Your phone is about to stop being yours.
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:
- Dig into System Settings, find Developer Options
- Tap the build number seven times to enable Developer Mode
- Dismiss scare screens about coercion
- Enter your PIN
- Restart the device
- Wait 24 hours
- Come back, dismiss more scare screens
- Pick "allow temporarily" (7 days) or "allow indefinitely"
- 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 or your signing keys to a company that routinely complies ↗ with government demands to remove apps and expose developers.
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 our 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 tips@keepandroidopen.org from a non-work machine and a non-Gmail account. Strict confidence guaranteed.
What they're saying
Tech press
"Google will verify Android developers distributing apps outside the Play store"
The Verge ↗
"Android Security or Vendor Lock-In? Google's New Sideloading Rules Smell Fishy"
It's FOSS News ↗
"We all know that's a load of bullshit. Adding a goddamn 24-hour waiting period is batshit insanity."
Thom Holwerda, OSnews ↗
"Google kneecaps indie Android devs, forces them to register"
The Register ↗
"An 'existential' threat to alternative app stores"
The New Stack ↗
"Google is restricting one of Android's most important features, and users are outraged"
SlashGear ↗
"It effectively makes the Play Store a monopoly without actually mandating that it is a monopoly."
I-Programmer ↗
"Google's Requirement For All Android Developers To Register And Be Verified Threatens To Close Down Open Source App Store F-Droid"
Techdirt ↗
"F-Droid says Google's new sideloading restrictions will kill the project"
Ars Technica ↗
"Keep Android Open"
Linux Magazine ↗
"F-Droid project threatened by Google's new dev registration rules"
Bleeping Computer ↗
"Google's developer registration 'decree' means the end for alternative app stores"
Cybernews ↗
"Google's new developer rules could threaten sideloading and F-Droid's future"
Gizmochina ↗
"Resistance to Google's Android verification grows among developers"
Techzine EU ↗
"Google plans to block side-loading like Apple, declaring war on Android freedom"
Tuta Blog ↗
"This will wipe out Android as an actual alternative to Apple's mobile OS offerings."
Hackaday ↗
"Google will require developer verification to install Android apps, including sideloading"
9to5Google ↗
"Google's New Developer ID Rule Could Harm F-Droid"
Reclaim The Net ↗
"Google's dev registration plan 'will end the F-Droid project'"
The Register ↗
"Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move yet"
MakeUseOf ↗
"Sideloading is dead for all intents and purposes. The Android you know and love is slowly disappearing."
Android Police ↗
"Google will require developer verification for Android apps outside the Play Store"
TechCrunch ↗
"Open-Source Android Apps Threatened by Google's New Policy"
Datamation ↗
"37 groups urge the company to drop ID checks for apps distributed outside Play"
The Register ↗
"Google's new ID requirements could destroy independent app stores"
TechSpot ↗
"Google's Android developer verification program draws pushback"
InfoWorld ↗
"Keep Android Open – Abwehr gegen Verbot anonymer Apps von Google"
heise online ↗
"Open-Source Android Apps at Risk Under Google's New Decree"
TechRepublic ↗
"Google's Apple envy threatens to dismantle Android's open legacy"
Ars Technica ↗
"'Keep Android Open' Movement Challenges Google's Developer Verification Rule"
Open Source For U ↗
Editorials & analysis
"Google's story that this move is motivated by security is obviously bullshit. The idea that Google can improve Android's safety by certifying developers, rather than code, is obvious bullshit."
Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic ↗
"Innovation may be the biggest casualty in all of this. This new rule erodes your right to make informed decisions about your own devices."
MakeUseOf ↗
"Developers from sanctioned countries or those without Google Play access cannot verify themselves. This creates systemic discrimination against developers based on birthplace rather than conduct."
agnostic-apollo (Termux developer), GitHub ↗
"This could turn Google into the effective gatekeeper for all apps on certified Android devices."
It's FOSS News ↗
"The phone you bought and paid for is no longer really yours. Google decides which apps are allowed to be loaded on Android and which are not."
Tuta Blog ↗
"Google has announced that they are altering the deal. And telling us that we should pray that they don't alter it further. Block this policy change now before they wrap their cold metal hands around our necks."
Jesse Wilson, PublicObject.com ↗
"There is also the very real possibility that Google will leak your identity with the result that any apps with political implications could result in persecution and worse."
I-Programmer ↗
"The $25 isn't the real cost. The chilling effect is. Submitting government ID to Google is a non-starter for pseudonymous contributors and privacy researchers."
Arafat Alim, DEV Community ↗
"Google's move is not credibly about 'security,' but actually about consolidating power and tightening control over a formerly open ecosystem."
Techdirt ↗
"Google's attempts to make Android 'more secure' are, in fact, increasing the risk for Android users. The more friction you introduce in the name of security, the more likely users will attempt to bypass security completely."
Ken Buckler, Enterprise Management Associates ↗
"Once there is no such thing as 'sideloading', there's virtually no difference between iOS and Android. I see no reason to buy Android over iOS at this point."
Thom Holwerda, OSnews ↗
Organizations & open letters
"Your Smartphone, Their Rules: How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship."
ACLU ↗
"This invasion of privacy of developers is not just an overreach of Google's authority over Android, but also jeopardizes developer safety."
Software Freedom Conservancy ↗
"This extends Google's gatekeeping authority beyond its own marketplace into distribution channels where it has no legitimate operational role."
Open letter, 37+ signatory organizations ↗
"When you set up a gate, you invite authorities to use it to block things they don't like. And when you build a database, you invite governments to try to get access."
Electronic Frontier Foundation ↗
"If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open source app distribution sources as we know them today."
F-Droid ↗
"Forcing software creators into a centralized registration scheme is as egregious as forcing writers and artists to register with a central authority."
F-Droid ↗
"We unequivocally advise against signing up for this program, now or ever."
F-Droid Open Letter ↗
"Google Play itself has repeatedly hosted malware, proving that corporate gatekeeping doesn't guarantee user protection."
F-Droid ↗
"Google's abusive approach to the Android operating system has only gotten worse in recent years. Software freedom is sorely lacking in the 'computers in our pockets' we call cell phones."
Free Software Foundation ↗
"Developers who choose not to use Google's services should not be forced to register with, and submit to the judgement of, Google."
Open letter, 37+ signatory organizations ↗
YouTubers & creators
"Google keeps getting in as much trouble as Apple when Google is half evil and Apple is full evil. So there are probably people inside Google saying, 'Why not just go full evil?'"
Louis Rossmann – YouTube ↗
"That's not openness. That is control."
ChiefGyk3D – YouTube ↗
"A world where two tech companies from the same city that dominate all of our mobile devices both require centralized developer registration is a world with one more lever for surveillance, one more checkpoint for censorship."
Techlore – YouTube ↗
"Google is removing the one key advantage Android has over iOS."
SomeOrdinaryGamers (Mutahar) – YouTube ↗
"This is an iPhone now. I didn't want to buy an iPhone. I use Android because it gives me freedom. If you are not going to give me freedom with my computer, then why would I buy your stuff anymore?"
Louis Rossmann – YouTube ↗
"Android has become what they set out to destroy."
Linus Sebastian, LMG Clips – YouTube ↗
"Google isn't testing this in the US or Europe first. They're starting in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Why? Because these are massive growth markets where regulation is weaker. By the time regulators catch up, the damage will already be done."
ChiefGyk3D – YouTube ↗
"Google has been carefully watching from the sidelines to see what exactly it is that Apple can get away with."
Linus Sebastian, LMG Clips – YouTube ↗
"I have really no more strong reason to not recommend you all get iPhones, because this just is pretty much an iPhone with a Google logo on it at this point."
Techlore – YouTube ↗
"The fact of the matter is, this is my device. I paid a lot of money for it. I should be able to do with it what I want."
Switched to Linux – YouTube ↗
"This has obvious problems for non-Google operating systems like iodeOS, LineageOS, or BraxOS. Google Android will 'check in' with Google to verify the identity of the app and to validate the operating system."
Rob Braxman Tech – Locals ↗
"The widely-circulated narrative that Google already backed down from this is false. They didn't, and that misunderstanding may be the most dangerous part of the story right now."
Techlore – YouTube ↗
"Imagine Dell told you that you could no longer install any operating system other than Windows on your laptop. That's what Google is doing to your phone."
SomeOrdinaryGamers (Mutahar) – YouTube ↗
"F-Droid is basically saying that the new Google developer registration process will likely kill the open-source app store entirely."
The Linux Experiment – YouTube ↗
"Developers of privacy-focused tools and emulators will have to dox themselves, making them vulnerable to government agencies or legal action."
SomeOrdinaryGamers (Mutahar) – YouTube ↗
"This represents the last real safe place for free and open-source software in the entire mobile ecosystem. Once it's gone, it's gone. And we're going to spend the next decade trying to claw it back."
Techlore – YouTube ↗
"Google already can disable malware that they find on your device. It's already a built-in feature. So what is developer registration actually adding here? Is it security or control? You decide."
Techlore – YouTube ↗
"Google is doing to Android what Microsoft once tried to do to the web. Embrace, extend, extinguish. Just wrapped in a shinier open-source package."
ChiefGyk3D – YouTube ↗
"Google is setting a requirement that only they can fulfill, forcing developers to go through Google and killing off thousands of apps. Countless users stranded."
Techlore – YouTube ↗
"This means you can't sideload an app from an unofficial source. But it could also be used to lock the ecosystem so we're forced to install only Google apps on approved Google OS versions."
Rob Braxman Tech – Locals ↗
"I'm not using the word 'phone.' I'm using the word 'computer.' This has over 8 GB of RAM, a terabyte of storage. It's a computer. And I'm also not going to be using words like 'sideload.' When you download an exe file onto your Windows computer, you've installed an application. You haven't 'sideloaded' something."
Louis Rossmann – YouTube ↗
"Every single time a company takes away your ability to do what you want with what you bought and paid for, every single time they twist a knife, we have to point it out."
Louis Rossmann – YouTube ↗
Developers & community
"Making it harder makes it harder to treat ourselves. Software like AndroidAPS is unique. It's hard to find or very expensive and inferior in the proprietary market."
pimeys (diabetic user on life-critical medical software), Lobsters ↗
"Years ago, I wondered how Google would try to get away with locking down Android and shutting the cage door after capturing such a large dependent user base. Now I see how they are trying to get away with it."
chaznabin, Reddit ↗
"If I go down this path, I will stop all development on Android. I implore all other developers to resist this. This will completely lock down the platform forever, there will be no going back."
BatteryMountain, Hacker News ↗
"Antitrust action is badly needed. It is ridiculous that I need permission from my device manufacturer to install software on hardware I own."
jim201, Hacker News ↗
"Twice I have had to deal with Google silently disabling my drone app to the point I had to buy an older phone to perform work. When I purchase a device that works with another device, under no circumstances should I be at the mercy of any updates they make."
cbrophoto (drone professional), Reddit ↗
"I still remember how in the early days of Android vs iOS discussions, the main point was 'but it's OPEN!' The word 'open' was used as a comma by Google people. It was The Thing. The Difference. Good vs Evil and all that."
jwr, Hacker News ↗
"Software gatekeeping is a threat to human rights. Just recently an app to track ICE was banned from the iOS app store even though this should clearly be protected first amendment speech."
gthing, Reddit ↗
"The war on General Purpose Computing is the death of innovation and a direct attack on digital freedom."
layfellow, Hacker News ↗
"Google selling Android as both open source and open to running any software you like in order to quickly gain market share, only to break those promises after driving competing platforms out of the market is nothing more than fraud."
GeekyBear, Hacker News ↗
"It took them 17 years to finally pull the cage all the way shut."
Apocryphon, Hacker News ↗
"Requiring a government ID to distribute software. Holy shit. If you are a kid and want to create a game for your friends, you better get that birth certificate ready!"
llitz, Reddit ↗
"This isn't just a competition between app stores; it's a struggle for choice and dignity. Your phone shouldn't be a cage carefully constructed by others, but an extension of your own will."
renshijian, Hacker News ↗
"If your country is ever in the crosshairs of 'American interests' and bears the brunt of its sanctions, it is possible that you cannot install apps from your fellow citizens. Your own local government, bank, and store apps."
devsda, Hacker News ↗
"My Pixel 6 just broke, and after 15 years of using Android, I've finally been convinced to move to iOS. If I must live in a walled garden, I suppose I'll choose the one with nicer flowers."
yonato, Hacker News ↗
"The fundamental problem is that we are relying on the good graces of Google to keep Android open, despite the fact that it often runs contrary to their goals as a $4T for-profit behemoth. The 'don't be evil' days are very far behind us."
paxys, Hacker News ↗
"Anyone else thinking this looks like a precursor to banning Signal and similar? 1) Put Google in control of what you can install. 2) Get Google to block it."
harry8, Hacker News ↗
"I hate this so much. More and more I get the feeling I have no control over the devices I own. My fear is that Windows will eventually follow. For security reasons of course. It's the path we're on now."
cheesyvoetjes, Reddit ↗
"We need to start treating phones differently. We're entering a world where we can't choose what we run on them. Their primary purpose is to gather data on us and serve us advertising, they're engineered for addiction, yet engaging in the world is immensely difficult without one."
specproc, Hacker News ↗
"Google's own Play Store had over 600 million malware downloads. They keep talking about 'security' but their own store is crawling with fake apps and straight up malware while actual useful stuff gets buried or rejected."
Historical-Employ129 (324 upvotes), Reddit ↗
All those opposed…
66 organizations from 21 countries have signed the open letter
-
AdGuard adguard.com🇨🇾 -
The App Fair Project appfair.org🇫🇷 -
April april.org🇫🇷 -
ARTICLE 19 article19.org🇬🇧 -
Associação Nacional para o Software Livre (ANSOL) ansol.org🇵🇹 -
Aurora Store auroraoss.com🇮🇳 -
The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) beuc.eu🇪🇺 -
Brave brave.com🇺🇸 -
The Calyx Institute calyx.org🇺🇸 -
The Center for Digital Progress (D64) d-64.org🇩🇪 -
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) ccc.de🇩🇪 -
Codeberg e.V. codeberg.org🇩🇪 -
CryptPad cryptpad.org🇫🇷 -
Cryptee crypt.ee🇪🇪 -
Data Rights datarights.ngo🇳🇱 -
Digitale Gesellschaft digitale-gesellschaft.ch🇨🇭 -
The Digital Rights Foundation digitalrightsfoundation.pk🇵🇰 -
Digital Rights Watch digitalrightswatch.org.au🇦🇺 -
epicenter.works – for digital rights epicenter.works🇦🇹 -
/e/ Foundation e.foundation🇫🇷 -
European Digital Rights (EDRi) edri.org🇧🇪 -
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) eff.org🇺🇸 -
Fastmail fastmail.com🇦🇺 -
Forbrukerrådet forbrukerradet.no🇳🇴 -
FOSDEM fosdem.org🇧🇪 -
FULU Foundation fulu.org🇺🇸 -
FUTO futo.org🇺🇸 -
Fundación Karisma karisma.org.co🇨🇴 -
F-Droid f-droid.org🇳🇱 -
Fedimedia fedimedia.it🇮🇹 -
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) fsf.org🇺🇸 -
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) fsfe.org🇩🇪 -
Ghostery ghostery.com🇩🇪 -
GNOME Foundation gnome.org🇺🇸 -
GrapheneOS Foundation grapheneos.org🇨🇦 -
The Guardian Project guardianproject.info🇺🇸 -
Italian Linux Society ils.org🇮🇹 -
IzzyOnDroid izzyondroid.org🌐 -
JMP.chat jmp.chat🇨🇦 -
KDE e.V. kde.org🇩🇪 -
LineageOS lineageos.org🇺🇸 -
MetaBrainz Foundation metabrainz.org🇺🇸 -
microG microg.org🌐 -
Molly molly.im🌐 -
Nextcloud nextcloud.com🇩🇪 -
Open Web Advocacy open-web-advocacy.org🌐 -
OW2 ow2.org🇫🇷 -
Obtainium obtainium.imranr.dev🌐 -
OpenMedia openmedia.org🇨🇦 -
The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) osmfoundation.org🇬🇧 -
Open Rights Group (ORG) openrightsgroup.org🇬🇧 -
Osservatorio Nessuno OdV osservatorionessuno.org🇮🇹 -
Privacy Guides privacyguides.org🇺🇸 -
Proton AG proton.me🇨🇭 -
La Quadrature du Net laquadrature.net🇫🇷 -
Rocky Linux rockylinux.org🇺🇸 -
Rossmann Group rossmanngroup.com🇺🇸 -
Software Liberty Association of Taiwan slat.org.tw🇹🇼 -
Software Freedom Conservancy sfconservancy.org🇺🇸 -
Techlore techlore.tech🇺🇸 -
Technopolice Bruxelles technopolice.be🇧🇪 -
The Tor Project torproject.org🇺🇸 -
Tuta Mail tuta.com🇩🇪 -
Unified Push unifiedpush.org🇫🇷 -
VideoLAN videolan.org🇫🇷 -
Vivaldi Technologies AS vivaldi.com🇳🇴