Ending the Toxic Relationship: Why Conversations is Now Free

By Daniel Gultsch | September 24, 2026 | $\approx 5$ minute read

Conversations—my Android client for federated instant messaging—began as a classic open-source endeavor: I simply wanted to solve a problem I was experiencing personally.

The project kicked off in January 2014 while I was still living in a student dorm. Within a few weeks, I began "dogfooding" the app, utilizing it as my primary communication tool with friends.

The Business Gamble

When the app officially launched on March 24, 2014—exactly $12.5$ years ago today—I decided to experiment with turning this open-source project into a viable business.

While I didn't invent the concept of providing the source code for free while charging for the convenience of a pre-compiled binary, it was a relatively uncommon approach back in 2014.

A decade later, that gamble paid off. Since that March day in 2014, Conversations (and its associated work) has served as my main source of livelihood. While my needs as a student in a tiny room were minimal, my revenue grew steadily as my career progressed.

Diversifying the Revenue Stream

My income didn't come from a single source, but rather a mix of services and funding:

For any freelancer, the instability of waiting months for a single invoice or a grant payout is stressful. In the early days, before I had any savings, the consistent trickle of revenue from the Google Play Store was a vital lifeline.

The Breaking Point: A Toxic Partnership

Despite the financial benefit, my relationship with Google was consistently strained. I lost count of how many times updates were rejected for reasons that made no sense. In one particularly absurd instance, Google accused me of stealing uploading users' contacts—a claim that was entirely false and not even linked to a specific update.

"Countless times I wished I could just talk to an actual human for five minutes. So many misunderstandings could have been cleared up in no time if I wasn’t going up against AIs and click workers."

As of this writing, I have been waiting 14 days for a simple app update review. While review times have always been mediocre, they have plummeted over the last year. I suspect this is due to the flood of AI-generated "slop apps" that Google helped facilitate.

Google should prioritize established, non-AI apps that update infrequently. While a delay in a new feature is a nuisance, a delay in a security update is dangerous.

The Cost of "Free" Services

I realized I was paying Google over $1,000$ Euro annually for this "service." To put that into perspective:

$\text{Google Fee} \approx 1.5 \times \text{Annual Internet Cost}$ $\text{Google Fee} \approx \text{Annual Depreciation of my Notebook}$

When my internet or my laptop fails, a technician comes to my house to fix it. Yet, paying Google $1,000$ Euro a year doesn't even grant me a five-minute conversation with a human being. I felt trapped in a toxic relationship, staying only because of economic necessity.

The Path to Independence

Fortunately, my financial dependency has shifted. I have secured funding through various grants—including the European Commission and NLnet—that cover me through the end of 2029.

Regarding distribution, the transition looked like this:

• Phase 1: Available on F-Droid, but not advertised (to encourage paid Play Store downloads).
• Phase 2: Started linking to F-Droid as frustration with Google grew.
• Phase 3: F-Droid becomes the primary distribution channel.

The APK on F-Droid is now signed with my personal key and is built reproducibly.

# Conceptual representation of the shift
git checkout -b move-to-fdroid
git commit -m "Remove Google Play dependency"
git push origin main

I am no longer economically tethered to the Google Play Store. It is time to move on.