F-Droid Faces Closure Over App Registration Rule

Project f-droid, a developing catalog of open applications for Android, recently stated that it could not continue to exist if mandatory registration with Google developers and applications became a requirement. Representatives of F-Droid are urging the community, supervisory structures, and antimonopoly authorities to take action to prevent restrictions on the installation of Android programs. They argue that these restrictions would stifle alternative application catalogs and hinder developers who are either unable or unwilling to provide their personal data to Google. Furthermore, they claim that such restrictions would infringe upon the user freedom of installing programs of their choice on their devices.

In late August, Google made an announcement about transitioning to using only registered applications from verified developers on certified Android devices. The installation of third-party applications would only be allowed if developers register their apps with Google and verify their personal information.

Unlike commercial application catalogs, F-Droid operates in the best interests of its users rather than application distributors. F-Droid ensures that the apps listed are completely open and free of undocumented antifunctions, such as advertising or tracking installations. The unique aspect of F-Droid is that it sources packages directly from the code, without the ability to register them on behalf of developers. By gathering packages independently, F-Droid guarantees that the app is built from the code available in the official repository. The only exception is for projects that support reproducible assembly, in which case F-Droid can list the package provided by developers after verifying the reproducibility of its assembly process.