I have been wondering for a long time what we independent developers can do to improve our position.

Automatic updates broke your phone; the fix is a highly technical manual process.

The 2020 lawsuit said Google was deceiving people into thinking that they could control the information they're willing to share.

• For 5 years, Google will let developers offer an alternative in-app billing system next to Google Play (aka “User Choice Billing”)
• For 5 years, Google won’t make developers offer their best prices to customers who pick Google Play and Google Play Billing
• For 4 years, Google won’t make developers ship titles on Google Play at the same time as other stores and with feature parity
• For 5 years, Google won’t make companies exclusively put Google Play on a phone or its homescreen
• For 4 years, Google won’t stop OEMs from granting installer rights to preloaded apps
• For 5 years, Google won’t require its “consent” before an OEM preloads a third-party app store
• For 4 years, Google will let third-party app stores update apps without requiring user approval
• For 4 years, Google will let sideloaded app stores use its APIs and “feature splits” to help install apps
• For 5 years, Google will turn its two sideloading “scare screens” into a single user prompt which will read the equivalent of this agreed-upon language: “Your phone currently isn’t configured to install apps from this source. Granting this source permission to install apps could place your phone and data at risk.”
• For 5 years, Google will let User Choice Billing participating developers let their users know about better pricing elsewhere and “complete transactions using the developer’s existing web-based billing solution in an embedded webview within its app.”
• For 6 years, Google will “continue to allow developers to use contact information obtained outside the app or in-app (with User consent) to communicate with Users out-of-app”
• For 6 years, Google will let consumption only apps (e.g. Netflix, which doesn’t let you pay on device) tell users about better prices elsewhere, without linking to an outside website — example: “Available on our website for $9.99”
• For 6 years, Google “shall not prohibit developers from disclosing to Users any service or other fees associated with the Google Play or Google Play’s billing system.”

Victory Royale.

Candy Crush would have been the gateway drug.

Spotify’s “unprecedented” popularity justified the deal.

Google keeps piling on restrictions for distributing apps via the Play Store, which is an issue when they have an effective monopoly

Google's "solution" can't do anything for bootlooping devices.

Web Integrity pivots to Android, could permanently kill YouTube Vanced-style apps.

But it is for security reasons - it is always about security reasons when old devices and now even old apps have to be thrown away.

Android 14 offers a lightly customizable lock screen and not much else.

(Does anybody care about Android 14?
Currently, those who will end up with a bricked Pixel phone.)

Users with multiple profiles are getting locked out of local storage and losing data.

(It wouldn't shock me if they found out that this bug is related to all the changes Google has been making the last few years to prevent users and apps from being able to access their files in a normal way because it's trying to make Android a bad copy of iOS.)

The popular developer forum is still hunting for a "path to profitability."

How’s the update working out for you?

Pixel 8's 7 years of software updates is revolutionary... maybe

Google picks who gets features.

The number of members is enough to create a healthy community without attracting spammers.
What's missing now is more participation and post creation. Don't be shy, if you find an article that is about Android-or Google, since the two sometimes coincide-share it with the rest of us.

All the displays, cameras, batteries, and back plate are now for sale.

Automatic Chromebook expiration dates still "fundamentally flawed," critics say.