[…]
In the new blog post, Google’s Matthew Forsythe confirms that the developer verification system is slated to come online on September 30 of this year. The initial deployment will be limited to countries with a high level of app scams: Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand.
[…]
Google released its new developer console back in March, inviting external developers the opportunity to pay $25 and verify their identities early. Developers who don’t register will find that their apps cannot be sideloaded on Google-certified Android devices once verification has rolled out. Google says that almost every app in the Play Store is now ready for the change, and a “large majority” of apps outside Google Play have completed verification.
[…]
Google says it will verify the apps in the following stores when it begins enforcing the new restrictions.
Google (Google Play)
Honor (HONOR App Market)
OPlus (OPPO App Market)
Samsung (Galaxy Store)
Transsion (Palm Store)
vivo (V-Appstore)
Xiaomi (GetApps)
[…]
The next step toward verifying apps will come this month as Google deploys a new system service on most certified devices. The package (com.google.android.verifier) will appear on phones and tablets running Android 8 or higher, allowing Google to block the installation of unverified apps. It will remain dormant until verification is activated in your specific region.
In July, Google plans to roll out the new developer APIs and begin testing for “limited distribution” accounts. This is Google’s solution for hobbyists who want to make their own apps and share them with a small group. Limited accounts won’t require a fee or government ID verification, but you can install these apps on up to 20 devices.
In August, the advanced flow will become available globally ahead of verification becoming mandatory in the first markets. As detailed a few months ago, the advanced flow will allow users to bypass verification, but the process isn’t easy. You’ll have to navigate to a buried menu, confirm you understand the risks multiple times, and wait a whole day before completing the process.
And that brings us to September, when Android devices in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand will begin checking verification status before installing apps. However, things get murky after that. Google will undoubtedly monitor how verification works as millions of users are suddenly limited to verified apps, which could affect how it moves forward. Google says it intends to expand developer verification in 2027, eventually making it a global device policy.
I’m so tired of everything being made shittier all the time and being able to do nothing about it.
Just a waiting game for Linux to save the day again.
I don’t know, I’m not hopeful.
Stallman played a BIG role in the insurgence of Linux (and FOSS in general), but he famously disregards smartphones as he thinks people should just not use them.
Plus, phones are built different: many have a locked bootloader, and there is no standard like BIOS/UEFI, meaning you must compile a slightly different OS for each model.
What I’m saying is the mobile ecosystem is built in a way that makes it very difficult for a serious AOSP ecosystem to build up, let alone a different kind of Linux
Should be a challenge, “how can I help Linux get there?” If more of the general public tech enthusiasts were interested in developing this out, I have no doubt it could be done in months time. Ref: be the change you want to see in the world.
Best thing we can do is donate to PostmarketOS, and if you can, install it on a compatible phone and make bug reports of what doesn’t work.
The bar for entry for contributing to these projects is too high. Can we instead do work to lower the bar? I don’t want to accept that there’s nothing we can do beside open our wallets. Not that I’m against donating, it’s just that money isn’t my strongest asset.
You could perhaps contribute to their documentation if you can’t contribute code. Or simply help spread awareness (where appropriate) that it is our best long-term alternative.
I can talk about my experience, i tried to port pmos mainline for my galaxy a40 for a while, until the phone died :( it was not easy of course, but ppl on their supoort channels have always been helpful , and tried to help and even if i didn’t finished the port because my phone died, i did my luttle contributions to the wiki adding missing infos, improve some of the steps, adding deatils, etc. I think that every little contribution will help them.
Also now there is a started port of a40 if anyone is interested to continue it, and also the code for uniloader to boot (kr if u have a spare a40 to donate :) )
So even if not technical, helps with visibility, donations, documentation upgrade, installation attempts i think will be all welcome.
About the bar level. Big problem is the lack j of standardization of those devices, and all the different and various lock they put around, so for this one I think the main issue is there should be more standardization or more regulations among various devicee producers , like is with pcs (i. e. Bios, uefi) . Where there aren’t locked bootloader, or for installing alternatives u need to go through a satanic rite and sacrifice your youngest relative to unlock the bootloader. And tbh i think they are making a big effort in making all the process at least doable. Maybe if they will get enough attention, or a consortium of producers will try to co e with a standard, thjngs could be better
For sure, but all I can do is report bugs and donate money here and there. I don’t have the skills for such advanced development myself.
Hey Google, could you not dictate what I’m allowed to install on my own damn device for my “safety”? I don’t need a third parent, and if I had to pick one it wouldn’t be you.
May a thousand bricks breach Google HQ’s windows.
I hope this leads to the death of Androud and the rise of something more open to replace it. There was a huge market for it when Android came out in competition with Apple’s closed model, but now that Google is closing up Android, let’s hope alternatives get some attention. Unfortunately, alternatives will mean no tap to pay, no RCS, etc., for a long time, since Apple, Google, et al., turned these things as proprietary as possible, but I’d still like a decent alternative to get enough power to eventually change those things.
This is a crazy thought, we could elect people willing to enforce anti monopoly laws that are already on the books.
Fantastic idea. As soon as we have that option, that’s what I’ll do. Until then I suppose I’ll watch the two parties full of right wingers ruin everything.
Problem is things like corporate banking requires an Android or iOS app. Or a GPU with traffic info. There are problems the lack of anti monopoly laws enforcement.
Up until now, I haven’t been overwhelmingly emotional about all the horrible things happening right now.
I don’t know why this news hit me particularly hard. Reading it made me feel like a part of me died. Got glassy eyed. This kind of feels like the final betrayal in a sense. Not the ultimate betrayal, but one super close to my heart.
Hey, it’s gonna be alright
- You still will be able to sideload apps, they just add a nasty 24-hour cooldown
- In the meantime, it’s worth having a migration strategy to a mobile OS that actually respects you - be it Graphene, Lineage, or Linux/Sailfish.
be it Graphene, Lineage, or Linux/Sailfish.
The prob comes when the ONLY mobile OS that work for the things ppl want to do are IOS and Android. We could see a world where MOST web sites are locked behind chain-of-trust reqs. Certainly all the important ones needed for normal life.
We’re not quite there today. But it is the direction.
Then you cancel that service and let them know exactly why you did. Hit them in the only thing they care about - money. One doesn’t matter, but 100k would.
Be the change you want to see.
One doesn’t matter, but 100k would.
Yup I agree about that. Financial pressure might be our best hope. Prob is, the HUGE majority of ppl don’t care about things like this. Or even know about them. It’s too abstract for them.
TBH I’m not sure Google would care about 100k! There are allegedly about 3-4B Android users in the world. 100k would be like 0.0033%. Maybe 100 million, and they would begin to notice. That’s a lot to get on side, tho.
I dispair badly. So many ppl have no clue when it comes to their own tech future. Also what is their alternative? IOS is even worse in this way. The masses aren’t gonna install Graphene or w/e. What alternative may we even suggest to them?
Yep, it’s time to start moving away from these big tech companies and develop utz competitors
Pathetic
GrapheneOS is the way to go
I switched a couple months ago and it’s been absolutely fantastic
Fuck this shit!
How greedy are you?
Google, you stick to your guns, I’ll stick to mine. Sayonara.
This is like if Walmart started policing what products Target can sell and policing what products can go into your house, while not bothering to police their own store.
Sooo if I just use adb to disable that service
com.google.android.verifier
I wont have to put up with google’s bs?
Yes, but forcing all users to do that will kill off 90% of the market for F-Droid.
That kind of behavior calls hard fork. Fuck off google.
and who exactly will benefit from the hard fork? those few who already run a degoogled android and won’t be affected anyway?
Installing F-Droid (or anything outside of “official” stores) already gets you a bunch of scary warnings that non-techy users would perceive as “omg malware!!” and withdraw from. I’m confident that the Venn diagram between F-Droid users and people who would be willing to use ADB to keep it is a circle. The real problem is that this cuts off anyone without a computer
Oh I didnt mean anyone else should I was just trying to confirm my thoughts on whether this would work
Trust me fuck Google and this is horrid news for FOSS so I hope there can be some fight back against this dictatorial censorship… Google is evil for trying to create a walled garden like Apple’s out of android
That’s not what I meant. I meant that yes, there are technical ways to get around this garden wall.
But only a very small percentage of users will know of it, or dare open a terminal to issue adb commands to their phone.
So the majority will be locked out of open and free app stores despite the technical possibility to keep using them.
And with fewer users, there will be fewer developers and fewer apps available.
Or just reinstall the OS without google.
We’re about to see a bunch of cell phone repair shops offer this service.
Maybe at first, until their customers realise that all their apps need those services. And this is assuming the average person even notices the change in the first place and cares about it.
With MicroG you barely feel the difference these days
I meant the change in Google’s policy.
No I was referring to the line about users needing google play services
Yeah, I’m talking about the average user who won’t even be aware that there may be a need, let alone a way, to get rid of those services. They won’t be aware that there was any change in Google’s policy because they don’t “sideload” so they also won’t ask any local shops to remove the services (and replace them with MicroG).
Wym without google? I couldn’t find anything related to what ur talking about
AOSP is lacking google.
It actually requires an extra step to install Google when you install an OS on an android device.
Just go through the process of installing the OS yourself, and skip the “install gapps” step. You’ll have a phone without google, and this app blocking shite will have no impact on you
Thx
Reinstall the os without google? And then have no push notifications? Kinda need push notifs
Why? I have never owned a phone with google. Works great.
Glad it works for you. I need push notifications
Doesn’t MicroG (foss reimplementation of Play Services) fix that?
If thats one of the fixes available to grapheneOS users then yes Im pretty sure thats how you can get push on GOS
Not super sure you can strip google out of your android install and replace it with MicroG though (id love to be proven wrong though) and my bootloaders locked down (fuck you Semensnug you filthy animals)
You may have some luck with ADB
And now I’ll never be interested in creating software for android. I hope google’s LLMs are up to the task.
So is there a way to bypass this or is basically everyone using a phone that isn’t one of the fancy Linux ones essentially fucked?
https://github.com/woheller69/FreeDroidWarn#solutions
Here’s a copy/paste, sans hyperlinks:
Developer verification will be enforced on certified devices with Google Play Services installed, which is the majority of Android devices. There are options to bypass the restriction:
- Use a free, uncensored Android system like /e/os, LineageOS, or GrapheneOS that does not preinstall Google Play Services.
- “Degoogle” by removing Google Play Services. If it is a system app, you can uninstall it using ADB.
- Install apps via ADB. Google has already confirmed that ADB will continue to work in the future. You can either use ADB from a PC as described below or use a wireless ADB based installer like anyapk.
Android is open source (and also Linux), so there are many custom OSs that aren’t “fancy linux”, but just Android without Google apps. See: LineageOS, GrapheneOS, e/OS. You might be able to install one of them on your phone if it’s compatible!
Just reinstall the OS without google.
Or you could buy a new or used device that’s already degoogled. Or go to your local phone repair shop and pay them to do it for you.
Can you do that even if the bootloader is locked (as it is on many phones nowadays)?
Yeah, you just go into settings and unlock the bootloader.
If you have some really shitty phone that you can’t unlock the bootloader, then you don’t own the phone. Put it in the nearest electronics recycling bin, and buy one that you can own. You can buy phones that are already degoogled for a few hundred.
Fortunately its illegal in many countries to sell a phone whose boot loader can’t be unlocked.
Then “reinstall without Google” isn’t a solution you can suggest universally to everyone even if you don’t know their phone model
Sure I can. Because buying a degoogled phone costs just a few hundred
LineageOS is the way.
GrapheneOS, too.
Let’s see. I won’t ever buy a Pixel. And Motorola is… iffy.
You can buy a used Pixel. Motorola has some useful hardware, but this is about freedom, not best price performance.
See the “socialist” up there ☝️?
Price is a component of “freedom”
Used pixels are usually oem locked
How can I stop it from happening on a Samsung s25? Can I just not update Google services somehow? Atleast until I can import a phone with graphene or Motorola releases one? I dont care about the apps from outside store but I do about the verified device shit.
Reinstall the OS without google.
Or you could buy a new or used device that’s already degoogled. Or go to your local phone repair shop and pay them to do it for you.
I really just hope that this “com.google.android.verifier” package won’t become a system app so i can just uninstall it whenever it appears on my device.
I can almost garantee it will be part of the secure safenet or how is it called (can’t remember the name now) - the shit that all banking apps and stuff listen to and don’t allow to run them if it returns issues. One time I had some debug flag on (it was on lineage), flag that doesn’t do harm and can be only removed by rooting the phone and my bank verification app just refused to work because the device was insecure… If I rooted it would still said its insecure because its rooted…
