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A theoretical way to circumvent Android developer verification

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A theoretical way to circumvent Android developer verification 0 star s

As you all know, Google has introduced developer verification as a way to prevent users from installing “unregistered” APKs. This measure was taken as a security feature to link every APK in existence to its developer, as in Play Store.

Link to the Android documentation, link to FAQ

Why this is bad

This has already been discussed by ArsTechnica and on some threads (some cherry-picked ones): reddit, ycombinator, hackaday.

A quick recap of the main points (as of 30 Oct 2025):

The base tier costs $25, as in Play Market. Requires an ID

There will be a limited “hobbyist” unpaid license. Google claims that they won’t require an ID

Legal info is told to be private, unlike with Play Market

The verification code is supposed to be located in Play Services, but Google hasn’t published the source code yet

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