With Google making it more closed every year, I wonder if is it worth it. I don’t want to learn it to find a job or anything, it’s purely for open source development.
I’ve seen a few devs dropping FOSS apps due to Google decisions. Like the developer of a music player I used (Phocid):
According to him and I agree:
Because Google is essentially killing apps distributed outside of Google Play, I have lost interest in Android development and plan to switch to a different OS once my current five-year-old phone dies.
You can publish your open source app on Google Play, and this will not change. Google is also not planning to introduce $100/year publishing fee for devs like Apple, you pay $25 one time to register. There is also no real alternative open source OS for phones.
Google decision impacts apps like Termux, who use old Android API to install additional packages. If you are not planning to create Linux emulator, I guess this won’t impact you.
Tell that to the creators of apps that Google or the US Government do not like…