Android Developers Revolt Against Google

0:00 Android developers are revoling against

0:03 Google's 2026 sideloading registration mandate.

0:06 Starting September 2026,

0:08 Google is fundamentally changing how sideloading works on Android.

0:11 Right now, installing an app from outside the Play Store

0:14 is as simple as downloading an APK and tapping install.

0:17 Sort of.

0:17 You have to enable unknown developers, whatever, whatever, whatever.

0:20 But sort of.

0:21 Under the new rules, every developer,

0:23 even hobbyists and open source contributors who never touch the Play Store,

0:26 must register with Google,

0:28 verify their identity with governmentissued ID, register their app signing keys,

0:31 agree to Google's terms, and pay a $25 fee.

0:34 If they don't, their app gets silently

0:36 blocked from installing on any certified Android device.

0:40 Google says that power users can still install unverified apps,

0:45 but the new advanced flow requires enabling developer

0:48 mode by tapping the build number seven times,

0:50 navigating through multiple setting screens,

0:52 and waiting out a mandatory 24-hour cooling off period.

0:56 Over 37 organizations, including the EFF,

0:59 Foid, Proton, Nextcloud, and the Tour Project,

1:02 have signed an open letter demanding that Google reverse course.

1:06 Foid calls the mandate existential since its entire model relies on volunteer

1:11 and pseudonmous developers who have no reason or desire to register with Google.

1:16 The rollout starts in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore,

1:19 and Thailand with a global expansion planned for 2027.

1:22 Custom ROMs like Graphine OS and Lineage OS are unaffected.

1:28 Discussion question.

1:30 If installing an app on your own phone

1:31 now requires a 24-hour waiting period in developer mode,

1:34 can Google still call Android an open platform?

1:38 I mean, I think they can still call it whatever they want, but is it one?

1:41 Um, I don't know.

1:42 I think this is something that would kind of push me to do

1:46 the same thing I'm doing with Linux right now on my phone,

1:48 which is just try alternative options.

1:50 Let me pitch you some food for thought.

1:53 With this change, would you be more comfortable

1:56 recommending an Android phone for your grandpa or grandma?

2:03 No.

2:01 Really?

2:02 I would.

2:03 Straight up.

2:05 24-hour waiting period for random APKs.

2:08 The way that scams work?

2:10 Zero question.

2:13 Now, does that mean that I support the move?

2:17 Not necessarily.

2:18 I see lots of problems with it, but I also can see a good faith argument

2:27 for why Google wants to unmask developers on the platform.

2:31 And they are still offering a way that you can install anything.

2:37 A 24-hour waiting period would functionally kill the like, oh yeah, grandpa,

2:43 just go here and install this and click through this and click through this.

2:46 I'll wait on the phone with you while you dump all

2:48 of your life savings into a lot of those scams are multi-day long.

2:52 Okay.

2:52 Not all.

2:53 That's totally fair.

2:54 That's what you're

2:55 It would make it so much more work.

2:57 Yes, it definitely would.

2:58 I um I would like to see this as a feature

3:07 that is like family management controllable.

3:11 Interesting.

3:11 So like a fleet management feature.

3:13 Okay, so here's my question though because

3:17 who is the administrator of that though?

3:20 Like as as a as a head of family like techy dude,

3:24 I hear that and I go, "Oh yeah, that totally makes sense.

3:26 That's how I would manage it through family link and I would do

3:28 this and I would do that." But most

3:31 people's structure is not necessarily like that.

3:37 Like I can this is one of those ones where on the surface

3:42 I can see

3:43 this feels like sacrificing freedom for security in a way that I do not like.

3:46 Um it does but I I think if you put that in the power of users, yeah,

3:51 you'll still lose some people because they're not going

3:53 to have that type person in their family or whatever.

3:55 But in my experience of my my grandpa

3:58 living far away in a retirement village effectively,

4:03 there was like an IT person thing.

4:07 I don't even know what I would call it.

4:08 It was like the person that everyone in that town

4:11 because it was it was a pretty sprawling area,

4:13 but it was a and everyone had their own homes and stuff,

4:15 but it was a retirement focused area.

4:17 I don't even know.

4:18 I'm sure it has a name.

4:19 I don't know what it is.

4:20 Um retirement community.

4:22 Sure.

4:22 Um and I don't know if this person's shop

4:24 was like on site in that community or not,

4:27 but like just everybody knew who he was.

4:30 Um, and he had a particular way of dealing with everyone,

4:35 which was actually like kind of neat because

4:38 he was like the only person everybody really used.

4:40 Word of mouth was everywhere that like if you

4:42 were have like if your laptop was screwed up, he'd just exchange you

4:45 and then fix yours and like sell it to somebody else or whatever.

4:48 Like he was pretty good about just like keeping people going.

4:51 and he had basically like team viewer on everyone's systems,

4:55 which I know, but he could tap in if he like

4:59 needed to help you with something cuz there would often be like,

5:01 oh, there's something going on with whatever.

5:03 That's what our angel of death says.

5:04 24 hours is enough time for my elderly family members

5:06 to call me just to check if they're doing the right thing.

5:09 I'm still fundamentally against it for other reasons.

5:11 And I think that actually summarizes sort of where I'm at right now.

5:16 I haven't had a lot of time to think about it.

5:18 My reason for this very long story Oh, sorry.

5:21 Can I

5:21 is whoever that dude was

5:24 Yeah.

5:23 could maybe enable this thing for these people.

5:26 But he was a good actor.

5:26 What if he wasn't?

5:29 Yeah.

5:29 Then disaster.

5:32 And

5:31 if you're not a good actor and you're in that dude's position,

5:34 this 24-hour window will not stop you.

5:37 This is true.

5:38 Fools and Horses has a really good point and asks asks the question,

5:42 has Android gotten so large that the risk of being

5:46 called negligent for allowing these things and for not putting

5:50 obstacles in the way is greater than the risk

5:53 of their disgruntled customers over this loss of freedom, loss of openness.

5:58 Um, how much of the market would they really lose?

6:01 And I think that's got to be the question

6:03 that Google's asking themselves as they navigate this decision.

6:07 And I I suspect the answer for how

6:09 many people they're going to lose is extremely small.

6:15 Yeah.

6:17 Um and and that's not like that's not me saying that I support the decision.

6:21 I'm just saying that that's the reality is

6:24 that most people are not even watching the WAN show,

6:28 not even aware of this, would have never sideloadaded

6:30 an APK anyway unless some rando told them to do it,

6:35 in which case this was probably a thing.

6:38 Um, so Greak asks, "Why is this also

6:45 require responding to someone else?" Yeah, never mind.

6:48 Um, yeah, Ann White says it won't be zero, but yeah, it will be small.

6:52 Uh, leaving one's most experienced OS and just

6:55 like switching is like kind of a pain.

6:57 Like honestly, that's why Ivonne's still on iOS.

6:59 Not because she prefers it, but just after she did the iPhone challenge,

7:03 she's just like, uh, switching phones is such a pain in the butt.

7:06 It really is.

7:08 And just I I do think it's going to be pretty negligible.

7:11 Arcomian says leave to what?

7:13 iOS.

7:14 I mean, Graphine OS is an option.

7:17 iOS.

7:18 Um I saw I saw a cool uh this was cool.

7:22 This was not really good news enough to be good newsws W show,

7:24 but um Windows phone Android launcher someone's uh

7:29 someone is working on or um made Oh no, apparently this is old.

7:36 Just an Android launcher that like looks a lot like Windows Phone,

7:39 which I thought was pretty cool.

7:41 Anyway, that's it.

7:41 That was a little highlight for that.

7:43 I I don't think we're going to reach a conclusion

7:45 on this one because I don't think that it's it's cut and dried.

7:49 Sounds simple.

7:49 I do I do appreciate Google's um position

7:56 that they are still allowing sideloading with these caveats.

8:00 And for me, for my use of Android,

8:03 the handful of times that I've needed to sideloadad,

8:06 this would have been good enough.

8:07 This would have been a minor inconvenience.

8:09 Where does the slope end?

8:12 Are we on the slipper?

8:13 So, so, and I can't tell.

8:15 I don't know that we are.

8:15 I'm not trying to claim necessarily that we are.

8:18 I don't either.

8:18 There are there are times where I have been like,

8:20 "This is a slope." I don't know that this one is, but it it smells like one.

8:25 It Well, okay.

8:27 In a vacuum, I would push back.

8:30 If this was the only change that Google

8:32 had made to Android over the last 5 years, then I'd be like, "Luke, come on.

8:36 They've been good stewards.

8:37 They've done this.

8:38 They've done that." In the context of everything that Google

8:42 has done though with Chrome and with Android um

8:45 with their products in general over I mean the last

8:50 while it's a lot harder for me to do that.

8:52 I they've lost my trust.

8:55 Yeah.

8:55 And I think that's a big part of it is like they've there was

8:58 a time when Google might have done this and said trust me bro I got you.

9:02 And I would said okay I would have I still have a little bit

9:05 of that with them but not as much as before.

9:07 I I feel like they uh Let's check in on Killed by Google.

9:14 I feel like they've been slowing down, but I'm not sure.

9:24 Okay, so 2026 and beyond is these.

9:28 Oh, okay.

9:29 Yeah, that's actually not that much

9:31 compared to I mean 2024 being like what all of this

9:40 the postcoid time was a big was a time

9:43 of a lot of consolidation for the big tech companies.

9:48 God team sizes shrank projects were abandoned.

9:51 It wasn't just Google at that time.

9:57 Wow.

9:56 Fascinating.

9:58 Yeah.

9:58 that Google is like the the corporate uh embodiment

10:02 of throw things at the wall and see what sticks, man.