Hey everyone, I just decided to ditch my iPhone 15 and grab a Pixel 9 with GrapheneOS. Basically I'm fed up with iOS restrictions and I want to be able to install whatever I want without Apple controlling everything.
But yeah, right when I was about to pull the trigger, I saw Google's announcement about mandatory developer verification kicking off in March 2026. I read that GrapheneOS is explicitly out of this policy because it's not a certified device, so technically it doesn't affect me directly. But here's the thing—I'm worried about the broader ecosystem, you know?
My main concern is that a lot of indie or small open source developers probably aren't going to want to deal with the whole verification process (which requires government ID, payment method, the whole deal). And if they don't verify, their apps just vanish for regular Android users. That's what bothers me.
What I'm trying to figure out is: does this mean GrapheneOS is going to stay viable indefinitely? I mean, I know technically it's outside Google's reach, but what happens as time goes on? Is Google going to make changes to AOSP or the kernel that eventually limit sideloading even on alternative ROMs? Because the whole point is that I want to be able to install apps from GitHub or F-Droid directly without depending on someone verifying them with Google.
Also curious—is there any technical plan to deal with this if things get worse? Is the community thinking about proactive solutions?
I get that the answer is probably "it's your call to take the risk" or whatever, but honestly I want to make sure I'm not just jumping from a locked-down platform (iOS) to one that could become locked-down in the future (Android, even with GrapheneOS). Anyone else here worried about this?
Thanks for reading.