It would not be a problem if Google wanted to, but Google doesn’t want it.
I just found this post on reddit about EU feedback being sought about ‘digital fairness’.
There is EU’s Digital Fairness Act. It aims to resolve anything consumer related that can be considered unfair in the digital environment. EU is asking for feedback until 24 October 2025.
If you think stopping people from installing software they want is unfair, then have your say. I did.
Anyone can post their views. This may help with this plan from Google/Alphabet.
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Sure. For me we’re almost at the point where android is so much like iOS that my next phone will be an iPhone and not an Android. I wonder how many FP users think that way. If I‘m paying for a walled garden then I might as well get the best one. Of course that will be 6 years down the line or so, but by that time I bet Android will be even more like iOS making my choice even easier.
I’m sure people will hack around this limitation for rooted users in the first week it’s implemented. FP will likely need to verify the hack is not malicious (source code will be available, I bet) and give us an easy way to install it the from their website. They should probably cooperate with the f-droid peeps too to add it as a second optional store.
Fairphone will do nothing in this regard, since Fairphone needs certification from Google, because if they don’t, the phone won’t support all software, which in turn would drive the majority of customers away.
We are not a community of people aiming for freedom, we are a community of environmental sustainability, repairability and economic fairness.
Fairphone can only tackle theese goals, when they embrace a bigger crowd.
And we can really see that, since the phones are thin and are advertised with good cameras. And we can see it in the move from high priced mid-range FP3/4/5, to a cheaper budget-like FP6.
Theese are the compromises we will have to live with.
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Why would they lose certification? Did they lose certification for allowing /e/ on another version of the phone? So why would they lose it if they release or endorse a way to alter parts of the system partition? It’s already possible to root it, is it not?
As for what community “we” are, I bought the phone and other than repairability I don’t care about the rest you mentioned. If Android ends up being a walled garden like iOS, I’ll probably just switch to iOS if there’s still long term support for it. I like android because even in the googled version I can install 3rd party apps without them having to bend over for Google. Without it there’s little reason not to go to Apple, for me. If I’m the only one thinking like this, cool, you can buy what you like and I’ll buy what I like, or what I least hate.
I don’t think a lack of action from FP will be because of a concern of certification. It will be about the amount of effort on their time.
The certification is for the specific OS and not the company. At least that is whats written on the paper.
So letting Murena resell phones is something we do not need to talk about.
But directly implementing or creating an easily applyable patch for a ‘security deviation’ is on another level. Especially as this would affect the certifiable or certified OS.
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Ok so they could release a certifiable version for which they don’t approve any modification, and there could be a second version with open source modifications that they check themselves for malware and then they approve, created by users to work around Google’s walls. They don’t even have to host it, they could just say we’ve checked this version with this hash and it’s safe.
I wonder how much work that would be: checking the security of a modified version. Depends on how much work is done by the ones that made it to make their builds reproducible so that one can then go quickly from checking the source code for anything suspicious to getting the same flash files the creators provide out of it.
They outsourced open-source custom ROM development to e/OS and I doubt they will take it back in-house, just because Google is going a closed road
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And there is the problem - FP do this activity and have to support it. I doubt very much they will want that overhead for such a little return (i.e. the amount of users that will take them up on it).
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In my mind, google is telling us: “Don’t trust us, don’t use our products, we will restrict the usability of your already purchased device, whenever it benefits us.”
In the end, we can be thankful. Google just showed everyone how important it is to use free software, thus helping us growing the FOSS community and pushing people towards creating a free, google-less ecosystem. Maybe we will see new standardized systems to purchase stuff on Android in the future. More app-developers might implement Unified-Push into their apps, instead of FCM ect. So we wouldn’t even need MicroG anymore.
If possible, everyone who can should avoid google, not because they are so bad and evil or whatever but to secure our freedom in the long run. The “standard” shouldn’t be google, it should be something free! And for this, we need a big enough market. Otherwise app-developers won’t adapt.
Amen 
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Someday maybe people who think “environmental sustainability, repairability and economic fairness” can survive without freedom will understand… maybe…
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Don’t get me wrong here, as I am not one of those, but I believe this is the majority and thus what counts for Fairphone in this capitalist world.
When it comes to what I want, then we are at full featured Linux, meaning KDE Plasma Mobile, no ‘Apps’ anymore, rooted, easily unlockable bootloader, …
No Google, no Meta, but Mastodon and PixelFed.
But still repairable, maybe upgradeable and fair.
But unfortunately we live in this world…
OK - we have a compromise that google will allow sideloading by ADB. IIRC, you can do this via a laptop or another device over USB cable. It’s been a while since I did it, but it will probably work for me. It’s going to be a pain updating, but it seems this is the way it is going.
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Reading those two pieces of info on the page you posted confused me a bit:
The requirement goes into effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. At this point, any app installed on a certified device in these regions must be registered by a verified developer.
And from the FAQ
As a developer, you are free to install apps without verification with ADB. This is designed to support developers’ need to develop, test apps that are not intended or not yet ready to distribute to the wider consumer population
So sideloading will still work. But only via adb, not by downloading an APK on the phone and installing it from the download folder. Did I get this right?
Correct - that’s how I read it. But it’s a long time since I downloaded an app via ADB and ran it. It may have changed. Also - there may be apps that emulate ADB now on the phone (this popped up on reddit just yesterday), but I’m not sure this is great. I think I’ll stick with ADB as I knew it. Still not an easy process though.
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Here’s another article with feedback from F-Droid about how much their work (and of course the work of all other independent “app stores”) will be affected by this decision.
https://www.heise.de/news/F-Droid-Neue-Entwickler-Regeln-koennten-Aus-fuer-alternative-App-Stores-bedeuten-10673640.html
Sorry, only in german language.
The first developer, of apps which I use, also declared, that he will not continue developing his app any longer with the forced limitation and surveillance that Google plans to introduce for the developers. Here’s a screenshot of a pop-up after starting the app GMapsWV:
Sorry again for german language content.
Edit:
Additional statement in english directly from F-Droid.
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The pop-up is not saying that development will cease.
The pop-up is saying that the App in question will not work anymore on certified Android devices, which most probably means devices running a Google certified Android OS, which in general should mean a stock vendor Android OS, but not Custom ROMs like LineageOS, iodéOS, /e/OS etc.
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