Opening my weather app this morning I was greeted by this warning:
Google has announced that, starting in 2026/2027, all apps on certified Android devices will require the developer to submit personal identity details directly to Google. Since the developers of this app do not agree to this requirement, this app will no longer work on certified Android devices after that time.
It’s the first time I hear about this, seems to be about:
Cirrus app: Github
Was this a big thing I somehow missed? I hope more devs will follow suit.
They’re not “pulling” the app from anywhere, it’s just simply not going to work on “certified devices”. This is the end of Android as we know. It’s been a good run.
When one thing dies, another thing is born.
UBPorts is ready to go and isn’t tied to Google hardware like Graphene.
Doesn’t have manufacturer support
Volla, Fairphone, and Pine offer devices with it preinstalled and it works on a wide variety of others.
I think you’re aware of the size of those manufacturers compared to the ones shipping Android.
And what’s being born?
It should die first
Yes you’re right. I’ve worded that wrong in the title!
You can edit it 🙂
Done! for the curious, original title, “Cirrus App dev pulling app from certified android devices in '26/'27” new, “Cirrus app dev informing the app will stop working on certified android devices in '26/'27”
Only works for those of us who own a pixel or bought one for the reason but this won’t effect Graphene users
Except it will, because developers aren’t going to bother maintaining an app where the install base is just pixel users with Graphene
Yep. We’ll be fine for a while but Google’s seriously axing the platform for foss projects and security-minded users. In no more than half a decade I anticipate Android’s open-source development scene will begin looking very similar to Apple’s.
It’s going to affect 100% of Android users because no one is going to develop apps just for the 10 people using uncertified devices.
We’re at least a dozen!
affect
I believe you can sideload with ADB.
Nope, from how Google puts it, play services will block any and all apps without a valid signature from working at all on play certified devices.
You’ll be able to install them via adb probably, but when you run them play services will stop you.
Play services already prevents certain apps from starting until you say a yes/no on a popup, so the framework for this is already in place.
This is completely wrong. I asked this exact question to google in their poll and I got an answer from them saying it would always work with adb. It’s for devs so you can run those apps of course. This means F-Droid can implement a Shizuku backend to install apps and the UX will be even better since it will bypass popups. However, initial setup will be far more complicated
You can but that’s REALLY not a solution. How many times/day to plan on plugging in your phone and running a couple dozen commands to update your apps?