We need to fight Google's new ID requirement for app developers. It isn't like showing ID at the airport. More like showing it at the printing press and only IDed authors are allowed to print books.

What Google doesn't talk about is that they build this ID system to ban developers and their apps.

People saying "But I use a degoogled custom ROM, so I won't be affected" are missing the point. Apps not on Google Play are already a niche. Banning them on most people's devices is a big issue, even if some people can still escape.

Also the general trend of Google becoming more closed may make even custom ROMs impossible eventually.

Under-reported detail: If you don't pay a fee to Google, they limit how many people can install your apps and how many apps you are allowed to have.

Source: https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/android-developer-console

Google asks what we think of their plans to block Android app installs outside of Google Play (unless the developers let Google verify their identity and pay a fee).

Want to tell them your opinion, just submit this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN3UQeNspQsZCO2ITkdzMxv81rJDEGGjO-UIDDY28Rz_GEVA/viewform?usp=dialog

The documentation also talks about a "developer verification policy" that may allow "the user to bypass a verification failure caused by network issues".

Also, there will be a "lite version of the developer verification", but what this means is still unclear.

Android "hobbyist developers can get a free account [for developer verification] but will face strict distribution limits, requiring them to manually authorize each device installing their app."

Having to get a device identifier from each of your potential(!) users and then manually allow-list them is an impractical limitation making this account type useless for most use-cases while allowing bad actors to exploit it.

Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/how-android-app-verification-works-3603559/