#keep android open

Source:

If you are not in the US, I urge you to look here to help out!

I'd heard of this a while ago, but with everything going on in my life, I kinda forgot about it. But it's a really big deal and I haven't seen it talked about in my corner of tumblr at all. So let's fix that!

Have you ever installed an app via direct download because it's never been published on the Play Store? Do you want to make a silly little android game and share it with your friends, or a simple tool to make your everyday life easier?

Starting in September of this year (2026), Google is going to force users to install an update that will make both of those things darn near impossible.

Installing apps that aren't from the Play Store will—at best—require a complicated, unintuitive process, including a 24-hour wait period. And Google will still have the power to shut down this entire process on a whim.

Anyone who wants to make an app for Android (and let people install it without having to go through this convoluted process) will have to pay Google $25 and hand over their government ID for the privilege.

This is a BIG problem, and it affects ALL android users. The website I linked above has more information on the specifics, and a list of ways you can help, including a change.org petition you can sign.

Essentially, they are asking that developers register with them not just to have their app on the google play store, but to have their app exist on Android at all.

This is a huge shift away from how Android has worked from its inception, having been intentionally left open from the get-go in order to differentiate itself from the closed system that is iOS. If this change gets implemented in September as Google plans to, alternative app stores such as F-Droid will be essentially rendered defunct. This will greatly limit the amount of free and open-source software in the android ecosystem and funnel people back towards the google play store, and all of the closed-source corporate apps therein.

A big example of how this affects me would be authentication. I use Aegis for most of mine, as I want to avoid Microsoft or other corporate connection with my accounts like the plague. This change would force me to switch back to microsoft authenticator, or google's, or any other number of less appealing options on the play store.

As someone who's come to appreciate open software more and more in recent years, this issue really means a lot to me.

Date of this post: March 12, 2026. Announcement was August 2025, and still stands.

Only verified apps from developers that provide all their personal details and government ID will be allowed, even from outside the Play Store.

They say this is for our safety, but this is taking away our digital rights. It's about control.

Sources, elaboration, and solutions under the cut.

I did sign the change.org petition as Google sucks and it is trying/is a monopoly, but I am asking for clarification.

How does it effect me as a average everyday user of my phone?

Currently, on an Android phone you can install any app you’d like, as long as it’s intended for Android devices. If this goes through, you will only be able to install apps that Google allows on the Play Store. (There are some ways around it, but they require a level of tech savvy-ness. In addition, if you go around this, Google might make it so you will always fail the “are you human” checks require to load some websites.)

Google having to verify every app also means that, if they don't like an app, they won't allow it. This could include:

Competitors to any apps they have. For example, other emails can be considered an alternative to Gmail

Apps that are targeted towards "controversial" groups, like gay dating apps or gay dating sims. These could also go away if an app developer doesn't want their government name tied to a gay dating sims or something like that.

Also, you know how the older your phone is, the fewer apps it can use? I'm on my second smartphone, and I only got rid of my first once the headphone jack died. By that time, I couldn't upgrade many apps.

Well, now imagine that you've used your phone long enough that you can't use the latest version of the Google Play store. Based on what Google is trying to do with app versions for the Google Play Store, this means your phone will always fail "are you human" checks. This will force you to buy a new phone that you could've otherwise used for another year or two.

Now imagine them depreciating phones' compatibility with Play Store updates at a faster rate. This isn't too crazy a proposition - Apple has been caught slowing down pre-existing phones. They claim it's to save the battery of older phones, but I'm sure it has prompted many users to no longer want to use what would be perfectly good phones without these updates.