Google will soon verify the identities of developers who distribute Android apps outside the Play Store.
Developers must submit their information to a new Android Developer Console, increasing their accountability for their apps.
Rolling out in phases from September 2026, these new verification requirements are aimed at protecting users from malware by making it harder for malicious developers to remain anonymous.
Another attempt by Google to further increase their monopoly on Android.
This feels especially disingenuous considering the issues they have with apps inside their app store
We can’t wait for Accrescent to be developed so that we’re no longer dependent on this Play Store crap. We hope that more and more developers will publish their applications on it and that this will have a domino effect, with even more developers publishing their applications on Accrescent.
There should be a new rule on here. News like this must be accompanied by an emoji or two indicating monumental and egregious stupidity of the news item accurately implying the massive undermining of internet freedoms, privacy, and security.
I’m only half kidding but @jonah can we? Gotta be something to visually say how bad this type of news is to what I mentioned and what we believe in to those who may not grasp the significance of some news items.
Of course this won’t affect any of the FOSS Android builds, since this sort of anti-feature can be easily stripped out.
I think this will be an extension to Android Advanced Protection Mode (no separate toggle for each settings). Maybe now their target is frontend apps for youtube and other services since they already have upper hand against mod apps and games.
If Google placed these kind of actions on third party app stores it is acceptable to a certain level. Also, third party app stores do their best to prevent malware apps listed in their store. There are cases where the apps get delisted from play store too after its found to be malware.
It doesn’t change the fact that they’re enforcing this at the OS level and making sideloading on Android almost impossible. I wouldn’t verify my ID just to publish apps; this would put most FOSS projects at risk.
I don’t think so. They’re essentially telling developers, ‘Verify or no apps for you’.
“To make this process as streamlined as possible, we are building a new Android Developer Console just for developers who only distribute outside of Google Play, so they can easily complete their verification”
Android Developers Blog: A new layer of security for certified Android devices
They wouldn’t bother this much if it was something that could be switched off.
At the same time
The next step will be Google using their newfound APK signing powers to modify apps obtained from the Play Store and make them impossible to run on operating systems that aren’t Play Certified, to kill off Aurora Store and third-party ROMs.
AOSP has no future, sad.
Perhaps it’s time a new OS is developed for smartphones without the problems upstream AOSP is going to have soon. Or it’s time OEMs snd developers start taking Linux seriously for smartphones and built that up to what should have already been a proper alternative just like how desktop Linux is.
This is unrelated. Please read the article first.
It will affect all Android on OEM devices (except Chinese one but they already sometimes block sideloading), and you can’t uninstall Play Protection on those
Sounds like your crystal ball needs recalibration. Mine shows a different future.
Not every comment is to be taken seriously or literally…
It seems most likely that Linux phones will be the only good option in the future, but we are very far off from that being reality, seeing as it’s still not even so great on desktop yet lol
Well, we know why. Two problems: fragmentation of the OS (nature of the situation, not anyone’s fault) and a ‘decentralized’ approach to software development (nature of the FOSS world, again not anyone’s fault)
As far as I can tell, Tux and System76 are the only two names who are the ‘solutions’ to this. They make their software and hardware. I know they are reliant on upstream Debian but if that were not the case, then one company could take charge and make a proper full fledged stable OS like how we have macOS. This includes but is not limited to a feature and functionality rich OS (so reliance on extensions, add ons, other small apps needed to make desktop Linux ‘feel’ full, etc are not needed as much) developed on/for ARM (for stability and battery life).
But I don’t know too much about the esoteric world of software development in the FOSS world for me to say anything more. From what I know and understand, that would or should fix it coupled with some amount of money.
Mind elaborating?
afaict Google isn’t even publishing monthly AOSP branches/source code anymore.
No July or August: https://source.android.com/docs/setup/reference/build-numbers#source-code-tags-and-builds
This latest move cements that they are speed running Android into the ground even despite the antitrust.
edit: I wrote more about this here: Blog - Divested Computing
I assume their previous “commitment” to open source was to avoid precisely this, so now that it’s a proven failed strategy they have no reason to keep up the pretense with AOSP or Chromium.
At this point, an Iphone would be the logical choice (for me). A bit more private with alternative Stores.
Funny how Apple is opening up and Google is closing up.
The year of the Linux phone will be right after the year of the Linux desktop.
EU needs to clamp down hard on this. Play Integrity had the excuse that developers choose to opt-in to it, this does not. Google is forcing developers to do this for their apps to be installable on “verified” devices.