The website “Keep Android Open” is an information platform that opposes Google’s new mandatory developer registration requirement for Android (effective from August 2025).
Core Problem
Google requires developers to register centrally with Google to develop and distribute apps. This would jeopardize Android’s openness, which is its defining feature.
Implications
For Users: No more ability to install apps outside the Google Play Store
For Developers: No direct app distribution to communities anymore
For States: Digital sovereignty at risk
I don’t have a Google account. I am a GrapheneOS user. Unfortunately, projects like GrapheneOS will disappear because Android is becoming increasingly proprietary. Google is putting a lot of obstacles in the way of FLOSS developers.
When a big firm pays for the development of some “open source” project, they actually own it and the “free” part is sort of marketing. It becomes “free” when the said big firm loses interest in the said project because it can’t see any business from it and leaves it to the “community” but in that case the project becomes “free” and without funds.
So the topic should be put in a different wording: how to force Google to pay for the development of a “platform” that allows others to compete with Google and allows users to stay out of Google’s “locking”.
Because, it does not happen by accident that if I want to access my bank account I must buy an Android phone with the “app” and nothing else.
This kind of “policy” can be enforced at European Union level but you see those regulations bring a trade war with the US government that enforces whatever the big tech firms want.
Summary: Keep Android Open
Core Problem
Implications