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Android developer verification: Early access starts

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#31

Post by metadat »

geoffschmidt wrote: post #6
Aachen wrote: post #4

Edit: be sure to read geoffschmidt's reply below /edit The buried lede: > a dedicated account type for students and hobbyists. This will allow you to distribute your creations to a limited number of devices without going through the full verification So a natural limit on how big a hobby project can get. The example they give, where verification would require scammers to burn an identity to build another app instead…

But see also the next section ("empowering experienced users"): > We are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn't verified

So.. all this drama over an alert(yes/no) box?

Wow, this really pulls back the veil. This Vendor (google) is only looking out for numero uno.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#35

Post by [deleted] »

charcircuit wrote: post #20
Lammy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google have their own reasons too. They would love to kill off YouTube ReVanced and other haxx0red clients that give features for free which Google would rather sell you on subscription. Just look at everything they've done to break yt-dlp over and over again. In fact their newest countermeasure is a frontpage story right beside this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898407

You would still be able to adb installs them. They wouldn't die.

[deleted]

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#36

Post by tomrod »

svat wrote: post #7

From the very first announcement of this, Google has hinted that they were doing this under pressure from the governments in a few countries. (I don't remember the URL of the first announcement, but https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elevating-... is from 2025-August-25 and mentions “These requirements go into effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand”.) The “Why verification is important” s…

I bought the hardware, therefore I have the right to modify and repair. Natural right, full stop. That right ends are your nose, as the saying goes.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#37

Post by gdulli »

charcircuit wrote: post #20
Lammy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google have their own reasons too. They would love to kill off YouTube ReVanced and other haxx0red clients that give features for free which Google would rather sell you on subscription. Just look at everything they've done to break yt-dlp over and over again. In fact their newest countermeasure is a frontpage story right beside this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898407

You would still be able to adb installs them. They wouldn't die.

Developers of these apps would have little motivation if the maximum audience size was cut down to the very few who would use adb. The ecosystem would die.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#39

Post by Aurornis »

svat wrote: post #7

From the very first announcement of this, Google has hinted that they were doing this under pressure from the governments in a few countries. (I don't remember the URL of the first announcement, but https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elevating-... is from 2025-August-25 and mentions “These requirements go into effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand”.) The “Why verification is important” s…

> because the governments of countries where such scams are widespread will hold Google responsible.

This is the unsurprising consequence of trying to hold big companies accountable for the things people do with their devices: The only reasonable response is to reduce freedoms with those devices, or pull out of those countries entirely.

This happened a lot in the early days of the GDPR regulations when the exact laws were unclear and many companies realized it was safer to block those countries entirely. Despite this playing out over and over again, there are still constant calls on HN to hold companies accountable for user-submitted content, require ID verification, and so on.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#40

Post by benatkin »

ryandrake wrote: post #10
Aachen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh! I thought I had found the crucial piece finally after ~500 words, but there's indeed better news in the section after that! Thanks, I can go sleep with a more optimistic feeling now :) Also this will kill any impetus that was growing on the Linux phone development side, for better or worse. We get to live in this ecosystem a while longer, let's see if people keep damocles' sword in mind and we might see more effo…

Let's take the "W". This is pretty good news!

This isn't a "W", but I am finding my own "W" from this by seeing others distrust Google, and remembering to continue supporting and looking for open alternatives to Google.
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