Discussion

Android developer verification: Rolling out to all developers on Play Console and Android Developer Console

stuaxo: Sorry, but absolutely not.I stuck with Android for years as a dev as I once did Android apps and occasionally do tinker.This is my last Android phone and Jolla is my next phone.

bstsb: from https://9to5google.com/2026/03/30/android-developer-verifier... -> Starting in April, Android Developer Verifier will be installed on devices.so they're rolling out a system app that will call home to check whether any sideloaded apps have been "verified" with the developer's government ID? and this process will happen regardless of whether the user has enabled the "advanced flow" in Developer settings?

andrepd: I don't see a way out of this except government regulation. The EU has the most motivation to do it, as a huge economic bloc with a lot of motivation right now to become as independent from the US as possible.I guess I can sort of manage to keep my head above water and keep buying secondhand phones which I unlock and install a supported version of LineageOS. But it's cumbersome, it gets more difficult and more restrictive every time. And I literally have a doctorate in computers for crying out loud! Is there any hope for Granny? For a kid? For >99% of people? Of course not.This is so clearly a matter for government oversight: prevent abuse, monopolies, protect the citizen's safety, rights, welfare, etc. It's not reasonable to expect consumers to figure out if the meat they buy is tainted, just as it's not to figure out if their phone spies on them, manipulates information, or sells their data (especially when there's a duopoly). That's why we have laws and food inspectors, paid for by the public, working for the public. Same thing with digital rights.

pzo: > I don't see a way out of this except government regulation.IMHO governments are partially behind those initiatives so they are unlikely to regulate themself- reason in last few years they intensified work on Digital ID, Age Verification, Chat control, KYC, etc.

zrm: There are different governments and different subdivisions within any given government. The only thing you need to get a government that had been pushing Chat Control to do some trust busting is to get more votes than the baddies.

parrellel: Yeah, no. No one needs your spyware.

birdsongs: I really want to like the concept of Jolla / a European mobile alternative but I see no reason why they're closed source SW in 2026. Open source everything, let the community help develop, and sell your hardware (and support/deals for B2B).A single for-profit company owning the full HW and SW stack? My trust in companies lately is at a lifetime low. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Fordec: Yeah, no, going back to web native. Keep your verification and your 20%.

user34283: You'd think in 2026 regulators would finally step up their game to break up the mobile app distribution duopoly.And Google thinks it can pull this ridiculous stunt.

nout: EU is schizophrenic enough that it often produces very conflicting directions, opinions and policies.One thing EU loves is regulation though, so I expect they will introduce preemptive regulations to enforce strict ID verification as well as regulations to fine big companies for breaching user privacy with strict ID verification policies.

ethagnawl: What % of Android users actually want this? Do they know or care?I've been using Android since 2010 because it was open in ways that the Apple ecosystem wasn't. I do not want this and imagine hardly any other power users (for lack of a better term) do. I'm already using a mostly deGoogled device but this really seals the deal. I have been longing for a true Linux phone for years and now seems like a good time to get serious about the search and migration plan.

JLCarveth: Being able to side load apps was why I switched to android 10 years ago

ux266478: Yeah. Computing freedom to have a root shell and do as I please is the entire reason I put up with Android. Google is positioning Android to just be nothing more than a worse iOS. There's pretty much no point to it anymore.

rvnx: Hey boss: “40M users are running a cracked version of YouTube premium on mobile, what can we do ?”

cosmotic: Rounded to the nearest percent, I'd guess power users make up 0% of android user base.

bossyTeacher: "However, our recent analysis found over 90 times more malware from sideloaded sources than on Google Play."Has anyone seen the report for that analysis. I bet most people here would love to read it too.

kayson: > our recent analysis found over 90 times more malware from sideloaded sources than on Google PlaySo what's the solution then? At the same time, I'm curious how this ends up happening to end users. Enabling unknown sources is trivial in a way (it's just one check box and if you try to install an APK from, say, Firefox, it'll take you right there), but how are people even getting to that point??

lokar: For the limits on side-loading in particular, there are a few southeast asian nations (I can't recall, Vietnam? Thailand?) where almost all internet access is via Android, including banking. And social engineering fraud, where they call someone up, pretend to be the bank, and get them to side-load malware, has become a major financial, and political problem.AIUI, they have told Google to find a fix, or else.

pzo: > pretend to be the bank, and get them to side-load malware, has become a major financial, and political problem.I been living in SE Asia for few years each in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and really didn't notice that this is supposed to be like major political problem.'Fraud' is the same smoke screen and excuse as 'protect the children from social media or pedophiles'.

seanalltogether: "This is so clearly a matter for government oversight: prevent abuse, protect the citizen's safety, rights, welfare, etc. It's not reasonable to expect consumers to figure out if the meat they buy is tainted, just as it's not to figure out if the APPS THEY INSTALL spies on them, manipulates information, or sells their data"Do you see how quickly that argument can be flipped to support what google is doing here? Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if half the reason to to lock down phones is because governments keep pressuring them to do so.

misir: > What % of Android users actually want this? Do they know or care?Bold of you assuming they're doing for users. It's fear-mongering at its finest - using the threat of security to install more control that has little to no protection against the said threats.Now you might say it's going to raise the bar for the scammers, but nobody is going to be spending time on writing scam or malware for a few bucks. When the reward is high, they can just pay out already verified developers to distribute their builds under their accounts, or just find a workaround (fake ids?) which could be still way cheaper than the potential revenue potential of a successful attack. It's just an inconvenience that didn't existed before.This is just a policy directly targeting the legit developers distributing apps to work around some of the platform's limitations (ie. uncrappifying youtube). They were previously free to share the workarounds they've developed for themselves since it was just as easy as sharing your APK. Now with added threat of losing your developer account and probably being perma-banned from google, those devs are less likely to continue distributing their workarounds.

beacon294: You were wrong at percentage. The question is what count would want this.

EmbarrassedHelp: I'm wondering if the EU is complicit in this somehow, despite claiming that they want to fight back against tech companies.The EU Commission is currently pushing the shitty EU Identity Wallet for mandatory age verification, and it requires GooglePlay Services to be installed for "anti-tampering". That also means a ban on non official versions of Android like LineageOS and GrapheneOS.

ninjagoo: It is way past time to build a 'people's phone', funding it through a platform like LiberaPay [1][2] or Open Collective [3][4], with a requirement for the device to be completely open-source.[1] https://liberapay.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberapay [3] https://opencollective.com/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_CollectiveIf we start today, we could have a new phone in 2-3 years. Future generations will thank us.It's not just phones. There is a concerted movement by massively-moneyed folks to destroy the fabric of open society, so there are a number of different areas that need attention. A coordinated effort across the breadth of society to restore, maintain or improve the foundations of open society.

TGower: It really seems like they are doing a lot to appease the tiny minority of us power users, adb load unaffected, one time toggle in settings to opt out, no change to alternative app stores as long as the apk was built by a verified developer. Crazy how harsh the sentiment is here, there are real people being harmed by scam apps intercepting sms one time codes and this will reduce the rate of that happening. It's not like we can't sideload anymore, though a lot of comments here seem to be implying otherwise.

kcb: Because the initial announcement included none of that... it wasn't addressed at all until the harsh sentiment.

TGower: Then shouldn't we celebrate the victory, drop it, and move on?

brnt: Those scam apps largely are installed from the Play store. Let them fix that first.

mrtksn: The Android verification is such a broken experience. Recently I decided to purchase a dev account for my company, so far:1) provided my company DUNS number etc. once to create the payment account. I did this some times ago, don’t remember the details but it was ab involved verification process and it is marked as verified business payment profile.2) later on the payment step verified myself with a passport and bank statement to be able to actually pay with a proper bank card3) After I paid I was told that now I need to verify my identity once more but this time with the passport and the incorporation certificate or some other company document.fingers crossed that in few days it will be verified and it tells me that there are still website and phone number verification to do once the previous step is done. I already verified my e-mail a few times.It’s painful, slow and annoying because if you fail at a step(i.e. needs verification that takes days at the payment) you have to start again the step.I just remembered why I never use Android. It seems like no one owns the process and as a result you get unpolished shitty experience that fulfills the requirements of god knows how many people who work in the same company but don’t talk to each other.

charcircuit: People don't want it until they've been scammed. Then they'll complain why you didn't save them.

lokar: I can't find it now, but the article I read seemed to say that the gov was specifically upset about the banking issue, and might tell the banks they can't allow apps anymore.

cubefox: Do people complain about being scammed with Windows or macOS? Apparently not. So they probably also don't complain about Android.

throwaway85825: A 'safe' app store would promote and prioritize open source apps compiled on public auditable runners.

mcsniff: What you're describing is not "broken", it's the process and it appears it hasn't even failed for you.My experience with getting a verified "business" developer account from Google mirrors the experience as getting one from Apple, except it's a one-time fee and much less than Apple.Yes there are hoops to jump through, identification usually requires some hoops, but pretty it's straightforward. I am not commenting on the requirements of these hoops, yes, it's BS that they exist but it's their platform so it's their rules.What type of "experience" are you expecting to have anyway?

mrtksn: With Apple I filled the forms, accepted the agreements, entered the DUNS and paid with a card on my name and ghat was it.How does that mirror uploading my passport many times, entering company details many times, typing my e-mail and phone numbers many times both because I had to start over and because I was asked many times even if I provided these some steps back? Now I paid and waiting, hopefully I will later be verifying my e-mail address or something that I verified a few times prior.

throwaway85825: It would be good if there was less malware and outright scams in the play store but that's really orthogonal to the developer verification issue.

Macha: I mean, I’m sure “Fortnite with infinite vbucks.apk” has a much worse malware rate than the play store, but I’m almost certain that fdroid has a lower malware rate than the play store and I honestly suspect even “random apks off github” might have a similar rate to the play store

hnburnsy: What Android versions is this applicable to?

kcb: Victory is my device and its OS working the same way it always worked and the way it worked when I bought it.

DashAnimal: I don't necessarily like the idea of a company wiping their hands clean and saying "well - not our problem!" either though.Companies shouldn't wait to solve issues like this - they should be proactively helping their most vulnerable users. That is the "do no evil" motto.I don't know enough to say whether this method is the right approach however.

hnburnsy: Because this is a glide path to what they really want, look at Apple and running unsigned apps on your Mac, how it started, simple right click, how is it going, near impossible.

__fst__: Let everyone who wants it be safe using the Google App Store. But please let me do stupid/experimental things with my phone.

0xbadcafebee: [delayed]