With developer verification, Android no longer counts as a proper smartphone platform

When I first started using a smartphone, the choice between Android and iOS felt like an easy one. Sure, Apple had an attractive UI, and an early lead on third-party software support, but going the iPhone route meant living in Apple’s walled garden. And while there are absolutely benefits to that kind of approach, it just fundamentally felt wrong to me: I viewed smartphones as the next phase of general-purpose computers, and wasn’t interested in a platform locked down like a gaming console.

For a while, Android felt like getting the best of both worlds. If you wanted an iPhone-like experience, you were welcome to get your apps from the Play Store (well, Android Market in those days), and if you didn’t, you were free to take matters into your own hands and install whatever software you wanted, no matter what sketchy corner of the internet it crawled out of.

That kind of freedom is inherently risky. But this is also the situation computer users have been navigating since day one.

Now, well into its second decade of existence, Android is changing. It’s been changing for a while, to be fair, with Google making more and more Apple-like decisions, prioritizing control over the experience above user choice. Increasing reliance on Play Integrity checks has been a nightmare for the custom ROM community, denying them access to popular apps. And now the other shoe is finally ready to drop, as Android prepares for mandatory developer registration.

Beginning next year, Android will start blocking the installation of even sideloaded apps from sources unknown to Google. Developers distributing their software through the Play Store already have to register with Google, but so far if you were only making APKs available for sideloading — like an open-source project might do, or a hobbyist just taking a stab at crafting an Android app for fun — you were free to remain anonymous.

Right now I’m not every worrying about the privacy implications; Google says it “may” demand you upload a government ID. Locking down a platform such that it no longer supports the free installation of software without someone else’s approval transforms Android from the handheld computer I always wanted into another iPhone game console. It just doesn’t count as a full-blown computer anymore — and correspondingly, not as a proper smartphone.

I’m sure that hot take sounds incredibly reductive, but this is a huge problem that computing in general has been butting its head up against for years now, and it’s far from unique to mobile devices. Secure Boot has been reducing software choice for users on Windows PCs, and while options there still exist, there are already big components of the ecosystem that have fallen into this same locked-down, chain-of-trust trap.

That’s another problem: This isn’t really about security-security at all. Unlike systems like Play Protect, which attempt to determine whether the code we want to run on our phones is malicious or not, developer registration will do nothing to prevent you from installing and running malware. This is just about accountability — who to blame after the fact.

In announcing mandatory developer registration, Google offers three arguments in favor of this system:

• Deters bad actors who prefer to operate anonymously.
• Makes it harder to spread harm by linking bad apps to their developers. This helps us hold developers accountable, enforce safety policies, and remove malicious networks.
• Boosts user confidence, helping you build relationships with new users and establish trust.

That first point is a double-edged sword. There are lots of categories of developers who would prefer to release their software anonymously, and bad actors are but one. The third point, I simply do not care about; that’s between developers and their users, and there are certainly other ways to bolster it.

But the second is the meat of this decision: This is about being able to ban developers.

All Google could do before was keep them out of the Play Store, or try to detect their code with Play Protect. Pushing through with this nuclear option is nothing short of admitting the failure of that strategy. If this feels like it’s coming with a dose of condescension, it should. Google is basically saying: You’ve been too stupid to listen to our perfectly clear messaging about sideloading being dangerous, so we’re taking away the option.

Because that’s exactly what this is: mandatory developer registration transforms sideloading into just another arm of the Play Store, only one without a distribution system. It effectively gives Google universal app approval across Android.

That’s feature-phone bullshit. Proper smartphones are open. And I’m going to miss them.