- Sources: primary, discussion
- Summary: Daniel Gultsch, the author of the Conversations XMPP client for Android, states in a 2026-09-24 post on his own site that the app is now free and that F-Droid is the primary distribution channel, with reproducible builds signed by his own key. He states review times have worsened over the past year, that he had been waiting 14 days for an update review at the time of writing, and that Google Play makes no distinction between a feature update and a security update, so a security fix waits in the same queue, and he attributes part of the backlog to a volume of AI-generated apps. Play revenue had paid his rent since 2014, Google takes 15 percent, which he puts at more than 1000 Euro a year, and he left only once grant funding through 2029 removed the dependency.
- Why it matters: This is one maintainer's account of his own project rather than a measured claim about Play review times in general, and it puts a number on how long a security fix can sit in the same queue as a feature update.
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