this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026

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Google is requiring mandatory developer verification for all Android apps in 2026 (keepandroidopen.org)

submitted 20 hours ago by TheTearMiser@lemmy.world to c/android@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] palmtrees2309@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

We need a platform like Framework in mobile sector.

[–] percent@infosec.pub 1 points 25 minutes ago

There was almost one, many years ago, but Google bought and killed it

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 1 points 57 minutes ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago)

It just occured to me what this is all about: shutting down the ICE tracking app. They won't carry it on the play store, but its still being shared.

https://antifreeze.app/

With this, you can't get it on your phone. And, given how much Google is sucking up to tRump, they want to help him shut this down along with all the other evil.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I'm gonna stick to pre-owned devices with alternate ROMs like Lineage, Cyanogen, RR, Havoc, Bliss, cr, Viper, AOSP, KP, ISP, etc. or any of the other hundred brews. I don't anticipate getting a phone that runs android and is not able to be modified EVER. Eventually if the time comes that the tech changed so vastly that they're not usable anymore (like 3G now) by then hopefully there will be full Linux phones or some other varieties. Maybe many.

But the thing is the mainstream masses just don't give a shit. Their rights and liberties have been getting chewed away at for decades and they just can't seem to care. As long as they are entertained enough and the culture like ours - ie geek subculture / hacking community continues to be mocked and vilified, they're certainly not gonna listen to us.

But what's new about that? Nada.

We are forever going to remain a fringe community and I just accept that. When a family member has Alexa devices and I show them all the analytics and tests and records from all the various sources that provide empirical evidence of constant surveillance and spying and uploading of eavesdropped audio and the folks just go eh oh well eh yeah but ah useful eh I have nothing to hide ehhh urrrgh .. I start to see them with sunken eye sockets and protruding brow ridges. They are the fools and the suckers and the sheep. They're the ones who will line up to be implanted with a chip, they're the ones who will pay to have their brains mapped and catalogued. You can't cure fucking stupid. Meanwhile people like us will remain the fringe "undesirables" as long as our hearts beat.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 7 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

I thought they just rolled this back?

[–] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago

As far as I'm aware, there's only the advanced flow thing that is mentioned in this post?

If that's the only solution, I wouldn't call that "rolling back."

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 4 points 2 hours ago

Google made some noises in a blog post, but beyond that there is no evidence that they have changed direction. I guess you can take them at their word if you want, but that seems rather naive given the context.

[–] asuka@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 hour ago

They did, but why talk about that when we can just fearmonger about things that aren't happening?

[–] Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 hours ago

They're really working hard at distancing themselves from that "Don't be evil" motto.

[–] coredev@programming.dev 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

How will this affect MDM-solutions that installs apps from outside the GMS world

[–] hdsrob@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

IIRC, Google stated that it won't affect MDM.

[–] wavebeam@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Is there some sort of in between of GMS and Non-GMS that this could possibly apply to?

[–] hdsrob@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

It would really be about MDM.

With most MDM solutions there's an owner app that actually owns the device and can install apps directly.

[–] wavebeam@lemmy.world 1 points 47 minutes ago

How familiar with this are you? I’m pretty sure most MDMs have to play nice with the rules set by GMS. There are MDMs made by the OEMs of some HW brands, and they have the system signature in their MDM agent for sideloading, but even then if they’re GMS compatible and not AOSP there are limitations to what they can control from GMS’s influence.

[–] ljosalhusky@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Ah, how I love my Jolla C2 with SailfishOS ❤️, and how exited I am to get the new Jolla Phone I pre ordered. ✌️🙏❤️

[–] ADTJ@feddit.uk 1 points 1 hour ago

Is Jolla any good now? I was using the Jolla C about ten years ago and it showed some promise but it was very clunky to use.

Also the Android runtime was based on 4.4 which was very outdated even at the time so loads of apps didn't work even with the Android support layer due to outdated SDK.

I really want Linux phones to do well but that's been my only experience so far

[–] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I get that you can get around this but there are 2 major problems I see.

Google now has a flag on my phone they can control remotely to keep me from accessing the apps I want to use.
Alternative app stores like F-Droid will never be any more popular than they are today. This raises the barrier to entry so much that we can effectively consider the open source phone app movement to be dead in the water.

[–] Trilogy3452@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

And it can't be disabled in forks? Or will the google sdk require that from the OS (for apps that use it)?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 11 points 5 hours ago

Forks can disable whatever they want.

But the play integrity API, or safetynet or whatever, can fail you in its security checks, and apps that require them may refuse to run on those devices.

[–] Justifier@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Never owned an iPhone

Currently on android purely for alternative os's

Next phones for my family will either be Linux, if they hold the line, or iPhone if no one does

Why would anyone pick a garbage Android device if they're as locked down as iOS and costs as much?

Make it shitty, Google. I hope companies that behave as yours are get the same enshitification ending

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago

This somehow is gonna push me to buy an used iPhone. The only reason I don't own an iPhone is because I enjoy the android's freedom. If you take that away an android phone just becomes an IPhone but without the quality

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