Conversations left Google Play after 12 years — can FOSS chat apps survive without the store?
Daniel Gultsch just made Conversations free and walked away from Google Play. The Android XMPP client launched on 24 March 2014 as a paid binary with open source; Play Store revenue used to pay his rent. On HN the post is at 641 points and 255 comments.
https://gultsch.de/posts/breaking-up-with-google-play/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855315
The break is not mainly about Google's 15% cut (over 1000 euro a year for him). It is review hell: fourteen days waiting on an update at writing time, two full removals from the store, and no human to talk to. Security patches get the same queue as feature fluff. F-Droid is now the primary channel, with a reproducibly built APK signed by his own key. Grants from NLnet and the European Commission cover him through 2029, so the economic leash is gone.
If grant funding is what frees FOSS maintainers from gatekeepers, what happens to the next Conversations that never gets an NLnet cheque?
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