[altfredd]

You already can not install applications from Google Play without Google account. Google accounts are registered with personal phone number (the one you obtained from your carrier, presumably using your ID). All Google Play users are already "verified" one way or another.

This change means that people who do not use Google Play or other sources, fully controlled by Google, will no longer be able to install applications on Android.

[jbstack]

This isn't how I've understood the change. My understanding is that developers will need to have their ID verified before they are authorised to allow their app to be sideloaded. So long as they have done that, why would the user need to have a google account to sideload the app? Wouldn't the whole thing be transparent to the end-user (for those vendors who pass the ID verification) and the only thing they'd notice is that they can no longer install the apps from vendors who haven't passed?

[BHSPitMonkey]

But as you said, the check (and denial) is happening at the time the _user_ is trying to do something _they_ wish to do (e.g. install an APK from a project on GitHub).

Much of the ecosystem of Android apps that are only distributed outside the Play store will be affected by this, as many developers won't be able or willing to submit to this process or waive their privacy (especially young developers or those making apps that are legal but often targeted by litigious companies, e.g. emulators, YouTube clients/downloaders, BitTorrent clients, etc.)