Opening my weather app this morning I was greeted by this warning:
Google has announced that, starting in 2026/2027, all apps on certified Android devices will require the developer to submit personal identity details directly to Google. Since the developers of this app do not agree to this requirement, this app will no longer work on certified Android devices after that time.
It’s the first time I hear about this, seems to be about:
Cirrus app: Github
Was this a big thing I somehow missed? I hope more devs will follow suit.
I got the same alert on Gmaps WV (google map wrapper found f drood) Google is giving us more reasons to switch to a custom ROM
@Akip I got this message the other day. It sucks how the app won’t work on certified devices next year.
Agreed. Google just didn’t consent to you getting an app without ads. My hope is maybe we can circumvent it for a while with PWA or browser website bookmarks. Maybe long enough for alternatives to arrive or consumer protection to kick in. I refuse to give up hope even though I might need to abandon android. For now I guess I will just not buy another phone since androids time seems limited. Really hard to find something to recommend to family and friends that just works. My goto grapheneOS also seems more and more cut down with more and more apps refusing to work outside play store downloads or refusing to work on 3rd party OS.
Was this a big thing I somehow missed?
It’s one of the many small things that hide the big thing. In 2027 android will be fully locked down, unnecessarily.
The big thing is whatever the lockdown is for.
Where are you linux hardware manufacturers ?
Syatem76? The same company that made POP OS are making PCs and laptops They claim that they made the laptop with the longest battery life
This news makes me actually sad. I have had high hopes in the last years in the FOSS world, having myself and three other persons move to use Linux as daily driver on Desktop/Laptop.
My phone has FOSS apps only except for banking, health, transport tickets and 2/3 work rekated stuff. My messaging, files and pictures are handled by FOSS apps installed from third parties (F-Droid, Obtainium) on selfhosted servers… I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
This news sound to me like the tunnel ahaead is collapsing.
Does anyone know if this will affect Android TV?
Wait you could install arbitrary apks on android tv?
You have an android tv and not smarttube? Your youtube experience will increase ALOT.
A lot. Two words. You don’t write alittle, do you?
I am dyslexic and not a native speaker, but thanks for the correction! The example with a alittle is actually a good one. If you loose the unfriendly vibe, your comment would be more appreciated.
What a Huge Nerd thing to say.
Wellplayed.
Yup. I’ve installed a few that way
How easy is it to convert an Android app to a Linux mobile app of you’re the developer? If it’s written in JVM languages it shouldn’t be that hard right?
End-users can use e.g. waydro.id to run Android apps on Linux.
I’m not deep into Android development, but I doubt it’s possible to just port an app without basically a complete rewrite. Android has an own layer on top of the JVM, called Zygote, and there’s presumably lots of system libraries which the Android apps implicitly depend on, for handling graphics and whatnot, which make tons of assumptions about running on an Android device.
Just use a custom ROM. This sadly will affect app developers. But if you are on a custom ROM without GMS it will continue to work just fine.
Google is trying to kill custom ROMs too. Also I thought the majority of modern phones aren’t bootloader unlockable.
Ehhhh… sorta maybe. Ultimately they can’t, but they can make development more difficult.
Also Google has nothing to do with whether or not you’re bootloader is unlockable. Get a phone that is.
If you rally want to go down the whole FOSS path it does ultimately become a bit of a lifestyle.
You can unlock the bootloader on just about every phone, just depends on how much effort you want to spend.
We’ll be able to install via adb hopefully.
Install, maybe. What about updates though? Do you plan to pull out
adbfor each and every one of them? Or would you rather keep using old, potentially insecure, versions?From what I’ve seen elsewhere, yes.
adbsideloading will still be possible, but that adds a level of inconvenience many people will not enjoy, especially since FDroid and similar have been so easy.
Wording of the message implies it’s possible to have uncertified version of Android… Such a thing possible?
Yes, think cheap android tablets that are so shit google store can barely run on it. Those devices are usually chinese knockoffs and do not ship with google services, google store or any gapps.
I don’t believe the certified android means hardware, I believe it’s only about if you have an official android build running, since if your hardware can run a custom ROM, you can get around this issue.
I think it has to do with the google certification you have to go through to sell hardware shipping with android. All devices need to be certified by google or they are not allowed to run gapps or connect to the playstore. This is what huawei lost after trump banned them, so they had to make their own shit as a replacement
any version of android that’s not vendor or downloaded from the official android website
- like https://lineageos.org/
- https://e.foundation/e-os/
- or the aforementioned GrapheneOS
calyxos.org (paused)
Adding iodé to the list, cocorico !
Why everybody always forget about iodé ?
first time I hear about it, seems to be based on lineageOS?
What’s with the premium tiers? Seems a bit sketchy to be honest.
Yes, like GrapheneOS
yes
Would people be able to circumvent this by downgrading their version of Google Play Services? …or not updating it in the first place?
They’re baking this right in the package installer of android, it goes beyond play services. I have my doubts that this will pass in the EU
But that begs the same question. If you never update your existing phone with google’s malware, you should be ok.
Obviously if you buy a new phone that’s already infected you’re screwed unless you can flash a new ROM on there.
My point is. People’s current phones do not have this malware on it yet. If you disable updates and/or degoogle, your device should continue to work as is. Perhaps without being able to use Google Play Store, but honestly that’s not huge loss for anyone that cares about this stuff in the first place.
True, but using a phone and never updating it likely leaves you open to other malware/attacks sadly.
Don’t think so, bud
I think you could still adb install unverified apps into your phone.
That untill they’ll block that path too.
Also I suppose that you’ll need to adb every update. So apps that would want to go this way should self check updates instead of relying on an external store.
What’s adb?
Android Debug Bridge. It is a way to control the device via command line, mainly from an external computer. Among other things allows for app installation. It’s one of the main ways to test and debug apps while being developed.
Oh okay, thanks.
I think Google wants someone to go after if malware gets pushed onto the Play Store.
How does this help with malware?
Its not about security for google, its about to have more control over their platform. They saw apple got away with their policies about sideloading here in Europe (which is still a pain in the ass) so they thought why not have it in android.
How does this do that. To get in the play store you already have to be registered. This is for apps not on the play store.
I’ve only ever used Android, dating back to the T-Mobile G1. I think I’m now ready to switch to iPhone. If I’m going to be pigeonholed into a completely walled garden, it might as well be with a company that knows what they are doing.
I really don’t want to switch, but probably will for my next upgrade.
I switched to iPhone in 2016. I had no idea Pixel was coming, and my choices all sucked. The more I looked at the iPhone 6s, the more I realized it was the right phone at that time.
I’m now on my fourth iPhone and I’m kind of done with them. “Apple Intelligence” and the keyboard gets so many things wrong. On a 16 Pro Max. And yet my Galaxy S10 which is 5 years older gets almost nothing wrong.
iPhones have great screens and the newest Snapdragon barely catches up to the new iPhone chip. But I think it does more. The Pixel chip is much further behind (comparable to an iPhone 11, I hear) but even that phone seems smarter.
I feel like iPhones are really nice basic/feature phones. They work well with my Macs, but Macs don’t stop working if your phone runs Android. They just don’t play well together.
Apple is a lot better on privacy. They never pretended to be or care about open source though. iOS is based on macOS which is certified UNIX; Android is Linux more or less but neither is open. I think it’s a moot point at best and a bullshit non-point most days. Open source I mean. As far as privacy, I think Apple is better on a good day but maybe misleading, but Google never really pretended to care. The deal was always, premium stuff for your personal data. We just didn’t care as much back then.
Honestly there are no great options. If I had to buy a phone right now, I’d probably get a Galaxy S25. I just hate what’s going on with Nova Launcher. But I love using my S10, it’s just a dated screen at this point.
Honestly considering the same. Sideloading is the only reason to stick with Android and that’s now going away. Apple devices have more power, better battery life, better displays, etc etc etc. Especially considering the “base” 17 is now actually a really good value while Pixel prices have skyrocketed in recent years to iPhone levels (presumably for AI shit I don’t even want).
I was also looking at the 17, and it looks like a great option. A 16 pro might also be a good option
Screw that!
Get a Fairphone with /e/OS before you switch to the rotten apple.I absolutely get what you’re saying, and a good part of me agrees with you. Here is the thing, I’m tired boss. I’ve made an effort my whole life to use open source, privacy friendly everything.
I’m now to the point where I don’t have time for messing with phones. Fixing broken stuff, compatibility, etc etc.
I need a powerful phone with a great camera that just works.
But be warned, the camera app is borked (at least on the FP6)
They’re not “pulling” the app from anywhere, it’s just simply not going to work on “certified devices”. This is the end of Android as we know. It’s been a good run.
When one thing dies, another thing is born.
UBPorts is ready to go and isn’t tied to Google hardware like Graphene.
Doesn’t have manufacturer support
Volla, Fairphone, and Pine offer devices with it preinstalled and it works on a wide variety of others.
I think you’re aware of the size of those manufacturers compared to the ones shipping Android.
And what’s being born?
I believe you can sideload with ADB.
You can but that’s REALLY not a solution. How many times/day to plan on plugging in your phone and running a couple dozen commands to update your apps?
Nope, from how Google puts it, play services will block any and all apps without a valid signature from working at all on play certified devices.
You’ll be able to install them via adb probably, but when you run them play services will stop you.
Play services already prevents certain apps from starting until you say a yes/no on a popup, so the framework for this is already in place.
This is completely wrong. I asked this exact question to google in their poll and I got an answer from them saying it would always work with adb. It’s for devs so you can run those apps of course. This means F-Droid can implement a Shizuku backend to install apps and the UX will be even better since it will bypass popups. However, initial setup will be far more complicated
Only works for those of us who own a pixel or bought one for the reason but this won’t effect Graphene users
It’s going to affect 100% of Android users because no one is going to develop apps just for the 10 people using uncertified devices.
We’re at least a dozen!
Except it will, because developers aren’t going to bother maintaining an app where the install base is just pixel users with Graphene
Yep. We’ll be fine for a while but Google’s seriously axing the platform for foss projects and security-minded users. In no more than half a decade I anticipate Android’s open-source development scene will begin looking very similar to Apple’s.
affect
Yes you’re right. I’ve worded that wrong in the title!
You can edit it 🙂
Done! for the curious, original title, “Cirrus App dev pulling app from certified android devices in '26/'27” new, “Cirrus app dev informing the app will stop working on certified android devices in '26/'27”
Just to clarify:
Will my apps installed from F-droid be unaffected by this?
Unclear, but they are saying it will affect side-loaded apps, and no way to bypass with Developer Options, so I would assume so.
If you don’t have Google Play Services installed, then you’re not affected. Of course, how many custom ROMs will live to that day is unknown.
The Mihon dev team has already announced that they’re going to get authorized and continue their work.
It’s… and interesting choice given what they’re working on, but they also took steps to stay legal
Depends on your OS. Most likely no.
From what I gather, yes. But will you be allowed to install F-Droid? No.
I’ve heard that it will still be possible to install unverified apps via ADB, so theoretically it wouldn’t be hard to make an app installer that uses Shizuku (tool that allows you to ADB into your own device) and have a website that automatically installs that using WebUSB or something
You’ll be able to install them, but play services will very probably stop them from starting.
They already have the framework for this in place, “unrecognised” apps get blocked by Play services already asking you if Google can scan the app before you start it, the app will not start at all unless you click yes or no.
Maybe yes. Maybe not. I think from now they won’t push that far, among other things because even developing for android platform would become a burden. Not being able to even test some app concept without a verified signature…
Maybe eventually they’ll go that far. But as of now I do think is unlikely they’ll completely block the adb way.
Anyway many current users won’t go adb. And third party stores will take a massive hit. That’s google’s goal.
app manager can already work as an app installer, but it needs wireless debugging enabled which can be a security risk. and you have to install app manager too somehow.
Even apps installed outside the Play Store will need to have a “verified developer”, and this change will affect any devices that use Google Play Services, so it will be a problem even to old devices.
I don’t personally have Google Play Services installed but I can see how devastating this could be to open source on Android.
There won’t be Fdroid on Google OS phones period
Yet another possible antitrust lawsuit series. Some day maybe a judge will do something to help the consumers.
don’t count on the system’s judicial system to save us.
Google just came out of the biggest antitrust suit since 1998 completely unscathed so you can expect this sort of anticompetitive measures to continue.
Aaand the reason’s called ✨c o r r u p t i o n ✨
Whenever a politician comes from a big company or goes to one after retiring from politics, that’s when you know they’ve been bribed.
I mean when the entire tech industry has front row seats at your inauguration, that’s a pretty good indicator as well.
