Via The Register:

Google will extend developer verification to all Android apps, not just those installed from the Play Store, beginning with Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand in September 2026, and followed by global rollout in 2027 and beyond.

Currently, developer verification is already required for the Play Store but not for apps installed from other sources. Today, developers do not need to register with Google to deploy an Android app.

That is changing. Developers will now need an Android Developer Console account, which like a Play Store account requires a one-time $25.00 fee, linked to a Google payment profile.

Accounts can be either personal or organizational, both of which require the submission of government-issued identity documents and verified phone numbers.

Again with the ID harvesting? What is wrong with techies this year?

Also, I just grabbed an alternative keyboard from F-Droid last week. So far I like it better then the data-scraping, emoji-bloated default, but now I have to worry about when it’ll stop working because it doesn’t phone home to some Google licensing server. Ditto Tiddloid and a couple other apps I’ve gotten from, ahem, “more open than Google” sources.

And in general, walled gardens make me feel claustrophobic. That’s why I don’t use Apple, and I’m not thrilled about Android becoming more fruitlike.

Some of the reporting on this has credulously parroted Google’s “in the name of security” pretext, which I’d have an easier time believing if a batch of malicious apps hadn’t been discovered on the Play Store the same day this story came out.

…and earlier this year.

And last year. And the year before. And the year before that.

And that isn’t going to stop. Quoth Android Authority’s Stephen Schenck:

Unlike systems like Play Protect, which attempt to determine whether the code we want to run on our phones is malicious or not, developer registration will do nothing to prevent you from installing and running malware. This is just about accountability — who to blame after the fact.

…except “who to blame” will be Google, because they’ll have explicitly authorized every malware peddler on the Android platform, and “accountability,” as in holding the megacorp to account in any noticeable way, will still be impossible.

I do agree with Schenck on something else, though: when this restriction rolls out, with its attendant throttling of open-source apps and its solidification of centralized corporate control, our phones will be less like the portable computers they could be and more like undersized game consoles… in exchange for a promise of “security” that Google has already repeatedly proven it can’t deliver.