Maybe I've too much faith in Google, but a part of me wonders if Google doesn't want to get sued for this change. After all, their competitors have similar systems. While Microsoft's is circumventable with a few click-throughs, it's particularly nasty in that their code-signing certs are comparatively brutally expensive, too much so for hobbyist projects generally.

If Google is looking at a world where all of their competitors are using first-party-controlled signing, it makes sense for them to wonder "why not us". And if they get sued for this, that would set the precedent for all of their competitors too.

At that point the playing field would be level and platforms would be properly open.

While I hate how user-hostile stock Android is (and it's getting worse, all because of Google's ad business model), these reactions are so blown out of proportion they might only teach Google to do it the subtle way, or use such changes as a smokescreen..

24 hour waiting time? Big outcry.. Anticompetitive permission system where apps can do not that much more than websites? Nah, it's fine..

Unless you unlocked the bootloader, you were NEVER able to install apps you want, as Google had the final say what those apps could do (the anticompetitive permission system where user is the third class citizen, vendors are second-class citizen and there's only one first class citizen - Google). We need to fight for the right to unlock the bootloader and then not be restricted by the actual malware that is Play Integrity.

My iOS using friend told me that he can't even use the iOS software that he has written on his own phone. He can run the software but it expires in a week so he'd have to redeploy every few days to keep it running.

Is that right? Is that the future of Android as well?

As a user how do I opt out? Can I root my phone and excise this crap with some tool?

If this is disseminated through Play Protect, does disabling Play Protect prevent triggering this?

It is time to dismantle - and subsequently forbid - Google. Too much Evil is now concentrated in this greedy adCompany. Mass-infecting so many devices on purpose is beyond compare now.

how is graphene these days, or is there a better alternative that can run map apps that depend on google play services (like waze)?

we need to create a new os

We can't let this shit roll boys.