Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free

Conversations is an open-source, federated Android instant messaging client that began as a student project in January 2014 and was released publicly on March 24, 2014. The developer turned it into a sustainable business by selling compiled binaries while keeping source code public, supplemented over the years by paid development for companies, consulting, server setup, and later increasingly by grants. Play Store sales were a steady revenue stream - long described as paying the rent - but other income shifted toward grants and funding, with secure grant support currently in place through 2029.

The relationship with Google deteriorated due to repeated, opaque update rejections, two removals from the Play Store (including a false accusation about uploading contacts), and increasingly long review delays that risk postponing security fixes. Google’s 15% cut amounted to over €1,000 per year without any meaningful human support, prompting the developer to end economic dependence. Distribution has moved to F-Droid as the primary channel; the APK is now reproducibly built and signed with the developer’s personal key. As a result, Conversations is now free on alternative channels and the developer has decisively broken with Google’s gatekeeping.