They have already practically ended it. The official process makes the user jump through so many hoops - registering account, using it for 30 days (!!!), installing their app, begging for unlock through it, getting random errors which the official support refuses to explain (!!!) and only after that having the chance to try to hit the daily unlock request window which lasts less than one minute each day (!!!) - that it is practically non existent. Fuck the fucking fuckers.

It was a matter of time. We really need a good(or at least better) company to step up and make a phone. A framework phone would be fire but its gonna take years if they wanna fo it.

My current phone is an F5. One of my worst Android experiences has been this phone before I put a different ROM. Never would buy another one without being able to unlock the bootloader.

i miss the early 2010s

What a shame. I don't get why they would do that. Didn't I pay for the phone?

The real goal that the community should be working on is to strengthen the political efforts to give people the rights to do whatever they want with phones they PURCHASE, and prohibit manufacturers from locking them down so the OWNER can’t make any changes. I would totally accept that it voids the warranty because they can’t cover all the bricked devices that result from reckless modding… but there should not be allowed any barriers between the OWNER and the software within.

And the reason for my emphasis of certain words is that the corporate world is really truly beginning to indulge the delusion that nobody ever owns anything and that purchases consumers make are merely the manufacturer granting them the privilege of indefinite loan. It all needs to stop hard and now.

If that's true, the temperature in the frog's pan goes up a little more... soon, we will lose all freedom in the mobile world :(

I feel like I'm limited to pixel phones since they're the only widely available phone that doesn't void the warranty for unlocking the bootloader. I haven't tried roms in a few years but I like having that choice. Fairphones can be a little hard to get. Are there other options? Lineage support would be ideal.

The source on this is one guy from X (formerly Twitter), from Vietnam.

I mean, it sound plausible and expected, but it's not some official news.

The official process was a pain anyway, as it required sending personal identification data to China. Anyone that wants a custom ROM on their phone should be looking elsewhere, although I don't know of any brand that makes that process easy anymore

So that's why unlocking the bootloader on my dad's phone doesn't work. This really sucks, I hope there's some other way to do it because HyperOS is straight ass.

Bought a Pocophone F1 when that had insane value per dollar. Had to "wait" for a cooldown period to unlock the bootloader. I had never bought phones made for a Chinese market before. I have never felt more disrespected by a phone company, forcing me to use their launcher for 2 weeks, so condescending. I am a functioning human adult, thank you very much, I'll chose my own software. Never interested in made for Chinese market phones again.

When I was trying to unlock the bootloader, Mi flash tool told me there's an update (v7.?) and gave me the link to download the newer version, when I tried to download it every browser I used gave an error in the website even with VPN Now reading this news , even if it's still unofficial.... I was wondering if Xiaomi retracted the update because it's actually preparing to close the program

Xiaomi was the only manufacturer I recently kept buying my "new flagship every 3 years". If it is not possible to unlock, I'm out. I guess a Pixel will be my choice. The only thing keeping me away from Pixel were the low performance CPUs.

Sad to hear

I've decided a long time ago I won't buy Xiaomi phone again unless it's my only choice... if that's true then it's no more a choice Anybody knows what are OnePlus and Oppo polices with unlocking bootloader ?

Is this a good news or a bad news?

Same for PoCo ? It seems the PoCo F3 is one of the phone with the most custom ROM development on XDA, very popular.