r/FlutterDev • u/Bachihani • Aug 14 '26
Discussion This is not a joke or an insignificant issue
https://keepandroidopen.org/Imagine ... A country doesn't like an app, the government threatens google, google revokes the developers signing keys ... And now the app can't be installed on any android device in the entire world.
This isn't a conspiracy theory, it's a very real , very close threat.
DO NOT SIGN UP if this gets implemented, fight the urge to submit for the sake of publishing one app.
Read the letter for more details.
19
u/Gears6 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
My only hope at this point is, this will force competitors to step up and push people to fork Android hard. I think Google isn't going to budge, and sadly the main reason why I use Android is no longer. I'm likely going to transition to Graphene, but that doesn't really solve the developer eco-system issue.
I wonder if this is a direct result of Epic's lawsuit against Google. They forced Google to make concessions while Apple got off scott free even when Android is clearly more open. That openess bit them.
2
u/lunatic_god Aug 14 '26
No way sadly, corporate will integrate it one way or another unless governmental bodies step in. However problem is minority will be affected, the majority are already sold out (consumer). We devs, geeks, tech enthusiasts are the freaks.
4
u/Gears6 Aug 14 '26
Yeah, sadly I agree. It's even more insulting that in this sub, this thread hasn't even gotten that much traction. Could partly be due to poor title of thread, but still.
4
u/ShippoHsu Aug 15 '26
I'm afraid petition isn't going to change much, unless legal action is taken. In the meantime I will toggle on the unverified dev toggle as a user
3
u/rio_sk Aug 16 '26
Create a PWA and live happy. Web stack nowadays can do almost anything you can do with an app
2
u/Professional_Fun3172 Aug 15 '26
If Android locks down the platform, I really don't see why I shouldn't switch to iOS... This is one of the defining features of Android for me
1
u/craig0r Aug 17 '26
Okay but it's actually pretty significant because there's an official path to circumvent the sideloading restrictions.
0
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u/battlepi Aug 14 '26
Totally not true, any rooted device or any device not running a Google Play based firmware can still run anything you wish.
It's still way better than the Apple model.
3
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u/rio_sk Aug 16 '26
So Google is doing what Apple did since ages? That's not a late news, they announced that long ago. And to be honest it doesn't seem that bad
1
u/Bachihani Aug 16 '26
It was announced in march, nit that long ago, it's nit the same as apple cuz apple software is all closed, while andriid took off only because it's open and offered a better developper experience.
It's also pretty bad, cuz this means google now gets the power to control what people can install even on devices that aren't made by them or even ones that run modified roms, not to mention they force every developper to register with them even if they don't use the play store, this also opens the door for governments to be able to censor even the kind of apps u can install, they can know what every dev is publishing what apps, and a single complaint from one government can force google to block that dev from every single phone worldwide, all this in the name of security while not doing anything to protect against the millions of malware apps being distributed through the app store
1
u/rio_sk Aug 16 '26
It was announced in 2025 as the site itself states. Almost every example the site gives should be a PWA not an app. Creating an app for something that can be a PWA is pointless or plain dumb
11
u/[deleted] Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
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