Unfortunately, Android is becoming just as closed garden as iOS. Please take action!

Software
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Hi

:iphone: Summary: Keep Android Open

The website “Keep Android Open” is an information platform that opposes Google’s new mandatory developer registration requirement for Android (effective from August 2025).

:dart: Core Problem

Google requires developers to register centrally with Google to develop and distribute apps. This would jeopardize Android’s openness, which is its defining feature.

:clipboard: Implications

  • For Users: No more ability to install apps outside the Google Play Store
  • For Developers: No direct app distribution to communities anymore
  • For States: Digital sovereignty at risk

:fist: Recommended Actions

For Everyone:

  • Contact national regulatory authorities
  • Use alternative app markets (e.g., F-Droid)
  • Sign the open letter against Google
  • Raise awareness on social media

For Developers:

  • Refuse to register for verification
  • Organize and document resistance

:bulb: Special Feature

The website is a non-profit, community-run initiative with no tracking or cookies – fully available under Creative Commons license.

I am macOS user, but a https://grapheneos.org/ Android user.

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If you stop to think why this trend is happening, you might think twice about your desires.

To me, it’s like campaigning to make seatbelts optional in cars so drivers have a choice.

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I suspect it’s to do with security. A brief AI query found the following:

The primary goal is accountability. Currently, anyone can create an Android app (APK) and distribute it anonymously. This makes it very difficult for Google to stop “repeat offenders”—scammers who create a malicious app, get caught, and then immediately upload the same app under a new anonymous name.

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People are as locked into any ecosystem as they allow themselves to be.

It’s perfectly possible to run an iPhone and use relatively few Apple Services which would prevent you from switching to Android.

This at a time when both Apple and Android seem to be making it easier than ever to switch to the other platform.

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6

At first read, it appears Google is adopting a policy similar to Apple’s Gatekeeper program on Mac. i.e. App Store only, or App Store and Known Developers.

This, IMO, is superior to Apple’s App Store only iOS/iPadOS policy and would make me more likely to consider moving to Android.

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Awesome! This is overdue and is a great move by Google.

In the real world, 80% of the phones out there are Android, and us little iPhone users deserve to have our friends, family, and kids that don’t use iPhones to have better privacy/security protections.

I say this seriously and also without judgement, just observation - IMHO there is a strong correlation between a lot of Android users and a lot of tech users that simply take it for granted and don’t want to know how to use it or understand its limitations.

These Android users need the same kind of protections from scams and criminals.

On a related note, I would wager that “power Android users” are a very small subset of the total Android phone user base.

Just like us Mac/IOS power users, we are all a very small minority but very vocal on forums and groups like this.

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8

I wonder if this new policy is due to Google’s plan to roll out Android for PC this year? They announced it at the 2025 Snapdragon Summit, and Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon said he had already seen it.

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9

Would you advocate for Apple to prohibit installing software except via the MacOS app store?

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But that is not what Google are doing. They are simply requiring every app be signed by a registered developer. This means sideloading and F-Droid stores can still operate.

Apple already do this to a degree. You have to hack the settings to install from unregistered developers.

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Others have pretty much answered that for me, but let me just say this. I put as much effort into my reply as has been put into stating the problem.

There has been reporting around the differences between Android and iOS for nearly 2 decades and that reporting routinely points out the relative merits of each. The main merit of Apple’s approach is security. Take a look around and it’s clear that the need for security is always increasing. Google have been slowly but surely moving to the same point of view. This is not a new thing.

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12

It seems you’re saying that this is like how when I download BBEdit from the BareBones website, macOS can “ping” Apple and verify that yes, indeed, the dev is legit.

I think that’s a Good Idea, as long as the developer registration process continues to be both inexpensive and non-onerous.

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Just to be clear, it is my understanding that signing apps involves a cryptographic signature attached to the binary package.

The mechanism for verification does not involve creating an active connection back to an Apple server.

That is, a Mac can verify the cryptographic signature locally without the Mac having any active connection to the outside world, right?

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Notarization adds a “ticket” that can be revoked, so some (recurring) server communication is needed?

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My understanding (possibly wrong) is that security updates pushed to macOS contain revocation lists. That would allow for revoking the ticket without constantly needing to call home.

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Apparently this is how it works:

Apple can also issue a revocation ticket for apps known to be malicious—even if they’ve been previously notarized. macOS regularly checks for new revocation tickets so that Gatekeeper has the latest information and can block launch of such files.

Source: Apple Platform Security guide

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Right, so it’s not calling Apple every time you launch the app. Gatekeeper is a security feature which gets updates more frequently than the main OS.