If you've wondered how Android developer verification affects Accrescent, today we have a new blog post explaining briefly what it is, how it impacts us, and how we're responding.
https://blog.accrescent.app/posts/android-developer-verification/
@accrescent I'm curious about how you plan to do this:
"We also plan to continue allowing developers to submit apps to Accrescent without registering their apps through Android developer verification"
From what we've seen, those apps would not be installable on Android, but only AOSP ROMs that remove the new restrictions. Did Google provide anything concrete that lets Accrescent install "unverified" apps on Android devices? We've only heard vague promises.
@accrescent @eighthave your store has been under development for about 5 years, why is it still empty?
@anton_kaminsky Accrescent has been developed mostly in unpaid developers' free time for most of its existence, so it hasn't had the time to mature enough for us to be comfortable allowing a large number of apps to be submitted. We don't want app developers to encounter too many issues. We artificially limit submissions right now for this reason, though developers frequently request submission access.
We recently received enough funding to sponsor a full-time developer though and have been making more extensive development progress in the last few months as a result.
@accrescent I don't think Google will just acquiesce and implement it that way. We need to keep the pressure on them to ensure it actually happens in a way where Free Software and app stores like ours can continue to function how we except them to.
@eighthave Google has recently stated on the Android developers blog that they are working on allowing "experienced users" to install unregistered apps. But we plan to allow unregistered apps to be published regardless of whether that feature applies to Accrescent. If it doesn't, then yes, unregistered apps wouldn't be installable on certified Android devices.