Mastodawn

Not sure where #Google asked for feedback about their developer verification program, but they surely didn't talk with #FLOSS devs, civil society, privacy organisations or their #Android users

#FDroid did since September, and interacted with folks in the Fediverse, forum, email and in person

They all voiced one opinion: "developer verification must be stopped"

@marcprux has written an open letter, signed by likeminded organisations who want to #keepandroidopen

Click: https://f-droid.org/2026/02/24/open-letter-opposing-developer-verification.html

An Open Letter Opposing Android Developer Verification | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

As we wrote about back in September in F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree, Google plans to enforce mandatory developer registration as a requ...

Post translated in #Romanian and #Chinese, more to come.

Now in #Czech and #Indonesian too.

wakest ⁂Feb 24

@fdroidorg cc @hongminhee this might be useful a call to action to translate to Korean

Leela Torres Feb 24

@liaizon @fdroidorg @hongminhee
Is there https://keepandroidopen.org/ko/

Keep Android Open

Android가 누구나 애플리케이션을 개발할 수 있는 자유로운 플랫폼으로 남을 수 있도록 지지해주세요.

wakest ⁂Feb 24

@LeelaTorres @hongminhee I meant the blog post from @fdroidorg as well

Hans-Christoph Steiner Feb 25

@liaizon @LeelaTorres @hongminhee @fdroidorg Translation for f-droid.org is easy, you can contribute to the Korean translation of the posts here:
https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/f-droid/website-posts/ko/

F-Droid/Website Posts — Korean

F-Droid is being translated into 126 languages using Weblate. Join the translation or start translating your own project.

Hosted Weblate

@fdroidorg China already has many stores. And all are subject to their regulation Google is now copying.

https://www.androidpolice.com/china-regulations-app-registration/

China is turning the screw on app distribution in the country

China announces new regulations requiring all app providers to register business details

Android Police

Guardian Project Feb 25

@ohir @fdroidorg It would be good to have more info about that. I don't know much about how things work in China, but isn't Free Software viewed as as good thing there?

@guardianproject @fdroidorg There is plenty of Chinese proxy agencies publishing howtos (and of course advertising their paid support on this bumpy way). IDNK current tightened regulations well. Eight years ago you as an indie developer was expected to give a whole lotta of personal info, and some percentage of your app "core" source code. Then you had to have agreement with local app-shop sites, then some 11 iirc. From article quoted I see now they added the 49% share requirement.

@fdroidorg @marcprux

Maybe of interest to you?
@mailbox_org
@hetzner
@GrapheneOS

Un Bourguignon Feb 24

@fdroidorg
Do you remember the first slogan of google ? The "don't be evil" ?

Google is clearly evil now.
@marcprux

brent_bartlett Feb 24

@un_bourguignon @fdroidorg @marcprux They got rid of that a long time ago. If they were serious about not being evil, they would've made themselves a public benefit corporation

@fdroidorg @marcprux we love you f-droid

@fdroidorg @marcprux

they are clearly not doing it because it's good.they are doing it because they think they can get away with it. Please people, don't prove them right.

Kinene⭐🐻Feb 24

Thank you F-droid, for providing alternatives to Google crap.

Micdan 💾Feb 24

@fdroidorg @marcprux that's why I stopped using Google's totalitarian software

@fdroidorg @marcprux
Google gained insights from the installations it was losing to other app stores

zetabeta Feb 24

@fdroidorg @marcprux
google probably asked those developers or half developers who pay huge load of dollars by advertising, or those who are shareholders.

Rick d Card Feb 24

@fdroidorg @marcprux Right from the start I would look up an app and then find a place I could download the apk file and install it myself. All you have to do to is find the android setting that says, "install from other sources" and yer set.

@Rick_d_card That option will not be available, do read our post and the two linked past posts.

Rick d Card Feb 25

@fdroidorg Thank-you for your reply. I guess I was reading too fast and came to a wrong conclusion.

Free Soft&Hardware Enthusiast Feb 25

@fdroidorg @marcprux Android app developers relying on google play services voluntarily over such a long time i would say have been complicit, that was the starting point to what we see now progressively less Open.

AdventureTense Feb 25

@fdroidorg @marcprux
I hope that Google changes its mind, but as a shareholder company, they aren't a community. So I don't hold out too much hope.

But what I do hope is that AOSP eventually forks from Google, and other Open source mobile OS's start growing their market share away from Google. Its time for these options to go mainstream. We need F-Droid to be there for this.

Eventually we need an OpenAPK standard to build around that is not reliant on Google.

@adventure_tense Non-stock Android will continue to work just fine (well until Google locks-down AOSP), but suddenly 3.9 billion devices won't be able to install good apps.

AdventureTense Feb 25

@fdroidorg Totally understand. I'm just expressing my frustration of Google. I'm on GrapheneOS, and I know Google will come after AOSP next.

Witty University Feb 25

@fdroidorg will F-droid still be available via sideloading when Google's developer verification kicks in?

@wittyuniversity Nope, we will not be verified developers!

Witty University Feb 25

@fdroidorg time to turn off automatic updates then :-)

Johan Barelds 🇪🇺Feb 25

@fdroidorg @marcprux
Promote and accelerate development in more independent OSes and strengthen the use of F-Droid. The time is ripe.

@fdroidorg @marcprux Didn't google announce that they'll still allow unsigned apps but you'd have to jump through some more hoops to do so?

@Idaho We talk about that in the post, right?

@fdroidorg I read your toot but not the article 🙃 Didn't know Google still hasn't layed out that plan and intends to do it after they release Android 17...

DFX4509B (Joshua Mason)Feb 25

@fdroidorg @Idaho @marcprux That 'Advanced Flow' has the same energy as Google pulling the plug on WEI after everyone rightfully lashed out over it; they don't really want to let people run unverified apps on Android, and they probably still want to implement WEI at some point.

@fdroidorg FFS! Plan B is to take another look into @postmarketOS

txtx 🇪🇺Feb 25

@fdroidorg Would this new policy apply to F-Droid on /e/ OS and LineageOS? Both of those are 'de-googled' so I'm curious how far that goes.

@txtx Degoogled means freedom 😉

@fdroidorg @marcprux - Also sign the petition at change.org. The more of us that speak out against it the better chance we have of getting Google to back down. https://c.org/kRnMMnS9LP

Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?

%{petition_name}

Change.org

Matěj Cepl 🇪🇺 🇨🇿 🇺🇦Feb 27

@fdroidorg @marcprux

I completely agree with everything written by F-Droid, and I have signed the petition, but still this is the reminder for all developers why should prefer the only truly free platform for development of applications, which is the Internet itself, and #Webapp s . Yes, it is not fit for every application, but everywhere else you are #Sharecropper on your master’s plantation.

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace

Thank you, @timbray for reminding us!

#SPA #WebsThePlace

The Web’s the Place

ongoing by Tim Bray

Yann Trividic Feb 27

@eda @aurelien Surely it is of interest for you :)

Aurélien Feb 27

@yann_t @eda merci du partage !On avait suivi les discussions depuis l'été, mais au moins de mon côté raté la lettre ouverte

@aurelien @yann_t

Merci, oui c'est dans le cadre de https://keepandroidopen.org/, il faut partager régulier-rement les différents appel de cette initiative, car hélas cela ne s'améliore pas ... je repartage.

Keep Android Open

Advocating for Android as a free, open platform for everyone to build apps on.

firedragon Mar 9

The world of Nostr isn't stressing out over this because we use the new Zapstore that allows developers to directly sign and release apps using the Nostr protocol.

F-Droid could release apps over the Nostr protocol, and offer their own Nostr appstore client, and bypass Google completely.

Zapstore just released version 1.0

Zapstore.dev