It is taking a surprisingly long time for the importance of the move to effectively close Android to programmers not vetted by Google to sink in. It is effectively a checkmate move to thwart the deregulation of the Play Store.

If there was ever a time that we needed a third mobile phone operating system it is now. Both Apple and Google operate walled gardens when it comes to app distribution, with Apple generally being worse than Google, but only just. Both these megaliths are subject to regulatory pressure to loosen their grip on software distribution on their platforms and both are seeking ways to counter this. As initially reported in Google Demands Dev Identity For All Android Apps, Google seems to have hit on a really great way to take more or less total control in the face of legal judgments that aim to reduce its control.

What Google is proposing to take effect from September 2026 onwards, is essentially a closing down of the ability to develop apps for Android without registration. If you don't register then, while you will still be able to create apps and install them on a test phone using the ADB, you will not be able to distribute your apps - not even to a private group of users. Android phones will simply refuse to install apps from non-registered programmers. As far as I know this is the first time this level of control has been exerted by any hardware manufacturer.

As previously detailed, to distribute programs you will need to:

• You'll need to prove you own your apps by providing your app package name and app signing keys.

As already discussed this is likely to drive any alternatives to the Play store out of business due to the difficulties of verifying identify. It effectively makes the Play store a monopoly without actually mandating that it is a monopoly. This does indeed look like a checkmate move for any regulatory body trying to free up Google's already fairly tight monopoly on Android.

So what can we do?

A new website provides lots of answers. Go to 

https://keepandroidopen.org/

and find the best way to protest the change in your region.

Or simply sign the draft open letter to Google. 

https://docs.fediverse.foundation/pad/#/2/pad/view/OkfvdusnqafC8Wv+WUVpXB8RQk6XUFxmFHIa6CiBxQI/

which is well worth reading as it lays out the objections to the proposal in detail.

Personally I doubt that an open letter will do any good and I would suggest connecting your regional organization as listed on the web page.

I cannot imagine a world in which the freedom to program a computer that you own, and install any software that you want to, is prohibited by legal and technological means. 

This really is important for the future of Android.

More Information

https://keepandroidopen.org/

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