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Google is requiring mandatory developer verification for all Android apps in 2026
(keepandroidopen.org)
If you haven't seen this yet, Google is planning to require mandatory developer identity verification for all Android apps, including apps distributed outside the Play Store, taking effect September 2026. This affects every independent and open source Android developer directly.
This is not just about the Play Store. After September 2026, on any certified Android device, applications from unverified developers will be blocked by default. The only proposed bypass, the "advanced flow", exists only as a blog post and has not appeared in any beta, dev preview, or canary release. No one outside Google has seen it.
The community has been fighting back at keepandroidopen.org:
- Read the full breakdown of what this means
- Sign the open letter (organisations only)
- Contact your national regulators โ contacts listed by country on the site
- Add the countdown banner to your project
September 2026 is closer than it looks. The time to push back is now.
Sideloading APKs is an easy vector but so is the Google Play Store. It'll take scammers like 5 minutes to just perma move to GPlay shenanigans, and its already well known to have poor quality control and tons of malware available to download with the useless play protect logo.
This is just Google's public justification for creating their walled garden. They already pulled this exact scam with Chinese OEMs which is how Huawei got banned, and others stopped selling in the US. They huffed up some story about CCP spyware and then mandated that GPlay be installed in full, otherwise face consequences from congress.
Even Samsung got pulled in and they essentially agreed to use GApps as the de facto communication suite for their phones in exchange for allowing Samsung to continue to use their Galaxy store.
They see stuff like AOSP as a threat because anyone can just fork the OS and make their own non google Android, and they don't want any OEM to replace GPlay like what Motorola is attempting right now (hence the increased urgency to lock down Android).
Google's monopoly in the mobile space revolves around every phone using GPlay, so they'll do anything to maintain their control.