Keep Android Open Source

Starting September 2026, Google will require every Android developer to register centrally, pay a fee and submit government ID or have their apps blocked on every certified Android device worldwide.

Android is technically open-source, but in practice Google has moved more and more core functionality into proprietary Play Services. The open-source part (AOSP) is still there, but without Play services it’s absence makes the use of the phone too inconvenient.

The security justification doesn’t hold. Google Play Protect already scans for malware independent of who built it. Knowing a developer’s identity doesn’t make code safer. We already have a concrete example of where this leads: the current US administration pressured Apple into removing ICEBlock, an app that tracked ICE agent activity and Apple complied. A centralized developer registry hands governments exactly the lever they need to do the same on Android, which isn’t what we want.

What actually gets destroyed: F-Droid, thousands of open-source apps, hobbyist projects or anything distributed outside Google’s blessing, retroactively, on hardware you already own.

The Keep Android Open campaign is asking regulators to change that. The goal is quite simple Android’s core should stay genuinely open and interoperable. Which I heartily believe!

Worth signing and sharing if you care about open software. Which can be done here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-google-from-limiting-apk-file-usage