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.
How will this affect MDM-solutions that installs apps from outside the GMS world
IIRC, Google stated that it won’t affect GMS devices, and obviously no effect on non GMS devices.
Is there some sort of in between of GMS and Non-GMS that this could possibly apply to?
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.
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.
The situation has changed recently.
Google backed down from this being mandatory this week. There will be an option to allow side loaded apps but it will require a 24h delay to enable.
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-android-sideloading-unverified-apps-new-rules-3650343/
Wait a 24 hour delay? Damn. I heard a month or so ago that they had planned to back down on the strict sideloading ban, and came into the comments to point that out. But a mandatory 24 hour waiting period (something, if memory serves, America can’t even do to own literal deadly weapons)‽ Geez that’s way worse than I was expecting.
Imagine loading a website but you need to wait for 24 hours to be able to access it
adb is notably unaffected by this if i recall correctly - please correct me if i’m wrong
If not now, it will be soon. Why are we pretending they care?
they can’t if your device is rooted or running a different rom
That doesn’t help anyone getting a new device, or if they retroactively brick the ability to root your devices that were previously able. I was going to root the S23 Ultra I type this on, but that is not longer possible as I missed the memo on Samsung flat out removing the ability to do so.
Opinions invited.
I currently have a Motorola Edge 50 Neo. It’s a great phone, a little more than a year(?) old. It can’t have LineageOS due to it’s Dimensity chipset.
I’m considering buying a Fairphone 6, then put LineageOS on it.
Is the Fairphone decent? How’s the camera?
Are there any other phones that I should consider (decent camera, will run LineageOS or similar)? Maybe the new Jolla phone?
I am currently using the Fairphone 6 with e/OS and I am very happy with it.
Not a heavy phone user though, as in I don’t really take pictures or play hardware heavy games etc, so I wouldn’t know how FP6 competes on those fronts.
But for everything else it has worked really well!
But not comparing the FP6’s camera with other phones: How happy are you with yours? Do you like the photos?
I’m not one for taking pictures, so I can’t really comment on that, sorry.
What I can say, compared to my previous phone (Iphone 14), is that the front camera is a little worse than that of the Iphone 14. I notice it during Video Calls.
Not camera specific, but it’s maybe worth mentioning that it sometimes also runs into small issues. For example it will sometimes not connect to my WiFi and I’ll have to restart the phone in order for it to connect again. Not a big issue, since it restarts quite fast, but for someone coming from a well established phone brand it might be a little irritating. (And it also might just be a problem for me specifically)
But these downsides are well worth it (for me) in order to have a more privacy focused mobile and also not be supporting big American Tech Companies.
Thanks for replying. I don’t play games. I’m definitely a light phone user however I like to take photos when I’m out hiking/biking. This Motorola actually takes good photos, even though it’s a “budget” phone, so I’d like something equal or better.
Looking at the hardware it almost seems like they are using the same rear camera:
Motorola:
50 MP Sony Sensor - LYTIA ® 700C f/1.8 Blende 1 µm Pixelgrösse | Quad-Pixel-Technologie für 2 µm Quad PDAF Optische Bildstabilisierung (OIS) 13 MP Kamera mit Ultra-Weitwinkelobjektiv (120° Sichtfeld) Macro Vision f/2.2 Blende 1,12 µm Pixelgrösse PDAF 10 MP Teleobjektiv 3x optischer Zoom f/2.0 Blende 1,0 µm Pixelgrösse PDAF Optische Bildstabilisierung (OIS)
FP6:
50MP Sony Lytia 700C sensor, 1/1.56", 1.0μm pixel size Quadpixel Autofocus, 10 cm minimum focusing distance, time of flight sensor Up to 10x digital zoom Optical (OIS) image stabilization Ultra Wide camera: Image sensor: 13MP, 1/3.06", 1.12μm pixel size ƒ2.2 5 elements Autofocus, Macro Mode, 2.5cm minimum focusing distance, time of flight sensor Electronic (EIS) image stabilization
But I am no expert, I’m sure there are differences due to software.
Hey, thanks!
I didn’t think to check HW specs. Not very clever.
so … thanks. again :))
Ah damn, I messed up the formatting, but I think the info is discernible. They seem to be similar
You should definitely consider the Jolla, but cameras are basically never great on degoogled devices, because flashing a new rom also deletes the OEM proprietary firmware, which was tailor-made for that device. What you get instead is a generic software that never comes close to matching the original quality. I think the hardware makers who sell degoogled phones, like Fairphone, would have chance to make good cameras, but none of them have actual years of experience making cameras, as companies like Samsung and Sony do.
Well that sucks, a decent camera is basically half of what a smartphone is. The ARM ecosystem is such trash.
I don’t need fancy processing on my photos as longs as it lets me capture some kind of raw format. For photos that I actually care about the quality, a raw is better anyway.
No offense, but you’re part of a niche audience there. The vast majority of consumers just want their photos to look good (even when good means “not like reality”). “I need it to have a good camera” ia something you hear over and over again when people tell want it is important to them in a phone.
Just rip the band aid off and go for Jolla. Keep your current phone as a backup if some apps break
I’m seriously looking at it now. I don’t give a shit about banking apps or the “socials” so that’s fine. I do want a decent camera though.
Is jolla that good? Paying a subscription isn’t the end of the world to me, as long as they are actually using the money for good, you know?
Define good? I mean if you look at the work they’ve been doing over the past decade, as such a tiny company, it’s objectively awesome (sheer size, but also quality)! But I myself turned away from the first Jolla phones frustrated from all the kinks that were never fixed (in that time frame while that hardware was still viable - some were probably fixed in the meantime, some not). The experience remains a compromise: you get freedom from Big Tech, but you do not get several other things you’ve been taking for granted, because of Big Tech. Just one example, you can run Android apps, but if your phone has a fingerprint sensor (the last Jolla community phone didn’t), Android apps can’t use it. There is the camera issue that I mentioned (Jolla is not a camera company). It’s always something, so you have to be okay with that if you want Jolla or Sailfish OS. But I will still mention that it is the most mature, full-featured mobile Linux out of all the mobile Linux efforts that have sprung up these past years. Jolla was first, and they remain ahead of the curve in this space.
Is the Fairphone decent?
Couldn’t tell you, because they refuse to sell them in my country. 😡
They were supposed to fight evil, not join it.
They were supposed to make all the money by any means necessary as dictated by the capital, and they are doing that.
They’ve removed that phrase from their ethos a long time ago
Literally. It was big news.
I know. Some people might have missed that.
Don’tbe evil.Corporate has decided that the rules are too long and need to be trimmed a little.
Regulators won’t be any help - Apple has always been even more locked down than that, and no one forbade it, so how are they gonna stop Google from doing the same? IMO the only way out is to leave Android and turn to Linux completely (that means Linux hardware adaptation layers, no more Android anywhere). Some phones have already been made like this
Surely this will lead to the balkanisation of Android.
Motorola is going to grapheneos, Xiaomi etc go with their own app stores and so on.Main-line Linux phones are really not the way, at least at the moment. Android is fine, AOSP really is an amazing project and easily one of the most impressive software projects ever advanced by humanity. AOSP-derivatives like LineageOS or GrapheneOS are just as much FOSS as any traditional Linux distribution.
Regulators forced Google to do this lol
But regulators forced Apple to open up a bit
verified but still not responsible.
Google is the biggest threat to anything good in technology, this cancer must be eradicated
They’ve officially outlined the advanced flow process, and adb is exempt from even that.
Muta’s video on this:
Starting to think phones should just go back to being exclusively for calling and texting anyway, maybe emailing too. Everything else can be done from a laptop. Does it really make our lives better to have access to everything through our phones?
I do like being able to look things up on a browser and I use the gps mapping a lot but most of the other stuff is fluff.
Yeah, I’m not dragging a laptop around everywhere with me to search business opening hours / locations etc
Sure, mapping and locale data is extremely helpful and makes up a significant portion of what I use my phone for when I’m out and about. My question is more geared towards whether the ability to bank, shop or use social media from my phone is really necessary.
Obviously, it’s a personal choice and I’m more thinking aloud when I question whether I’d be okay with the trade-off of having a phone with fewer capabilities.
Grotesque
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 don’t? Device PIN is explicitly an option.
or device pin
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.
I’m using a Nokia 105 as my work phone, but I’m contractually required only to be reachable by phone.
IMO, the bandaid solution is a degoogled phone, be it Graphene, e/os or whatever, but we need at least a third player.
So you’ll move to an even more locked down OS? Out of the pan, into the fire?
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.
Using a custom rom now is basically impossible
Why do you say this?
- Sent from LineageOS
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.
Coming from someone who just reported multiple ads on Facebook that featured what I’d argue was CSAM, yeah, I agree.
There actually has been an update on this. The advanced flow has been revealed and it’s like a 24-hour wait and a few prompts to go through and I’ll reboot and enabling developer mode… Bit of friction but all in all it’s better than nothing I guess.
The dev verification is “optional”. With the condition that if a developer doesn’t then users can only install after jumping through a few hoops.
Yeah at least it’s better than Apple’s approach, where you have to connect your phone to a PC once every 7 days to reactivate Developer Mode. Don’t have a computer? Fuck you!
That said, I have zero faith in Google sticking with the compromise solution in the long run. They’re going to try to force the change on everyone again in the future, once they’ve broken us down a bit more.
Meanwhile at least we have a little longer than September before they actually ruin the platform completely… How long? Who could say but I’ll take what small victories I can get
google can eat shit.
the moment I see a viable linux phone, I’m out.
But they did this knowing that at this point there is not a viable alternative. It’s both monopoly, vendor lock, eee and enshittification all at once…
by 2027 there will be a linux phone. consumers won’t put up with this shit and vendors aren’t so blind to see an opportunity.
There was already a Linux phone and even a Firefox phone, but with no wide app support it’s going to be a failure, just like it happened with Windows Phone.
And I’m saying this as a person who would love for a true Linux phone alternative to succeed.
All a Linux phone needs to succeed is an app store and to be able to securely process payments without google and then developers and companies are interested.
2127…
2227…
2327…
2427…
Surely 2527 will be the year of the Linux phone…
Wait that’s not a thing already?
So people can just make scam apps and once you report it to the App Store there is no recourse because even the company doesn’t know who they are?
The recourse has been removal.
And the solution proposed is not requiring identification specifically for Play store developers, but any developer at all.
Removal but no means for consumers to seek money back or damages because it’s just the Wild West?
I think if you’re publishing an app to a public store then they should know who the fuck you are.
This includes not in the Google play store so like f-droid or like how people would get software from a places website or GitHub or sourceforge or wherever and installing it like you can on Windows or a Mac or Linux
So the way compute used to work, is you could install any program you want from anywhere. You could buy a program from a web site or copy a disk and install the program.
Smartphones have been around since the late 1990s in various forms, it used to be, you could just install whatever you want.
Then, in 2008, Apple released the iPhone app store, and it was a closed space, a “walled garden”. You can only install apps on their phone if they approve them.
Google decided to join the phone race and released a phone where one could still install applications from anywhere, not just their store. There are multiple stores like others have mentioned, or you can download an APK file from anywhere and install it on your phone.
Part of their behavior since is slightly open to interpretation, as the technology is now used by everyone, not just tech nerds. People could install “bad” programs, and they could lose money, cell networks could be compromised, etc.
It likely costs a lot of companies a lot of money to deal with dumb users doing stupid shit. So from one perspective, making it extremely hard to install unknown programs from anywhere will curb that expense.
It could be a defensive move, as LLMs now allow anyone to write computer software with very little knowledge of it, and it is just bad timing.
On the other hand, since the beginning of computers, the owner of the machine could run whatever software they wanted.
This move by Google is basically making it so there is NO mobile compute platform that the owner of the device actually owns, and is allowed to do with their hardware what they want. Apple or Google, that is it. Apple had always been closed, which should have been made illegal, but I digress.
It has been a slippery slope with Android for almost 2 decades, and this move is basically the end of the ability for free humans to install free software from anywhere on the hardware they own and paid anywhere up to $3000 for.
Basically a huge dive for personal freedom on a planetary scale, decided by one corporation.
Everyone freaking out when this is actually something you would want as a consumer. 8 want to know who the fuck is making my apps, where they are from, and where my data is going. If you don’t want this. I am guaranteeing you get viruses and shit all the fucking time.
No I rightly don’t care wrote it if I can see the source code and verify where all my data is.
If you want to know where where your apps come from then Id suggest you stop downloading from the playstore and start downloading from the sources. Get connected with the community. Learn something. It’ll be good for you
As a consumer I want privacy and freedom, not a monopoly that controls what I can or cannot do on MY device that I bought with MY money. So up until now I installed any app that I wanted and never got any virus ever:) While you might be happy with your data going to google, I’m not.
In play store fine, but any other sideload store, why?
Nope. As a consumer i dont want one conglomerate to have power to decite what i can and cannot do on my personal device.
It would mean they have 100% control over me as a consumer.
I’m mostly annoyed about the reboot and wait period.
I can guide my users through selecting the right options, but rebooting your phone is a nuisance. And getting back in touch with them after 24 hours loses the sense of urgency to install my app and probably at that point they’re already gone.
It really doesn’t matter if it’s 24 hours or 5 minutes.
Hopefully some popular OEMs choose not to implement this so it’s possible to know based on the user agent if the user is unlikely to be able to sideload.
This is what pisses me off the most, but as a user. When I reboot my phone, my apps aren’t open anymore (no matter what bullshit the app switcher tells me), and my notifications are gone. It just throws me off, especially if I left some of those notifications there on purpose because I wanted to take care of them later.
A “sense of urgency to install app,” eh? What kind of app do you develop that relies on a sense of urgency otherwise people won’t install it?
Edit: Oh, wait. You’re trying to poison the conversation about FOSS and I fell for it. LOL
People have limited attention spans and will give up on something if it takes too much effort.
