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Google is requiring mandatory developer verification for all Android apps in 2026
(keepandroidopen.org)
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.
So you'll move to an even more locked down OS? Out of the pan, into the fire?
It's what I did when my bank app stopped working with my custom ROM and Oneplus's final update to the phone made the stock ROM unbearable. At that point - might as well have the convenience of iOS (also I did like that it used the full screen on Carplay whereas Android Auto was limited to 2/3 of the screen and the rest was an Android Auto logo).
That said, Linux phones support seems to be getting pretty good on Fairphones which is great because it used to be that you'd have to have an old phone to have any real Linux support (like my Oneplus 7 pro was too new, whereas the 6/6T are supported by PMOS and Ubuntu)
Android was just in a place of "it's not freer enough over iOS to be worth it anymore" for me and still is.
Also I do run hacked YouTube now on iOS as well, which was literally the biggest thing I missed from my Android days lol, ad-free YouTube without paying.
How much more locked down will iOS even be in comparison at this rate though? iOS may not let you do whatever you want, but neither does modern Android. As time went on vendors restricted the system further and further.
Using a custom rom now is basically impossible, Google now releases AOSP source code only as snapshots and no longer accepts outside contribution, and now they almost fully killed sideloading and only made this concession after near universal backlash from online spaces. Do you really trust Google won't try to pull this kind of move again?
Android only becomes more closed as time goes on, at this rate it'll be little more than a budget iPhone anyway. At least with Apple you get longer software support and a fancy SoC. A community maintained Android hardfork or a Linux phone would be the ideal options here. But the former doesn't exist, and no smartphone I can get my hands on runs the latter. So iOS it is, or a feature phone.
Why do you say this?