drive alternative? I’m strongly considering Peergos, but still kinda shopping around.
Nextcloud sucks in many ways, but it is functional and works for me.
It has always worked fine for me. The occasional upgrade process is manual but literally just a command.
I know that they might not be as secure as GrapheneOS, but you should totally give LineageOS or /e/OS a try, as they’re both not limited to Pixels. I haven’t tested them myself however, since I am a Graphene user. The most I ever tried with one of them was testing ROMs by installing LineageOS on my old Moto G7 play.
I usually move to Lineage once my two year warranty is up, just in case.
I know that by law hardware manufacturers can’t deny hardware warranty based on your software (at least where I’m from…I worked in for one of the big three telco’s up here in Canada)
But I’d rather not have that argument with the manufacturer, so I wait for it to run out. If my phone has a rom available I run that until the hardware dies and then I upgrade.
Yet we keep empowering them with every purchase we make and half of the consumer base will never see an issue doing so. Some purchases we have no choice but to make, and that’s where they really have control of our lives. They seized the means of production, distribution and access of things necessary for life and leverage access to those necessities for access to more parts of our private lives. The majority appear to be naive morons who will happily sell all of us down the river for more camera filters and some pretty shoes. Basically, toys. We are losing our rights, our privacy, and control of our lives in exchange for toys…
Consumer activism, by itself, has rarely, if ever, accomplished anything.
The best recent examble was Tesla, but that wasn’t a mere non-buying action. Tesla action involved vandalism and a massive word of mouth campaign.
Basically if we want to fight for a future we believe in, we must stop playing patty cakes and fight like it’s a life and death struggle.
Symbolic resistance is not enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I still avoid buying Nestle products, and have for years, but I know this is not the way to real change.
I want us to stop suggesting consumer activism as a valid pathway to change.
Consumer activism kills businesses and products regularly. We call it ‘trends’.
But manufacturing a boycott for long enough to work is almost certainly going to fail. But like you say, it has a role to play, just not by itself. It must be an action used with precision as part of a larger strategy. We have plenty of tools, but nobody puts them together. It’s always an isolated boycott that flairs up and inevitably fades away. The company just waits it out. We also can’t boycott necessities, and that’s where they really get us. Consumer activism doesn’t work all in those cases.
