Google's new developer rules are pushing a top privacy period tracker off certified Android devices

The privacy-focused period tracking app Periodical might soon stop working on standard Android devices because its creators refuse to hand their personal identities over to Google.

Google is rolling out a massive developer verification policy starting in September this year. They want all developers publishing apps on certified Android devices to submit government IDs directly to the company. 

Periodical pushed an in-app notice today making it abundantly clear they are not playing along. The developers fundamentally disagree with the mandate and are choosing to accept exile from the official ecosystem entirely.

We have already seen other open-source developers push back on these looming rules, but losing a critical reproductive health tool makes the situation pretty bad.

Periodical is an open-source application that Consumer Reports previously praised for storing data entirely on your local phone storage. It uses zero third-party trackers.

As you can expect, local storage is a massive deal for users right now. Subpoenas for digital health data can be weaponized by law enforcement in certain US states, putting women at severe legal risk.

Right now, users are scrambling to figure out what to do. The in-app notice was posted on both r/TwoXChromosomes and r/privacy subreddits.

For now, Periodical is pointing its users to its GitHub repository for future updates. The developers are hoping people will just bypass the official app store and install the file directly.

But this won’t really be an ideal solution down the line. According to the upcoming Android policy changes, Google is actively introducing severe friction for sideloading unverified apps.

Users will soon have to manually enable Developer Options and dig through system settings to allow unverified packages. After confirming they are not being coerced, they will be forced to wait out a mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period before the device finally permits the installation.

Most casual smartphone owners are simply not going to navigate those complex security layers just to log a menstrual cycle.

This is an aggressive move by Google. Forcing a legitimate privacy tool off mainstream devices in the name of user security is incredibly ironic.

Users just want a safe and private way to track their health without corporate surveillance or the risk of legal exposure. Now they are suddenly forced to choose between complex Android developer settings or going back to pen and paper.

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