We Can't Have Nice Things (Unless We Fight for Them): Google is Planning on Locking Down Android

24 Feb, 2026

I had planned on following up my most recent post on Feeding the Fire - Psychology, Engagement, and Algorithmic Media with a discussion of Network Effects. However!

Big changes are coming, if Google has its way, to how app development for Android is going to work, which is a time-sensitive matter and thus felt a lot more urgent.

What Google is Decreeing

Google has announced that, beginning in September 2026, any app developer developing apps for Android ¹ will have to first register with Google. First in a few select countries, followed by a global rollout after. This registration is going to require providing sensitive information, like a physical address, date of birth, and ID verification.

You might be thinking, but I get all my apps from F-Droid / Droid-ify / IzzyOnDroid, ², not Google Play Store. I'm safe, right?

Sadly, no. This will affect apps and distribution systems beyond the Google Play Store ecosystem, including free and open source (FOSS) apps and platforms. As F-Droid, a popular FOSS distribution ecosystem, have already announced, they would be unable to comply with Google's decree in its proposed format, and F-Droid as we know it today would in all likelihood cease to exist.

But Why is this Necessary?

Because, uh, <checks notes> "security." That's what Google is saying, anyway. Because "sideloading", a process that, on computers which are not smartphones we simply refer to as "installing software," ³ means that, to quote Cory Doctorow in Enshittification, "on their intimate pocket computers, [people] can run code that has never been vetted by a multibillion-dollar tech company's security experts." Gasp! Bring me the fainting couch.

Yes, installing an app from a web source that is not vendor-approved (barf) can scam or defraud you, or bypass security, or... All kinds of things. Which of course apps from Google Play have absolutely never been known to do in the entire history of the Google Play store ecosystem.

... oh, wait. Those links lead to news articles showing how this exact thing has happened a hundred times with apps available through the Google Play Store? Huh. That's odd.

I will take this argument of "security" with a grain of salt, and you probably should too.

Image by Krishdiphong Prayoonwongkasem on Unsplash.

All the Other Ways in Which This is Problematic

What Does "Owning Your Phone" Even Mean?

If you buy a phone, and one that ostensibly runs an "open" operating system to boot, you have reasonable expectation that you can run whatever the heck you want on it. That is because you own the phone. You purchased it. It is yours to do with as you please. It is not rented from somewhere, it is not a "hardware subscription." It is your phone that you shelled out hundreds, if not thousands, of $monetaryUnit for.

Usage of this phone that is owned by you should include downloading apps from wherever you please, not just apps that a multi-billion dollar corporation thinks are good for you, downloaded from app stores sanctioned by that same multi-billion dollar company.

And now, in what may or may not be called a bait-and-switch, Google is planning on unilaterally changing this entire arrangement, and is planning on determining what you are allowed or not allowed to install on your phone, that you own.

The Security Strawman

The "security" argument is interesting for another reason, because unlike many apps you can grab off of Google Play - including some of the most popular ones, or even some of the app defaults that Google helpfully pre-installs for you when you buy one of the many phones with Google-flavoured Android on it - FOSS apps typically are not data harvesting machines. They are developed by committed open-source devs who cross-check each others' work, and everyone can see and vet the app's source code. FOSS apps are a way to maintain a modicum of privacy in this panopticon we find ourselves in. Here's a great quote from Marc Prud'hommeaux of F-Droid:

Do you want a weather app that doesn’t transmit your every movement to a shadowy data broker? Or a scheduling assistant that doesn’t siphon your intimate details into an advertisement network? F-Droid has your back.

Kneecapping Android FOSS Development

If you are currently using FOSS apps, there is a good chance they may go away if this comes to pass, without ways of updating them.

If you are in the FOSS ecosystem and have taken active steps to de-Google, this may be a hard hit, and change how you use your phone forever. As a personal example, an easy 50% of my daily driver apps are FOSS coming from F-Droid, so having to go back to ad-riddled, tracker-packed apps that sell my data to their 🥰 1,982 partners 🥰 by default is not something I am particularly keen on.

According to TechLore, this all comes suspiciously soon after a lawsuit that forced Google to allow alternative app stores besides their own offering (Google Play). So now, instead, they're not technically disallowing the app stores, but plan to kneecap FOSS development for Android in a different way, which just so happens to have a very similar effect to disallowing 3rd party app stores.

FOSS culture, and indeed the entire FOSS ecosystem, relies on being able to change, fork, and distribute FOSS software. Even forking would require registration if you are planning to make the fork available on Google-flavoured Android. Someone tell me in good faith how that is not absolutely going to kill Android FOSS development?

And then there's the obvious privacy issues: Why should individual developers or teams be required to disclose their identity to that same US-based tech giant? No matter where in the world they are? Depending on individual circumstances and location, this entirely has the potential to put people in harm's way.

Digital Sovereignty

Especially for folks in one of the dozens of countries that are not the United States, there is also an argument to be made here on digital sovereignty. Why should every single app available on Android require registration with a US-based tech giant?

For more great arguments, as well as further details, I would encourage you to read KeepAndroidOpen as well as the FreeDroidWarn library.

This becomes even more jarring when we take a look at the background and context of what the Android operating system started out as.

Android's Beginnings, AOSP, and Google

Android got its start in 2003 as a project aimed at creating an operating system for digital cameras, ~pivoting~ to smartphones shortly after. Google then purchased the startup for about ~$50 mil (the exact amount is not known) in 2005.

Android (the operating system) uses a kernel that is based on the Long-Term Support (LTS) release branches of the Linux kernel. Because of this heritage, some consider it a Linux distribution; others don't, because Android is not a Linux distro in the same sense as Linux desktop distros.⁴ Either way - at its core, the Android Operating System Project (AOSP) is FOSS, and does not come with any Google apps installed.

One OS on Many Different Phones

A big piece of this is that, thanks partially to the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), Android would not be limited to phones made by one manufacturer. This is in contrast to Apple's iPhones, which are the only phones that can ship with the iOS operating system on them. This has meant that manufacturers using Android as their OS are able to offer a wide range of choices in terms of devices - budget friendly, high end, specific use cases - as compared to Apple's offerings, which are comparatively limited.

Plus, manufacturers can take AOSP and adapt it, for example by slapping their own skins onto it - think One UI and Pixel UI - and/or shipping with different default apps.

Here is where things get interesting: The Android (AOSP) source code is released and maintained by Google, under an open source license (!), which grants rights to modify and redistribute the software. That's what FOSS means, so - so far so good.

But: The Android name and logo are trademarks that Google owns. The AOSP FOSS license, naturally, does not grant rights to those trademarks. Plus, there is some added weirdness, or shall we call it, uh "nuance," here too, in that Google actually moved the development of AOSP to "private channels" in the spring of 2025. So AOSP is still FOSS, but, uh, less openly so? It's... a bit odd.

The thing is: The most widely used "flavour" of Android, which comes pre-installed on a ton of phones, is the one that is developed by Google, and that ships with proprietary closed-source software like Google Play and Google Play Services, as well as non-free default apps, creating a bit of a Ship of Theseus type situation:

Some stock applications and components in AOSP code that were formerly used by earlier versions of Android, such as Search, Music, Calendar, and the location API, were abandoned by Google in favor of non-free replacements distributed through Play Store (Google Search, YouTube Music, and Google Calendar) and Google Play Services, which are no longer open-source.

Yes, Non-Google Versions of Android Exist

Yes, non-Google-owned & distributed versions of AOSP do exist. These are great alternatives in 99% of situations. The only caveat is that they can on occasion be tricky in regards to some banking or authenticator apps, which may refuse to function well on them. YMMV, but I personally have a device that runs /e/OS, and have yet to come across any issues with apps not working the way they should.

If you'd like to check them out, here are the most commonly mentioned non-Google Android distributions:

LineageOS. If you remember CyanogenMod, Lineage is its successor. Sort of. After CyanogenMod met a weird demise. It is compatible with a fairly wide range of devices.
GrapheneOS is popular for Pixel phones (unfortunately not currently supported for other manufacturers. Yes, there is a certain irony in this.)
/e/OS is also snazzy. It offers a non-Google cloud plan along with their OS, but it is completely optional. This is only somewhat related, but: You can buy Fairphones already with eOS preinstalled if you'd just like to have a phone with eOS right out of the box, as well as value repairability and modularity.

For more, check out the Wikipedia article on custom Android distributions.

What Can we Do?

Here are a few suggestions, some of which I cribbed straight from the excellent KeepAndroidOpen:

Share your thoughts, as well as relevant posts on the topic, with friends, family, and on socials. You can link to this Technically Good post, or one of the excellent linked pages in this section.
Install alternative app stores on your phone. F-Droid, Droid-ify. Check out the wealth of amazing open-source apps out there. They are ad-free, if you can imagine that. There is power in numbers.
Use KeepAndroidOpen to look up who in your nation/region the relevant authorities are that may be able to do something about this. Think regulators or political representatives. Then, contact them with a complaint.

You can learn more about Google's "proposal," as well as further ways to speak up and take action, at:

A Wild OPEN LETTER Appeared! 24 Feb 2026

Aand juuust as I am about to hit publish on this blog post, I see that KeepAndroidOpen - along with 30+ undersigned organizations - has published an open letter to Google, calling on the company to immediately rescind the planned requirement, engage in transparent dialogue, and commit to platform neutrality.

In the letter, KeepAndroidOpen rightly bring forward concerns that this decree would gatekeep content beyond Google's own store, throw up barriers to entry and innovation, increase privacy & surveillance concerns, and a number of other pertinent concepts.

You can read their letter in its entirety on their website or, if you'd like a more shareable format, check out their post on Mastodon. Oh, and check out some of the undersigned organizations & consider giving them a follow too, while you're at it!

As always, feel free to get in touch with questions or thoughts, or subscribe to the Technically Good blog via RSS. If you enjoyed this article, consider sharing it with a friend (especially one who has an Android phone!)

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