So google now requires Id verification for submitting apps to android, what does it mean for Foss apps, for Foss stores like fdroid and for future development?
So google now requires Id verification for submitting apps to android, what does it mean for Foss apps, for Foss stores like fdroid and for future development?
In theory or practice? Because there’s nothing stopping any open source project from submitting binaries to either the App Store or the Play Store as long as it meets guidelines, and both stores have them.
I think the confusion may be in the existence of F-Droid, an Android-only repository of open source stuff that builds apps from source as you install from it, ensuring someone hasn’t tampered with it. But nothing stops the developer from releasing on iOS as long as they follow certain rules. It’s just the code is compiled away from you, so you don’t really know what’s gone into the binary the App Store serves up. That said, if you’re a developer, you can compile yourself. You just have to re-sign every 7 days if you’re a free developer, and you’re limited to 3 installed apps at a time. You can remove those restrictions by paying $100 a year, and some people do that, mainly for the sideloading.
There’s also the fact that Android is based on an open source project itself (AOSP), but Android as it exists on Pixels is not itself open source. GrapheneOS and others are based on AOSP, and they may be (I think they are) open source.