Google has announced this summer that any developer wishing to distribute an Android application outside the Play Store should now go through a centralized identity verification procedure. The company claims to want to fight against the propagation of malware, in particular via the direct installation of APK, a common practice for users who download their apps out of the official store.
A safety device … or a way to regain control?
The program, still in the pilot phase, must start this month before a gradual deployment. From September 2026, the first countries concerned will be Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Global generalization is scheduled in 2027. Test registrations are already asking developers if they can pay the costs in dollars, the process will be as compulsory as it is payable.
Problem: this centralization may undermine a whole part of the Android ecosystem. F-Droid, which has existed for 15 years and offers thousands of open source applications, estimates that the project signs ” The end From its platform and those based on the same principle. The reason is simple: the team can neither force the authors to register at Google, nor usurp their application identifiers to do so in their place. Clearly, if the measurement comes into force, thousands of apps would simply disappear.
In a long post, F-Droogle accuses Google of using security as a pretext to tighten its control on Android. “” If the decision is applied, it will sign the end of the project “, Warning the shop, which recalls that the Play Store itself is not free from fraudulent applications. The security argument is struggling to convince therefore, especially since F-Droid has its own mechanisms: each application is provided in the form of source code, audited and then recompilized by the team, before being distributed without advertising or tracking.
For F-Droid, the real issue is elsewhere. Obligning all developers to register with a central authority, according to her, is to compel writers or artists to request a license to publish. The organization denounces an attack on freedom of expression and software creation, and calls on the American and European authorities to react quickly. In particular, it aims at the European Commission and its digital markets (DMA), supposed to limit the hegemony of digital giants.
This new controversy fell to a delicate moment for Google, already under judicial pressure after its defeat against Epic Games in the Play Store case. The group must soften its shop and promote the arrival of competing stores on Android. But by locking Sideloading, Google could maintain its central role in the distribution of applications, despite the courts.
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