Does anyone here actually support Google's Developer Verification?
I don’t. I’ve put a warning about it in my repo because I’m against policies like sideloading restrictions, forced ID verification.
Curious what other devs here think. Is Play Store still worth the hassle?
Alternate stores like Accrescent and FDroid are blocked by this policy, and Google refuses to implement any mechanism for authorising at the store level either. Store level authorization is an obvious alternative to verification of each individual app.
Both Accescent and FDroid have some oversight processes in place, and do not contain "random" APKs. Googles actions show the real motive, which is control... not security.
Ok, why are they blocked? Technically? Explainer please
They are de-facto "blocked" for developers that refuse to submit their identity to Google. I think you might not be understanding the implications of Google's policy, please read this open letter to learn more: https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/
If a developer doesn't submit to identify verification, under the new system their app could not be installed regardless of what store it is distributed on.
Needing individual devs to identify themselves directly to Google is invasive. Stores, however, could identity themselves to Google (or the world) as having security processes in place. Then they could be allowed as official 3rd party stores, similar to how the Linux repository system works.
That is no longer true!
It is what I would call "functionally true". You have to enable developer mode to install unverified apps. A very, very small subset of users are going to do that.
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html?m=1
If you have more information on this, please share.
You have to enable it. And I would love a dedicated switch.
Currently, you need to enable third party install sources.
And one could argue that the fact that most people will not enable developer mode is a clear sign that this is a protection.
In my very very personal opinion: people that do not want to enable developer mode should maybe not install apps from third parties. Developer mode itself unlocks a few switches, and none of them is enabled per default. This is a pretty safe action IMHO.
There is a way to avoid this, but this is the device owner mode. You need an app that takes full control over device ownership, and those apps are allowed to do anything including installing any app.
One example is OwnDroid.
An opensource app that is signed by a dev and allows to manage install sources would be a working solution with better security.
If someone builds it