PlayExitKit

Who it's for

Indie Android developers with paid ($1-15) apps on Google Play who want out after Google's developer-verification and policy squeeze; today they cope by going free on F-Droid and eating the revenue loss (the Conversations path) or hand-gluing Gumroad keys + Obtainium + a blog post.

The problem

Payment: stay on Play and accept verification exposure plus the 15-30% cut; leave and your entire paid customer base can't even receive updates, let alone be converted to direct licenses — a full revenue reset on day one of the exit.

How to build it

CLI + small web dashboard: upload a Play Console order-export CSV and get keys + migration emails; an Android AAR library for offline EdDSA license verification and signed-manifest self-updates; a hosted feed generator that turns GitHub Releases into an Obtainium/F-Droid-compatible repo.

How it makes money

Devs with an existing paid user base pay $99-299 one-time for the migration kit plus $19/mo for the hosted license/update service, because botching order migration strands paying customers — and the free stack (F-Droid + Obtainium) has no payments, while Keygen has no Play-order import or APK self-updater.

Why it doesn't exist yet

Incumbents: Keygen/Gumroad sell licenses but ignore Android's sideload UX and Play's order history; F-Droid/Obtainium solve distribution but are proudly payment-free, so nobody owns the paid-exit path. Indie gap: the exit is a one-weekend glue job per app — too small for incumbents — and Google's verification mandate only made paid exits rational in the past year, so the tooling niche is brand new.

First users

The 618-point HN thread on Conversations leaving Play is full of devs weighing the same move; offer free white-glove migration to the first 10 paid apps from r/androiddev and FOSS Android communities in exchange for public case studies.

Build size

2 people x 8 weeks. In scope: order-CSV importer with key issuance and migration mailer, offline EdDSA license-check + self-updater Android library, Obtainium/F-Droid-compatible feed generator, minimal hosted license server. Out of scope: payment processing itself (delegates to Stripe/Gumroad), iOS, store discovery.

Biggest risk

Google reverses course — walks back the sideloading developer-verification mandate or ships an official off-Play distribution/billing path — collapsing the urgency to exit before the tool gains a base.

Conditions for a hit (all 3 required)

• Accepts a Google Play Console order-export CSV and outputs per-order license keys plus ready-to-send migration emails addressed to past buyers.
• Ships an Android library (AAR) that verifies license keys fully offline via EdDSA signature and self-updates the APK from a signed JSON manifest hosted on any static host.
• Generates a release feed URL from GitHub Releases that validates in Obtainium and also works as an F-Droid-compatible repo.

How it's judged (in 6 months)

GitHub repo >=1,000 stars, or >=3 paid Android apps publicly listing it as their licensing/update mechanism (verifiable from their download pages) by judge date(judgment date 2027-03-30)

AI self-confidence 45/100 — self-reported likelihood of meeting the criterion, not a business success rate