All text on this page was taken from keepandroidopen.org.
Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID.
Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt-out.
What Google Is Doing
In August 2025, Google announced a new requirement: starting September 2026, every Android app developer must register centrally with Google before their software can be installed on any device. Not just Play Store apps: all apps. This includes apps shared between friends, distributed through F-Droid, built by hobbyists for personal use. Independent developers, church and community groups, and hobbyists alike will all be frozen out of being able to develop and distribute their software.
Registration requires:
> Paying a fee to Google
> Agreeing to Google's Terms and Conditions
> Surrendering your government-issued identification
> Providing evidence of your private signing key
> Listing all current and all future application identifiers
If a developer does not comply, their apps get silently blocked on every Android device worldwide.
Who This Hurts
You
You bought an Android phone because Google told you it was open. You could install what you wanted, and that was the deal.
Google is now rewriting that deal, retroactively, on hardware you already own. After the update lands, you can only run software that Google has pre-approved. On your phone: your property, that you paid for.
Independent developers
A teenager's first app, a volunteer's privacy tool, or a company's confidential internal beta. It doesn't matter. After September 2026, none of these can be installed without Google's blessing.
F-Droid, home to thousands of free and open-source Android apps, has called this an "existential" threat. Cory Doctorow calls it "Darth Android".
Governments & civil society
Google has a documented track record of complying when authoritarian regimes demand app removals. With this program, the software that runs your country's institutions will exist at the pleasure of a single unaccountable foreign corporation.
The EFF calls app gatekeeping "an ever-expanding pathway to internet censorship."
Google's "escape hatch" is a trap door
Google says "power users" can "still install" unverified apps. Here's what that actually looks like:
| # | Step |
|---|---|
| 1 | Delve into System Settings, find Developer Options |
| 2 | Tap the build number seven times to enable Developer Mode |
| 3 | Dismiss scare screens about coercion |
| 4 | Enter your PIN |
| 5 | Restart the device |
| 6 | Wait 24 hours |
| 7 | Come back, dismiss more scare screens |
| 8 | Pick "allow temporarily" (7 days) or "allow indefinitely" |
| 9 | Confirm, again, that you understand "the risks" |
Nine steps. A mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period. For installing software on a device you own.
Worse: this flow runs entirely through Google Play Services, not the Android OS. Google can change it, tighten it, or kill it at any time, with no OS update required and no consent needed. And as of today, it hasn't shipped in any beta, preview, or canary build. It exists only as a blog post and some mockups.
This Is Bigger Than Android
If Google can retroactively lock down billions of devices that were sold as open platforms, every hardware manufacturer on the planet is watching.
The principle being established: the company that made your device gets to decide, after you've bought it, what software you're allowed to run. In software, this is called a "rug pull"; but at least you could always install competing software. In hardware, it is a fait accompli that strips you of your agency and renders you powerless to the whims of a single unaccountable gatekeeper and convicted monopolist.
Android's openness was never just a feature. It was the promise that distinguished it from iPhone. Millions chose Android for exactly that reason. Google is now revoking that promise unilaterally, on devices already in people's pockets, because they've decided they have enough market dominance and regulatory capture to get away with it.
Ars Technica: "Google's Apple envy threatens to dismantle Android's open legacy."
But wait, isn't this...
"...just about security?"
The security rationale is a smokescreen. Google Play Protect already scans for malware independent of developer identity. Requiring a government ID doesn't make code safer. It makes developers identifiable and controllable. Malware authors can register. Indie developers and dissidents often can't. The EFF is blunt: identity-based gatekeeping is a censorship tool, not a security one.
"...still sideloading if you use the advanced flow?"
Nine steps, 24-hour wait, buried in Developer Options, delivered through a proprietary service that Google can revoke whenever they want. That's not sideloading. That's a deterrence mechanism built to ensure almost nobody completes it. And since it runs through Play Services rather than the OS, Google can tighten or kill it silently.
"...only a problem if you have something to hide?"
Whistleblowers, journalists, and activists under authoritarian governments will be the first victims. People in domestic abuse situations are next. All these groups have legitimate reasons to distribute or use software without putting their legal identity in a Google database. Anonymous open-source contribution is a tradition older than Google itself. This policy ends it on Android.
"...the same thing Apple does?"
Apple has been a walled garden from day one. People chose Android because it was different. "Apple does it too" is a race to the bottom and a weak tu quoque argument. And under regulatory pressure (the EU's Digital Markets Act), even Apple is being forced to open up. Google is moving in the opposite direction: attempting to further entrench its gatekeeping status.
"...just $25 and some paperwork?"
Maybe, if you're a developer in the US with a credit card and a driver's license. Try being a student in sub-Saharan Africa, or a dissident in Myanmar, or a volunteer maintaining a community health app. The cost isn't only financial: you're surrendering government ID and evidence of your signing keys to a company that routinely complies with government demands to remove apps and expose developers.
What They're Saying
Tech press
"Google's Apple envy threatens to dismantle Android's open legacy"
Ars Technica
"Sideloading is dead for all intents and purposes. The Android you know and love is slowly disappearing."
Android Police
"Google's dev registration plan 'will end the F-Droid project'"
The Register
"It effectively makes the Play Store a monopoly without actually mandating that it is a monopoly."
I-Programmer
"Google kneecaps indie Android devs, forces them to register"
The Register
"This will wipe out Android as an actual alternative to Apple's mobile OS offerings."
Hackaday
"I've been an Android user for almost 15 years -- and Google's sideloading changes are pushing me back to iPhone"
Tom's Guide
"Google will make you wait 24 hours to sideload Android apps"
How-To Geek
"We all know that's a load of bullshit. Adding a goddamn 24-hour waiting period is batshit insanity."
Thom Holwerda, OSnews
Editorials & analysis
"The proposed Android Developer Verification program isn't a security update; it's a kill switch for the open ecosystem."
Hillary Keverenge, Tech-ish Kenya
"Google isn't certifying apps, they're certifying developers. This implies that the company can somehow predict whether a developer will do something malicious in the future."
Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
"Centralizing the registration of all applications worldwide gives Google newfound powers to completely disable any app it wants."
Mikhail Korotaev, Nextcloud Blog
"One US corporation is placing itself between every Android developer and every Android user on earth."
PixelUnion
"Freedom of choice is being reframed as a 'security risk.'"
Newsfangled
"Google's move is not credibly about 'security,' but actually about consolidating power and tightening control over a formerly open ecosystem."
Techdirt
"Android is not open anymore. It's not an alternative. It's not even trying. It's iOS with ads and spyware bolted on."
fireborn, mataroa.blog
Organizations
"If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project"
F-Droid
"Unilaterally consolidating power to approve software is a threat to digital sovereignty everywhere"
Nextcloud
"A centralized global registration system for Android will inevitably chill this work"
EFF
"Google's developer verification policy creates a centralized database containing every developer's identity"
Brave
YouTubers & creators
> "I have really no more strong reason to not recommend you all get iPhones" — Techlore
> "That's not openness. That is control" — ChiefGyk3D
> "Android has become what they set out to destroy" — Linus Sebastian, LMG Clips
Fight Back
Everyone
> Install F-Droid on every Android device you own. Alternative stores only survive if people actually use them.
> Contact your regulators. Regulators worldwide are genuinely concerned about monopolies and the centralization of power in the tech sector, and want to hear directly from individuals who are affected and concerned.
> Share this page. Link to keepandroidopen.org everywhere.
> Push back on astroturfers. The "well, actually..." crowd is out in force. Don't let them set the narrative.
> Sign the change.org petition and join the over 100,000 signatories who have made their voices heard.
> Read and share the open letter
> Tell Google what you think of this through their own developer verification survey (for all the good that will do).
Developers
DO NOT SIGN UP. Don't join the program by signing up for the Android Developer Console and agreeing to their irrevocable Terms and Conditions. Don't verify your identity. Don't play ball.
Google's plan only works if developers comply. Don't.
> Talk other developers and organizations out of signing up.
> Add the FreeDroidWarn library to your apps to warn users.
> Run a website? Add the countdown banner.
Google employees
If you know something about the program's technical implementation or internal rationale, contact [email protected] from a non-work machine and a non-Gmail account. Strict confidence guaranteed.
All Those Opposed…
69 organizations from 21 countries have signed the open letter, including:
| The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) |
| F-Droid | The Tor Project |
| The Guardian Project | KDE e.V. |
| Brave | Proton AG |
| Nextcloud | GrapheneOS Foundation |
| LineageOS | The Free Software Foundation (FSF) |
| The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) | European Digital Rights (EDRi) |
| VideoLAN | Vivaldi Technologies AS |
| GNOME Foundation | The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) |
| Codeberg e.V. | The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) |
| FOSDEM | Tuta Mail |
| AdGuard | Ghostery |
| FUTO | Open Web Advocacy |
| Privacy Guides | microG |
| Software Freedom Conservancy | ARTICLE 19 |
| La Quadrature du Net | The Calyx Institute |
| Aurora Store | Rossmann Group |
Read the full open letter and thank the signatories →
All text on this page was taken from keepandroidopen.org.
