Android 11 alternative camera app restriction

Beginning with Android 11, Google will force you apps requesting the camera to only use the built-in camera app. Google says it’s to protect users and their privacy. Really looking forward to evergreen and getting out from under these types of shenanigans.

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If you read that link you’ll see that it forces the user to use the default video app in a very specific scenario, only when there’s an third-party app asking to capture a photo for it. If you would press on a generic “camera” shortcut (such as on the lock screen or home screen) it would still allow you to have a third party camera app. So I think your title and description is sensationalist.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s the wrong way to solve the issue.

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Now I am so suspicious about ALL apps that I mainly see them as spy programs. The advertised function is simply a honey trap. And every time I think I have been a little bit too paranoid it turns out that on the contrary I have been too blue-eyed … I try to install open apps but on Android and other closed systems you never know where your private information ends up.
I do not have anything to hide but I still want to control what information I share. This is the main reason I go with Librem 5.

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Yeah, I misinterpreted.

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This change does not affect users’ capability to install and use any camera app to capture images or videos directly. A user can set a third party camera app as the default camera app.

Would be nice if you could change the topic’s title accordingly.

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Very much agree! As for android camera apps, Open Camera (open source, installable from F-droid) is pretty good.

Yes, I am using that one and many others from F-droid. But there are apps that I cannot uninstall even if I never use them and that worries me a bit (Moto G6). I also wonder if I should update them or not ? In principle a new version should be safer but it can also contain more sophisticated spyware …

So I look forward to getting my Librem5 (Evergreen) where I can do what I want and check all the programs if I want to.

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What was the name of recent cartoon movie where the personal robot assistants were going to blow up with the next upgrade? They had that f-droid green glow, and would turn red before they were about to blow up.