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Starting in 2027*, 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.

以下正文同步自 Hacker News，版权归原站所有，已转换为易读排版。

Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt-out.

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What Google is doing

In August 2025, Google announced a new requirement: starting in 2027, 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.

If a developer does not comply, their apps get silently blocked on every Android device worldwide.

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.

A teenager's first app, a volunteer's privacy tool, or a company's confidential internal beta. It doesn't matter. In 2027, 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".

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 says "power users" can "still install" unverified apps. Here's what that actually looks like:

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Google's plan only works if developers comply. Don't.

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.

71 organizations from 23 countries have signed the open letter

Read the full open letter and thank the signatories →

"F-Droid Says Google Is Lying About the Future of Sideloading on Android"

"F-Droid says Google's new sideloading restrictions will kill the project"

"Google will make you wait 24 hours to sideload Android apps"

"Sideloading on Android? Soon It'll Be Like a TSA Check for Apps"

"Google's Apple envy threatens to dismantle Android's open legacy"

"Google says it's making Android sideloading 'high-friction' to better warn users about potential risks"

"Google will verify Android developers distributing apps outside the Play store"

"Google's New Developer Rules Threaten to End the F-Droid Open-Source App Store"

"'Keep Android Open' Movement Challenges Google's Developer Verification Rule"

"Over 67 groups urge the company to drop ID checks for apps distributed outside Play"

"F-Droid Says Google Is Lying About the Future of Sideloading on Android"

"F-Droid project threatened by Google's new dev registration rules"

"Google will require developer verification to install Android apps, including sideloading"

"Google will require developer verification for Android apps outside the Play Store"

"Google kneecaps indie Android devs, forces them to register"

"I've been an Android user for almost 15 years -- and Google's sideloading changes are pushing me back to iPhone"

"Android, Epic, and What's Really Behind Google's 'Existential' Threat to F-Droid"

"Android Security or Vendor Lock-In? Google's New Sideloading Rules Smell Fishy"

"Google's Android developer verification program draws pushback"

"Open letter warns mandatory registration 'threatens innovation, competition, privacy and user freedom'"

"Google plans to block side-loading like Apple, declaring war on Android freedom"

"Google Clamps down On Android's Openness"

"An 'existential' threat to alternative app stores"

"Google's Requirement For All Android Developers To Register And Be Verified Threatens To Close Down Open Source App Store F-Droid"

"Sideloading is dead for all intents and purposes. The Android you know and love is slowly disappearing."

"This will wipe out Android as an actual alternative to Apple's mobile OS offerings."

"Android app store provider Aptoide hits Google with fresh lawsuit alleging monopoly and anticompetitive chokehold"

"Google's New Developer ID Rule Could Harm F-Droid"

"Sideloading on Android? Soon It'll Be Like a TSA Check for Apps"

"Google's Attack on Sideloading Will Rob Android of One of Its Best Features"

"Google's developer registration 'decree' means the end for alternative app stores"

"Google is restricting one of Android's most important features, and users are outraged"

"F-Droid Slams Google for Misleading Users About Android's App Verification"

"Resistance to Google's Android verification grows among developers"

"Keep Android Open – Abwehr gegen Verbot anonymer Apps von Google"

"Google's new developer rules could threaten sideloading and F-Droid's future"

"It effectively makes the Play Store a monopoly without actually mandating that it is a monopoly."

"Google's new ID requirements could destroy independent app stores"

"Open-Source Android Apps Threatened by Google's New Policy"

"Google's dev registration plan 'will end the F-Droid project'"

"We all know that's a load of bullshit. Adding a goddamn 24-hour waiting period is batshit insanity."

"Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move yet"

"Open-Source Android Apps at Risk Under Google's New Decree"