Google's new developer verification requirements starting September 2026 will force ALL Android app developers to register with Google - even those avoiding the Play Store entirely. F-Droid, the tr...
The f-droid team spoke to that in a recent post. They can’t do that for legal reasons. The post basically said that if that change isn’t stopped on a government level there’s no way for them to continue working. They didn’t mention roms.
The F-Droid project cannot require that developers register their apps through Google, but at the same time, we cannot “take over” the application identifiers for the open-source apps we distribute, as that would effectively seize exclusive distribution rights to those applications.
I think that last sentence is saying that it would work, if developers decided to exclusively distribute to F-Droid and effectively gave up control over the app to the F-Droid team.
I’m thinking there might be a possibility to register the same app under two different identifiers, one controlled by F-Droid, the other by developer.
But yeah, this makes some things more complex and might be deemed malicious behaviour by Google.
The f-droid team spoke to that in a recent post. They can’t do that for legal reasons. The post basically said that if that change isn’t stopped on a government level there’s no way for them to continue working. They didn’t mention roms.
Edit for the link: https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html
Here’s the relevant quote:
I think that last sentence is saying that it would work, if developers decided to exclusively distribute to F-Droid and effectively gave up control over the app to the F-Droid team.
I’m thinking there might be a possibility to register the same app under two different identifiers, one controlled by F-Droid, the other by developer.
But yeah, this makes some things more complex and might be deemed malicious behaviour by Google.