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.
I highly doubt any power users will move to IOS. IOS is far more limiting than even a locked down Android. Graphene is a far more likely candidate, though I suspect most will just stick to normal Android with unverified apps enabled as they have their phones configured today. This change is really just an added 24hr delay to the existing process of enabling unverified app installation. If Google had just announced it this way I suspect there wouldn’t have been so much pushback. But instead it was rumored that unverified installation would only allowed over adb which would absolutely be too much friction with little security benefit.
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At this point, apart from a lack of funds, there is no incentive to remain in android. Most people will switch to ios and some to linux phones.
Most people won’t give 2 shits or even be aware of the change.
Fair enough🫤
I highly doubt any power users will move to IOS. IOS is far more limiting than even a locked down Android. Graphene is a far more likely candidate, though I suspect most will just stick to normal Android with unverified apps enabled as they have their phones configured today. This change is really just an added 24hr delay to the existing process of enabling unverified app installation. If Google had just announced it this way I suspect there wouldn’t have been so much pushback. But instead it was rumored that unverified installation would only allowed over adb which would absolutely be too much friction with little security benefit.