Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free
After more than a decade selling the open-source Conversations XMPP client on Google Play, its maintainer is making it free and shifting F-Droid to the primary distribution channel. He says grants now provide enough runway to leave Play Store revenue behind; F-Droid’s APK is reproducibly built and signed with his own key.
The stated trigger is not simply the 15% store cut: the author says he could accept that fee for useful service, but repeated unexplained removals, a 14-day review delay, and no effective way to reach a human made the relationship untenable. He also warns that slow reviews can delay security updates.
HN commenters split over the trade-off. Some backed leaving the gatekeeper and praised the open distribution model; others argued app stores provide discovery, payments, and safety checks, and noted that Play income helped sustain the project for years. Several agreed that poor developer support is the sharper complaint than the fee itself.