In August 2025, Google announced that starting next year, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google. This registration will involve:
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Paying a fee to Google
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Agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions
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Providing government identification
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Uploading evidence of the developer’s private signing key
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Listing all current and future application identifiers
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Here is the https://keepandroidopen.org/
I don’t think open Android is viable.
It’s technically open, but it’s structured in a way that it’s de facto not open.
I am personally planning to move over to a Linux phone of some sort. Going to keep my A73 for critical apps/use cases and slowly move over to a Linux phone.
In a way, it’s good that Google is killing sideloading (in the real sense, where I decide what gets installed, not some hoodlums in Mount View or wherever).
There’s nothing about AOSP that’s not open. The thing that’s not open is the Play Store and FCM notifications. So long as everyone continues uploading exclusively to Play Store and not supporting UnifiedPush, even those who should absolutely know better, the Android ecosystem might as well be closed.
From what I understand the new, more closed way Google adds patches to AOSP does make Android more closed albeit technically open.
Many FOSS apps support UP and there’s a vibrant open source community outside of Google’s walled garden. Have you browsed Izzy’s repo? That’s not the problem as i see it.
My Fairphone runs e/os, a lineage-based ROM. So no certification. But my device is certified… I wouldn’t put it past the big evil to bake in some sort of cascading dependence that will block certified devices from even AOSP.
An open Android is perfectly viable, it can even be hardforked if people are that unhappy with what Google did with it over the years.
I think mobile Linux has functional advantages that can make it a lot more desirable, but there is no reason a truly open Android cannot exist.