February 24, 2026
Today Software Freedom Conservancy joins many other organizations in signing an open letter to Google asking that Android continue to allow people to install what they want on their phones. Recent policy changes within Google will restrict installation options by requiring developers to register their legal names, adding new gatekeeping that can arbitrarily deny app installation or delete existing apps from your phone. F-Droid has already written about the importance of this change. This invasion of privacy of developers is not just an overreach of Google's authority over Android, but also jeopardizes developer safety and restricts user freedom. Google has said “sideloading is not going away”, but even the framing of "sideloading" pushes user and developer freedom to the sidelines and classically masks a removal of freedom for vague measures of safety.
Free and open source software (and the ability to install it!) was vital for the proliferation of Android. A reversal of such a critical piece of the policy that allowed user freedom and software openness would be disastrous for users and the FOSS community at large. There is obviously pressure from big tech companies to restrict installation options on their locked down hardware. We see this not only in the mobile space, but increasingly on desktops where both Apple and Microsoft have made it harder to install free software; refusing to allow distribution outside of their app stores, or showing vague warnings about security when software isn't signed in their preferred gatekeeping ways. Allowing installation of free software is absolutely necessary to ensure freedom to keep our devices running, protecting user and developer privacy, and keeping an open market of innovation.
We urge you to speak up about this issue, because this is just the most recent decision by large corporations to restrict the control we have over our own devices. If you are a part of an organization outside of the ones who have already signed, we urge you to sign on and let our collective voices be heard. Software is not created to be shepherded by proprietary app stores; software is meant to be shared and worked on together for the betterment of humanity.