Installing apps outside Play and Google-approved stores is about to get more complicated
Google is rolling out a new requirement for Android developers. If you want people to be able to easily install the apps you build, you must pay a fee and verify your identity with Google. This program begins on September 30, 2026, in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand and will roll out globally in 2027.
This verification requirement doesn’t just apply to apps in the Google Play Store or approved manufacturers’ app stores. It applies to any app you install from anywhere, whether the source is an alternative app store like F-Droid and Accrescent, an open-source developer on GitHub, local offline resource servers, or even apps that you build on your phone yourself.
Developers who want people to easily install their apps must pay $25 (by credit or debit card) and provide Google with personally identifiable information (PII), including a clear photo of a government-issued ID.
It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where someone doesn’t have $25, a credit card, or a government-issued ID. And because you must register not only yourself but also each app you create through the online Android Developer Console interface, developers without internet access may be verified but still unable to distribute their apps offline.
Google’s workarounds don’t solve the problems
Google is offering some workarounds. For example, if you register with Google as a hobbyist or student for a “limited distribution account,” you can share apps you build with up to 20 devices. You must authorize each device individually, either by scanning a QR code in person or sending someone a secure setup link. Both methods appear to require the target device to reach Google’s servers to complete the handshake, which means devices in offline communities may not be able to install apps from limited distribution accounts. And the exclusion runs both directions: each account and package name also must be registered through the Developer Console online, so creators in offline communities may not be able to set up limited distribution accounts in the first place.
Even where connectivity isn’t a problem, a hard cap of 20 devices doesn’t scale to community distribution, and having to identify every device in advance is the opposite of the spur-of-the-moment sharing that offline communities may depend on.
Another workaround is called “advanced flow.” If people know about and are willing to follow these steps, they can install offline apps as usual after an initial 24-hour waiting period. These steps are pretty clear to an audience of Android developers and enthusiasts, but they’re designed to be intimidating to almost anyone else.
- Enable Developer Options on the device. This requires you to open Settings, find the About Phone item, find the Build Number item, and tap the build number seven times.
- Locate the option to install unverified apps.
- Enable the option.
- Dismiss the scare screens.
- Enter your PIN or verify with biometrics.
- Restart your phone.
- Wait 24 hours.
- Return to the unverified apps option in Developer Options.
- Reconfirm that you want to install unverified apps.
What the rules mean to offline developers and communities
This 24-hour delay means that people must prepare in advance for the possibility of downloading software and follow the high-friction technical process more than a day before they attempt to install a new app. This manufactured delay will slow the spread of free and open-source apps like Knowledge to Go (K2Go). Cloning the K2Go app and offline resources to create a new server is a two-step process: First, you download and install the app from the host phone, and then copy the content library from the host phone. If you have to wait 24 hours just to install the app, the phone that hosts the content library may already be gone.
Developer verification isn’t available in countries under United States sanctions, so people in those areas can install whatever they want on their phones, according to Ars Technica. But because developers in those countries can’t become verified, their apps will only be easy to install within their own borders when the verification check is enforced in other countries, eliminating the opportunity to share and earn money with their software outside their own region.
Finally, if you develop Android apps on a regular computer with a traditional development environment like Google’s Android Studio, you can install any app you build on your own phone without a problem, using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and a cable. But for billions of people, the only computer they have is their phone.
We’re building the Code on the Go (CoGo) development environment for the people who are interested in coding but who don’t have access to a computer or the internet. Even when the CoGo app is verified by Google, the apps that you create with CoGo are not. As a result, someone can build an app using a CoGo release that predates the verification rollout that they can’t install and test on the same phone without waiting 24 hours.
Unlike Apple’s iPhones, Android has always been an open system, and many people choose Android for the freedom it offers. But in low- and middle-income countries, Android phones are the only affordable option, and Google is about to make it much more difficult for everyone—and especially offline communities—to access, create, or share apps and resources offline.
Learn more and sign the petition at keepandroidopen.org.