You're not alone: This email from Google's Gemini team is concerning
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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.
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.
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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.
Won't be using any of those apps.
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Sadly, SailfishOS is region locked. Being from North America, I can't purchase their phones, or use the trial/emulation option, which really sucks because I like a lot of what I'm seeing there.
Us here in NA finally get to see what its like on the other side of the region locking coin haha.
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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.
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Can you tell me about Graphene?
I got bank and government ID apps (manditory. Denmark uses MitID for all government related things), but they require things like locked bootloaders and Google security features.
Would those apps be functional on GrapheneOS?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]how do they make it mandatory? what happens if you don't have a smartphone?
is it strictly mandatory, or is the alternative intentionally very inconvenient?
I'm asking because it is very weird to me. but also, in my country also in the EU, there's this misunderstanding that it is mandatory, while actually it can be replaced with any 2FA code generator app. and then it has a bunch of administrative features in one place for convenience
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Dammit don't make me switch to apple phones, I hate apple. I hate Google too but FFS all you need to do is stay out of my way and the one thing you continuously do is stand in my way...
GTFO of my way! Piss off with that AI crap that nobody asked for
Apple is pushing AI even for their Mac lineup. Apple is a US company and had to be forced to allow Sideloading in select regions. Jumping to another US company seems like a lateral move.
Moving to dumb phones or custom ROMs is the best alternative available.
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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...
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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You're right, I'm an abuse enabler because I made an observation about companies being shitty. Very well said.
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.
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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.
You can turn it off by going to Settings > apps > default apps > digital assistant > Google > none.
You should disable the Google app entirely while you're at it.
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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.
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.
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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.
Last year's tech for next year's prices.
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how do they make it mandatory? what happens if you don't have a smartphone?
is it strictly mandatory, or is the alternative intentionally very inconvenient?
I'm asking because it is very weird to me. but also, in my country also in the EU, there's this misunderstanding that it is mandatory, while actually it can be replaced with any 2FA code generator app. and then it has a bunch of administrative features in one place for convenience
MitID is hard-required to sign into anything government or personal information required. Previously people would be handed a key-card (a white, fold-out card with a bunch of numbers on it. The numbers were one-time use, so the card would eventually run out, requiring a replacement after a few months).
These key-cards have been completely phased out. Now there is the MitID app or a key-device that is almost impossible to get (you'll basically have to prove that you don't have/can't use a smart phone).
The MitID app has almost no features at all. It's specifically used for authentication. You log into the gooberment website or bank website, then a encrypted, constantly changing QR code pops up. You open the MitID app on your phone, scan the QR code, and then you gain access.
This is all run through the private security company the Danish government has hired, called "NETS".
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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.
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.
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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.
...for now
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Us here in NA finally get to see what its like on the other side of the region locking coin haha.
Yeah, I'd be happy if they had an unsupported version, but I get that could cause negative publicity for those who couldn't accept that unsupported means exactly that.
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Last year's tech for next year's prices.
?! 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.
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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.
My old one is a 6, so I think it should be supported. I really just need to bite the bullet and do it.
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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.
