"Google ends its 30 percent app store fee and welcomes third-party app stores"

Sandman · Mar 4, 2026

From the article:

Google is officially doing away with its 30 percent cut of Play Store transactions, and rolling out changes to how third-party app stores and alternate billing systems will be handled by Android. Some of these tweaks were proposed as part of the settlement the company reached with Epic in November 2025, but rather than wait for final judicial approval, Google is committing to revamping Android and the Play Store publicly.

Google ends its 30 percent app store fee and welcomes third-party app stores

Google is changing how it collects fees on the Play Store, and making it easier to use third-party app stores and billing systems.

www.engadget.com

cklester · Mar 5, 2026

Wow! At first glance, I thought this was an April Fools joke played too early.

aeric · Mar 5, 2026

So this encourage us the developers to publish more apps?

rabbitBUSH · Mar 6, 2026

I knew that if I waited long enough they'd come over to my side from the dark one.

Robert Valentino · Mar 7, 2026

Google will find someway else to take our money

Num3 · Mar 9, 2026

Robert Valentino said:
Google will find someway else to take our money

Yes,

Android is going to go fully closed platform in September 2026, no more APK installation from 3rd parties, only from Play Store.

Developers will have to pay licence fees for registering (+ yearly???), and Google will have full control over your code, your apps, your private keys and also will require you to give them your government ID. It's called Android Developer Verification Program, or as I call it, milk the cow and get free information on your users to sell to third parties and give uncle SAM.

I found it weird no one here seems to know this!

Keep Android Open

Advocating for Android as a free, open platform for everyone to build apps on.

keepandroidopen.org

Keep Android Open

Sifu · Mar 16, 2026

Num3 said:
Yes,

Android is going to go fully closed platform in September 2026, no more APK installation from 3rd parties, only from Play Store.

Developers will have to pay licence fees for registering (+ yearly???), and Google will have full control over your code, your apps, your private keys and also will require you to give them your government ID. It's called Android Developer Verification Program, or as I call it, milk the cow and get free information on your users to sell to third parties and give uncle SAM.

I found it weird no one here seems to know this!

Keep Android Open

Advocating for Android as a free, open platform for everyone to build apps on.

keepandroidopen.org

Keep Android Open

So, exactly what Apple does, as it seems.

Chris Salonikas · Mar 17, 2026

Can someone explain, after September can I still make apps with B4A and install them in my Android phone for personal use? Now this is my hobby and fun programming only use for B4A otherwise it is of no use any more.

Magma · Mar 17, 2026

Chris Salonikas said:
Can someone explain, after September can I still make apps with B4A and install them in my Android phone for personal use? Now this is my hobby and fun programming only use for B4A otherwise it is of no use any more.

Kardasi! - why not ? - may be will be more difficult (enable debug mode at information section)

Chris Salonikas · Mar 17, 2026

Will B4A-Bridge work in new android versions?

Erel · Mar 17, 2026

Probably yes. The exact details aren't known yet: https://developer.android.com/developer-verification

"Google ends its 30 percent app store fee and welcomes third-party app stores"

Sandman

Expert