I’m genuinely curious about what actually happened.

How likely is that this will happen, unchallenged?

I’ve honestly just been hoping it never happens, because I don’t actually have a plan to deal with it if it does…

I read this from Fdroid (https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html) and I also looked at the Google announcement here (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elevating-android-security.html?m=1)

Things are still murky to me. Google said the following:

To be clear, developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or to use any app store they prefer. We believe this is how an open system should work—by preserving choice while enhancing security for everyone. Android continues to show that with the right design and security principles, open and secure can go hand in hand. For more details on the specific requirements, visit our website. We’ll share more information in the coming months.

Is the problem then that developers have to register? I see the downsides to this, but does it actually block side loading and using F-droid?

It was definitely on the main page. Their blog link is coming up dry too. Hmm. 🤷🏽

I can’t even find the announcement for when they got into the legal issue in the first place. It’s like it didn’t happen.

Smashes.

But being accurate with the headline makes it less click baity. 😏 Honestly, this article is scant on details.

Data centers don’t usually have an “X-ray polarization detector for picking up brief cosmic phenomena.” Like you said, it seems more like a scientific tool than an actual “data center.”

They’ve certainly had to come up with some way to effectively radiate the heat into space. The article doesn’t mention it though. i presume it’s one of the main reasons for networking so many machines together?

12 of 2800 planned have been launched.

FYI: @[email protected] I figured out the problem and edited the OP to reflect that

I removed all my blocks completely. No change.

I also need to update my previous post to you because when I view the community while logged off from lemmy.ca, I can see all the recent posts.

It’s something specific to my account it seems…

From my phone browser via the webui:

When viewing while logged into Lemmy.ca, the second link (accessing the community from my instance) does NOT show any recent posts.

The first link takes me to the community at lemmy.world (not from my instance and logged out of Lemmy.world) and it shows all recent posts.

For this reason, I would say that it’s not synced. BUUUUTT…

If I go back to lemmy.ca, log out, log back in with my alt account… the two links you provided show all posts synced.

I think this is the kind of behavior that exists when you’ve been banned from a community 🤷🏽‍♂️, except I haven’t been banned.

I’m really confused.

Shucks. So itty bitty in Boost.

But good enough for me until lay get better integration. Weee!

So thaattttssss how! Thank you!

I seem to have a visceral reaction to advertisements. It’s very physical.

The short answer is that the Google Play version won’t actually block anything because it breaks their terms of service. So that version just tells you how many trackers and what the trackers are. I still use some of those apps and even respect them (e.g. AP News, AccuWeather), but it completely boggles my mind how they’ve loaded so many trackers into their applications… 🫤

Longer answer: To actually block trackers and ads, you need to use a third party source to download the app so that it’s fully functional. By providing the app that way, they don’t have to abide by Google Plays rules.

The link above is for the F-Droid “app store” version, which is one of the more well-known “stores.” I highly recommend F-Droid. They host free and open source (FOSS) applications. For most everything you use, there is a FOSS alternative which will be ad and tracker free.

https://f-droid.org/

Want a simple ad-free calculator, go there. Want to watch YouTube ad free, go there. Want to download an ad free Lemmy client, go there. Etc etc.

Hurrah for high quality FOSS software!

Yep. It’s becoming more and more common for folks to know that they can do it, but it certainly isn’t ubiquitous. It wasn’t that long ago when I caught my partner listening to music on YouTube with all the ads and I blew their mind away by installing NewPipe. They just had no idea.

Yep, that can work per device or per network. I’m a big fan of Tracker Control because it’s going to work on any network. It’s also highly customizable.

Fortunately, you can block all those ads on Android. Check out Tracker Control: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.kollnig.missioncontrol.fdroid

Because I’m not privileged enough to afford it without.