If you haven’t seen this yet, Google is planning to require mandatory developer identity verification for all Android apps, including apps distributed outside the Play Store, taking effect September 2026. This affects every independent and open source Android developer directly.
This is not just about the Play Store. After September 2026, on any certified Android device, applications from unverified developers will be blocked by default. The only proposed bypass, the “advanced flow”, exists only as a blog post and has not appeared in any beta, dev preview, or canary release. No one outside Google has seen it.
The community has been fighting back at keepandroidopen.org:
- Read the full breakdown of what this means
- Sign the open letter (organisations only)
- Contact your national regulators — contacts listed by country on the site
- Add the countdown banner to your project
September 2026 is closer than it looks. The time to push back is now.
I don’t get it… Google‘s main appeal over Apple is that you can install anything on Android. It runs worse, is less stable and sometimes just does dumb stuff. That’s like if Nintendo would get rid of Mario/Pokémon
Android’s own appeal probably died somewhere in 2013 or 2014, but it has always kept strong for a very simple reason: phone prices. You could either pay 700 dollars for an iphone, or 200 for an android
That was it before they got a solid fanbase. Now the main appeal is that they are mostly cheaper phones.
Cheaper, but not by far:
You are taking the flagship phones. If you want a simple, functional phone, you can find some decent ones for a price as low as 200€
Indeed, since the company behind Android+PlayServices also sells phones running Android+PlayServices. But aside from this it’s on me for reading something that was not written.
Why make this a table instead of a list?
I just love having to scroll horizontally to read a comment.
I don’t think that’s really the main appeal, honestly. The main appeal is just that it isn’t Apple. And were I someone who didn’t care about the installation of third-party applications, I wouldn’t be running to buy an iPhone. Android is just plain more customizable and if you need a quality of life feature, you’re probably going to find some way to have it.
Yes.
I used to feel that way about stock Android, but the really useful apps dried up on Google Play a few years back.
Discovering F-Droid brought back the joy of customizing Android, for me.
My conclusions:
I’m not sure what Google has done to alienate the folks writing quality free apps, but whatever it is, most of them are only on F-Droid, already.
This feels like Google is just shutting the door on the walled garden they’ve been building for awhile.
Except now that feature is locked
You can get an iPhone at around 500$. Below that price, sure, Android is good. But once you reach the price at which you could get an iPhone, why not get one in the first place? Android isn’t more customizable in this day and age than iPhone.
Besides custom launchers and icons, the only thing that comes to my mind is custom WhatsApp messaging sound.