Charlotte Pierce

Enforcement on 30 September hits seven stores in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Not sideloading, not other stores. But registration is bound to your app signing key, and Google's FAQ says a lost one can't be recovered.

There's a version of this story going around that says Android is closing. Sideloading is dead, the open platform is over, verify or disappear. I went and read Google's own developer verification pages this week, because Murror ships on Android and I wanted to know what I actually had to do before the end of the month. The docs say something narrower than the panic, and in one specific place something worse.

Start with what happens on 30 September.

Enforcement begins for users installing from participating stores Google Play, HONOR App Market, OPPO App Market, Galaxy Store, Palm Store, V-Appstore and GetApps in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, on certified devices running Android 7 or higher. If you haven't verified your identity and registered your apps by then, they're blocked from installation for users in those regions.

I was thinking about this because it sounds like such a small product decision, but I don t think it actually is.

Someone signs up with Google. Six months later they are on their iPhone and tap Sign in with Apple. Same person, different identity provider. And if they use Hide My Email, you may not even get the same email address.

So what should the product do?

Creating a new account feels wrong because now their history, billing, settings, or subscription can end up split across two profiles. But automatically linking accounts based on email also feels risky, because now you are assuming that matching email addresses are enough proof that both identities belong to the same person. And then Apple makes it even messier because the emails may not match at all.

i try a lot of AI products and my honest hit rate is low. most of what i install is gone inside a week, and usually not because it was bad. it just never turned into a habit.

the few that stuck have almost nothing in common on paper. the only thread i can find is that they took away a step i was already doing, instead of adding a step i probably should be doing. the ones that asked me to build a new routine all died.