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.
Grotesque
This all pointless because the scammers will just have you download their apps from the play store anyways, its not like anyone is maintaining that cesspool.
I’m not giving them my face id or finger print, fuck them. If this change sticks my next device will be an iPhone.
So you’ll move to an even more locked down OS? Out of the pan, into the fire?
It doesn’t sound like you would have to.
I hate being that guy, but at this point we’re just jumping from a frying pan to another.
Pretty much, that’s just where we are at. What made Android preferable to me was the freedom it offered and Android vendors kept chipping away at that for years. With this change implemented Android will be nothing more than cheap iOS, by then you may as well raise money to get the real thing or cheap out harder by buying a feature phone if doing so is an option.