this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Opening my weather app this morning I was greeted by this warning:

Google has announced that, starting in 2026/2027, all apps on certified Android devices will require the developer to submit personal identity details directly to Google. Since the developers of this app do not agree to this requirement, this app will no longer work on certified Android devices after that time.

It's the first time I hear about this, seems to be about:

Tech crunch article from august, "google will require developer verification for android apps outside the play store"

Cirrus app: Github

Was this a big thing I somehow missed? I hope more devs will follow suit.

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[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 150 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yes, you must have missed it. And so it begins.

Google is moving to make Android less open source. I'm not sure more devs following suit is going be good for them or their users. The G doesn't give an F.

What we need is an OS fork that gets maintained. If not that, some other workaround that fools the Google servers. Because you can bet money that nobody made from flesh and blood is going to look at this inside Google.

Maybe devs can band together and form Middle Finger Corp. and designate one willing person as their contact to serve as registered dev for a gazillion apps. Follow the letter of the law, not the misguided spirit of it, in a manner of speaking.

If you are sitting on a mobile OS and you were afraid to fail like Windows, maybe now is the time to give it a go?

[–] pibfyhd7g57gd5u64f@piefed.social 53 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 6 days ago (2 children)

e/OS too, if Graphene fails or isn't available. Or Murena.

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Murena has had questionable policies....

[–] Deckname@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And what policies would that be?

[–] bloubz@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 6 days ago

Murena is the company developing/e/os

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 22 points 5 days ago (2 children)

are you kidding? only available for google phones. are we supposed to give money to google for this situation?

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I think they are looking to partner with a phone manufacturer to move graphene platform to other brand of phones.

Specially since it's unlikely that google pixels will keep providing the spec info and openness that GOS need to work.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago

Well yeah, since device trees are no longer available going forward from Google, they'd be dead in the water otherwise.

[–] muix@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 5 days ago

LineageOS has good support for other devices

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

graphene only works on a very limited set of devices though

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago

Pixels. That's it.

[–] cdzero@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

Hopefully this leads to a lot more development of and for Ubuntu Touch. Biggest issues it faces are lack of compatibility and lack of apps. I think the core is solid though. I used it for a week when switching from iOS (so no Android background) and enjoyed it, but a few too many minor issues built up and I ended up going to Calyx.