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Google and Epic give up fighting — third-party Android app stores are coming next week
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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By what about F-droid?
You currently have to install F-Droid manually via APK. This change will allow F-Droid to be listed in the Google Play store.
with the caveat being F-Droid would have to comply with the new developer verification system
It's not really Fdroid complying so much as the developers signing the apps having registered with Google. Fdroid itself is unaffected by it except for having to sign their appstore binary. But they definitely are championing the side of the FOSS developer that's traditionally been their supplier, and it's how it's going to affect those devs that they're (rightly) up in arms on behalf.
It would increase visibility of F-Droid (people that might have never heard of it might start seeing it in the Play Store) so I think they'll give in to Google's requirements even if they oppose them...
It would require either every app developer on F-Droid to comply as well, or for F-Droid to implement google play style app signing, both of which ive seen F-Droid maintainers being against.
Has this been mentioned anywhere? I haven't seen it.
I'm in a Matrix room with a couple of F-Droid team members and that is where i've gotten the information. I am unsure if it is easily found info. You might be able to ask on the forums if you want to fully fact check my statement.
Ahh, interesting, thanks for the info.
Along with all the apps available through FDroid, right?
That's a separate thing. As far as I know, there'll be no difference between third-party app stores installed via Google Play vs third-party app stores installed via APK in terms of the apps in the store itself.
IIRC they're going to force verification for all apps but have an opt-out that you just need to do once, and wait 24 hours after enabling it.
There is real concern if they make it harder in the future but it's the same as just enabling developer options which is pretty easy. The target audience is phishing scams and people who have no idea what they're doing.