Android Developers Revolt Against Google

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Android developers are revoling against Google's 2026 sideloading registration mandate. Starting September 2026, Google is fundamentally changing how sideloading works on Android. Right now, installing an app from outside the Play Store is as simple as downloading an APK and tapping install. Sort of. You have to enable unknown developers, whatever, whatever, whatever. But sort of. Under the new rules, every developer, even hobbyists and open source contributors who never touch the Play Store, must register with Google, verify their identity with governmentissued ID, register their app signing keys, agree to Google's terms, and pay a $25 fee. If they don't, their app gets silently blocked from installing on any certified Android device. Google says that power users can still install unverified apps, but the new advanced flow requires enabling developer mode by tapping the build number seven times, navigating through multiple setting screens, and waiting out a mandatory 24-hour cooling off period. Over 37 organizations, including the EFF, Foid, Proton, Nextcloud, and the Tour Project, have signed an open letter demanding that Google reverse course. Foid calls the mandate existential since its entire model relies on volunteer and pseudonmous developers who have no reason or desire to register with Google. The rollout starts in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand with a global expansion planned for 2027.

[00:01:22]Custom ROMs like Graphine OS and Lineage OS are unaffected.

[00:01:28]Discussion question. If installing an app on your own phone now requires a 24-hour waiting period in developer mode, can Google still call Android an open platform?

[00:01:38]>> I mean, I think they can still call it whatever they want, but is it one? Um, I don't know. I think this is something that would kind of push me to do the same thing I'm doing with Linux right now on my phone, which is just try alternative options.

[00:01:50]>> Let me pitch you some food for thought.

[00:01:53]With this change, would you be more comfortable recommending an Android phone for your grandpa or grandma?

[00:02:00]>> No.

[00:02:01]>> Really? I would. Straight up. 24-hour waiting period for random APKs. The way that scams work? Zero question.

[00:02:13]Now, does that mean that I support the move? Not necessarily. I see lots of problems with it, but I also can see a good faith argument for why Google wants to unmask developers on the platform.

[00:02:31]And they are still offering a way that you can install anything.

[00:02:37]>> A 24-hour waiting period would functionally kill the like, oh yeah, grandpa, just go here and install this and click through this and click through this. I'll wait on the phone with you while you dump all of your life savings into a lot of those scams are multi-day long.

[00:02:52]>> Okay. Not all.

[00:02:53]>> That's totally fair. That's what you're >> It would make it so much more work.

[00:02:56]>> Yes, it definitely would. I um I would like to see this as a feature >> that is like family management controllable.

[00:03:10]>> Interesting. So like a fleet management feature. Okay, so here's my question though because who is the administrator of that though?

[00:03:20]Like as as a as a head of family like techy dude, I hear that and I go, "Oh yeah, that totally makes sense. That's how I would manage it through family link and I would do this and I would do that." But most people's structure is not necessarily like that.

[00:03:37]Like I can this is one of those ones where on the surface >> I can see >> this feels like sacrificing freedom for security in a way that I do not like. Um it does but I I think if you put that in the power of users, yeah, you'll still lose some people because they're not going to have that type person in their family or whatever. But in my experience of my my grandpa living far away in a retirement village effectively, there was like an IT person thing. I don't even know what I would call it. It was like the person that everyone in that town because it was it was a pretty sprawling area, but it was a and everyone had their own homes and stuff, but it was a retirement focused area. I don't even know. I'm sure it has a name.

[00:04:19]I don't know what it is. Um >> retirement community.

[00:04:22]>> Sure. Um and I don't know if this person's shop was like on site in that community or not, but like just everybody knew who he was. Um, and he had a particular way of dealing with everyone, which was actually like kind of neat because he was like the only person everybody really used. Word of mouth was everywhere that like if you were have like if your laptop was screwed up, he'd just exchange you >> and then fix yours and like sell it to somebody else or whatever. Like he was pretty good about just like keeping people going. and he had basically like team viewer on everyone's systems, >> which I know, but he could tap in if he like needed to help you with something cuz there would often be like, oh, there's something going on with whatever.

[00:05:02]>> That's what our angel of death says. 24 hours is enough time for my elderly family members to call me just to check if they're doing the right thing. I'm still fundamentally against it for other reasons. And I think that actually summarizes sort of where I'm at right now. I haven't had a lot of time to think about it. My reason for this very long story >> Oh, sorry. Can I >> is whoever that dude was >> Yeah.

[00:05:23]>> could maybe enable this thing for these people.

[00:05:26]>> But he was a good actor. What if he wasn't?

[00:05:28]>> Yeah.

[00:05:29]>> Then disaster.

[00:05:30]>> And >> if you're not a good actor and you're in that dude's position, this 24-hour window will not stop you.

[00:05:37]>> This is true. Fools and Horses has a really good point and asks asks the question, has Android gotten so large that the risk of being called negligent for allowing these things and for not putting obstacles in the way is greater than the risk of their disgruntled customers over this loss of freedom, loss of openness. Um, how much of the market would they really lose? And I think that's got to be the question that Google's asking themselves as they navigate this decision. And I I suspect the answer for how many people they're going to lose is extremely small.

[00:06:13]>> Yeah.

[00:06:15]>> Um and and that's not like that's not me saying that I support the decision. I'm just saying that that's the reality is that most people are not even watching the WAN show, not even aware of this, would have never sideloadaded an APK anyway unless some rando told them to do it, in which case this was probably a thing. Um, so Greak asks, "Why is this also require responding to someone else?" Yeah, never mind. Um, yeah, Ann White says it won't be zero, but yeah, it will be small. Uh, leaving one's most experienced OS and just like switching is like kind of a pain. Like honestly, that's why Ivonne's still on iOS. Not because she prefers it, but just after she did the iPhone challenge, she's just like, uh, switching phones is such a pain in the butt. It really is. And just I I do think it's going to be pretty negligible. Arcomian says leave to what?

[00:07:13]iOS. I mean, Graphine OS is an option.

[00:07:17]iOS. Um I saw I saw a cool uh this was cool. This was not really good news enough to be good newsws W show, but um Windows phone Android launcher someone's uh someone is working on or um made Oh no, apparently this is old. Just an Android launcher that like looks a lot like Windows Phone, which I thought was pretty cool. Anyway, that's it. That was a little highlight for that. I I don't think we're going to reach a conclusion on this one because I don't think that it's it's cut and dried.

[00:07:48]>> Sounds simple.

[00:07:49]>> I do I do appreciate Google's um position that they are still allowing sideloading with these caveats. And for me, for my use of Android, the handful of times that I've needed to sideloadad, this would have been good enough. This would have been a minor inconvenience.

[00:08:09]>> Where does the slope end?

[00:08:12]Are we on the slipper? So, so, >> and I can't tell. I don't know that we are. I'm not trying to claim necessarily that we are.

[00:08:18]>> I don't either.

[00:08:18]>> There are there are times where I have been like, "This is a slope." I don't know that this one is, but it it smells like one.

[00:08:25]>> It Well, okay. In a vacuum, I would push back. If this was the only change that Google had made to Android over the last 5 years, then I'd be like, "Luke, come on.

[00:08:36]>> They've been good stewards. They've done this. They've done that."

[00:08:40]In the context of everything that Google has done though with Chrome and with Android um with their products in general over I mean the last while it's a lot harder for me to do that. I they've lost my trust.

[00:08:54]>> Yeah.

[00:08:55]>> And I think that's a big part of it is like they've there was a time when Google might have done this and said trust me bro I got you. And I would said okay >> I would have I still have a little bit of that with them but not as much as before. I I feel like they uh Let's check in on Killed by Google.

[00:09:14]I feel like they've been slowing down, but I'm not sure.

[00:09:24]Okay, so 2026 and beyond is these. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's actually not that much >> compared to I mean 2024 being like what all of this >> the postcoid time was a big was a time of a lot of consolidation for the big tech companies.

[00:09:46]>> God >> team sizes shrank projects were abandoned. It wasn't just Google at that time.

[00:09:54]>> Wow.

[00:09:56]Fascinating. Yeah. that Google is like the the corporate uh embodiment of throw things at the wall and see what sticks, man.