• F-Droid has warned that Google’s new developer verification rules could effectively kill alternative Android app stores. • The platform says that Google’s rules are monopolistic and harmful to competition as well as user freedom. • F-Droid says the new rules would make Google the gatekeeper of all Android apps, but Google maintains that developers will still be able to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or use any app store.

Google’s new developer registration requirements could make it impossible for independent Android app stores like F-Droid to survive, the group behind the open-source repository has warned in a new blog post.

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