Android will become a locked-down platform
In August 2025, Google announced 
that as of September 2026, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google. This registration will involve:
Paying a fee to Google
Agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions
Providing government identification
Uploading evidence of the developer’s private signing key
Listing all current and future application identifier
Use link to support
Correct me if I’m wrong but this won’t affect gapps less phones anyway. Only people who want to use fdroid as well as gapps
You’re correct, but what will affect f-droid ai if their developers dont register their customer base will deninish. There a lot billions of more users of open source apps that rely on open app stores to provide alternative apps that will not have access to open source app stores. Google is creating a closed eco system like apple.
And developers will be shut out and left with a very small number of devices that have installed likes of graphene, iode, lineage , /e/ oses.
Absolutely agree its not good but its like a lot of things its a losing war, whether it be this battle or next. Linux phones could do with being much better than they currently are, but it again, comes down to audience and developers having a point to develop on the platform. Be lovely if theres enough pushback that we don’t have to worry about this for a couple more years though
Good to have this as an early warning. So the privacy and humanity oriented community is able to take sides and prepare accordingly. The lazy ones stay with the evil satanists while we will advance with the new opportunities using AI like bright.learn to be free.
Do I understand correctly that for iodé users, it will not change anything? We shall still be able to use F-droid FOSS apps with our phones?
Of course, if the developpers of FOOS apps have less users, they will have less resource or motivation to keep doing their job qnd the numbers of FOSS apps may decrease (or not, if it turns that many people will de-ggogled themselves to flee this monopoly…)
Yes, this is correct. Here is the full reply I am giving to people when the email iodé for more clarification on the topic:
These new Google requirements will only apply if you use an Android device with full “Google Play Services” integration, such as with the “stock” firmware for your device. In that case, you can only install apps on your phone if the app developers have registered with Google. This limitation is applied even if the apps are not installed through the Play Store.
Thankfully, this limitation will not apply to iodéOS, as we will not directly be impacted by this restriction since we don’t have full Google Play Services integration (by design). You will still be able to install applications from F-Droid which will not need such registration by the app developers, or from Aurora (to allow anonymous installation of apps from the Google Play Store). Of course these Google restrictions may affect the availability of various apps if their developers decide to stop developing rather than comply with Google’s requirements. But again, there will be no limitations on installing apps as you now do with iodéOS. In fact, the end it may have an indirect benefit to us as more users realize that they need to seriously consider a de-Googled option such as iodéOS for their device.