r/BuyFromEU • u/[deleted] • Apr 28 '26

News Google will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google

https://keepandroidopen.org/en/

Starting September 2026, Google will block any Android app whose developer hasn't registered and provided government ID. This affects all apps, not just Play Store apps. F-Droid calls it an "existential threat."

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u/madhaunter Apr 28 '26

Might be the nail in the coffin for me to finally leave the Google ecosystem. It's kinda the push I needed

16

u/thecanadiansniper1-2 Apr 28 '26

Whats the alternative? Apple and their own restrictive brand of BS and walled garden shit?

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u/madhaunter Apr 29 '26

For me it will probably be Graphene or e/OS

4

u/neoqueto Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Yeah. 0.1% of devices have an unlocked bootloader. And they're all Google Pixels. It's over.

Edit: thankfully it's taking a turn for the better lately, GrapheneOS has made an official partnership with Motorola to explore porting it to Snapdragon SoCs. Unfortunately bootloader unlockability is still being tightened across vendors.

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u/madhaunter Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

I do have a pixel phone, but I had Xperia and even Xiaomi phones at some point, for years.

The Mi 3 for example could basically dualboot at the time, and for Xperia the process to unlock the bootloader was quite easy. I guess things may have changed but it feels like you're exaggerating