Android opens up Play Store & AI agents reshape developer tools - Tech News (Mar 5, 2026)

Android opens up Play Store

First up: Android is getting a big policy reset. Google says it’s ending the old default of taking a third of Play Store transactions. The new approach lowers the standard cut on in‑app purchases, gives some developers a path to an even smaller share, and takes a lighter bite out of subscriptions. The bigger story isn’t just the percentage. Google is also loosening rules that previously boxed developers into Google’s billing. Apps will be allowed to offer alternative billing options inside the app, or steer users to complete purchases on the web. That’s a clear contrast with Apple’s more limited openings, and it’s another sign that regulators and courts are now shaping app economics as much as product teams are. Alongside that, Google is building a “Registered App Stores” program. Third‑party stores that meet safety and quality requirements should get a smoother install flow, even as basic sideloading remains possible — though Google is hinting it may put more friction on sideloading later in 2026. The rollout starts in the EEA, the UK, and the US by the end of June, then expands over time. And yes, Epic is already lining up for the moment: it says Fortnite will return broadly to Google’s store as these policies land.

In research news, one of the most ambitious open-source biology projects in a while just got louder. Researchers released Evo 2, a “genome language model” trained on an enormous dataset spanning bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. What makes this interesting is the direction of travel: genome modeling is moving beyond small, simpler organisms toward the long-range complexity of eukaryotic DNA. Early results suggest the model can score the impact of mutations in biologically meaningful ways, including tricky areas like splicing and noncoding regions, and the team has published the model and the dataset with some biosafety-minded exclusions. The near-term value is interpretation — faster annotation and better variant triage. Generation and design are still harder, and the researchers basically admit that: reading biology appears to be ahead of writing it, at least for complex organisms.

Two more quick hits before we wrap. The European Commission is convening an expert group to explore whether the EU should set a bloc-wide minimum age for social media. Recommendations are expected by summer 2026, and Australia’s under‑16 rule is clearly the reference point. If Brussels goes this route, it won’t just be a policy headline — it will force platforms to prove they can enforce age rules at scale, which is technically and politically thorny. And in hard science: TerraPower has a US Nuclear Regulatory Commission construction permit for its first plant in Wyoming — the first such approval in years. It’s a meaningful step for next-generation nuclear projects, even though it’s not an operating license, and timelines still look long. Finally, Duke engineers built an ultrathin light detector that’s unbelievably fast for its class and can sense across a very wide range of wavelengths. If it scales to manufacturing, it could lead to smaller, quicker multispectral imaging — useful in areas like medical screening and remote sensing.

One last note on AI in culture: two new documentaries are leaning into the public’s split-screen view of AI — breakthrough tool on one side, societal risk on the other. One film explores the emotional tension directly, while another uses an AI-generated “Sam Altman” stand-in to make a point about how easy impersonation and manipulation can be. Whatever you think of the filmmaking choices, the takeaway is clear: deepfakes and synthetic media aren’t a niche concern anymore. They’re becoming a mainstream literacy problem — for voters, consumers, and anyone who relies on “seeing is believing.”