Shifts that have not hit you yet but will.
Google Play app registration closes on 30 September, and unregistered apps face global removal
Deadline30 Sep
Google's policy page sets 30 September 2026 for Play Console app registration, required to meet Android developer verification requirements and Play Console requirements. Google says 99% of apps on Play have been registered automatically, and tells developers to check their Play Console Home page and register any remaining apps to avoid global removal from Google Play. Separately, it says developers can use Play Console to register apps they distribute outside Google Play to ensure those can be installed on certified Android devices.
So what
Five days. Open Play Console Home and check every package name you ship, including apps under a second developer account, apps you took over by transfer, and internal testing builds, because those are exactly the listings that fall outside the 99 percent. If you distribute an app outside Play, register it there too or it may stop installing on certified devices.
Apple's single set of EU business terms starts on 1 October, and you have to actively agree to it
Deadline1 Oct
From 1 October 2026 apps distributed in the EU fall under one set of terms. The per-install Core Technology Fee is replaced by a 5 percent Core Technology Commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store, and the Initial Acquisition Fee and Store Services Fee are eliminated. Apple lists commission of 26 percent on Apple In-App Purchase, or 15 percent for Small Business Program participants, 20 percent and 10 percent for alternative payment processing inside the app, and a Store Services commission of 15 percent and 10 percent on out-of-app offers. Developers select their payment options and must maintain those options for 12 months. Account Holders have to review and agree to the updated licence agreement.
So what
Two things get missed here. It is not automatic: an Account Holder has to accept the updated agreement in the developer account, so nothing happens if nobody logs in. And the payment configuration you are live with on 1 October is the one you keep until October 2027, so run the take-rate model before you choose, and check whether Small Business Program enrolment moves you from 26 percent to 15 percent.
GitHub put dates on removing ssh-rsa: a 3072-bit minimum from 14 October, brownouts on 4 November and 9 December
Breaking change22 Sep
GitHub published a timeline for removing the ssh-rsa signature type, meaning RSA keys signed with SHA-1, along with the diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256 key exchange. All new RSA SSH keys uploaded after 14 October 2026 must be at least 3072 bits, for both signing and authentication. Brownouts follow on 4 November and 9 December 2026. The same 14 October date enables mlkem768x25519-sha256 on github.com. The changelog also prints a final removal date of January 13, 2026, which falls before the brownouts listed above it, so we are not quoting a year for the removal until GitHub corrects the entry.
So what
Run ssh -v git@github.com from your CI image and from every deploy box and read the negotiated signature and key exchange algorithms. Audit repository deploy keys and organisation keys for RSA keys under 3072 bits and for anything old enough to be SHA-1 signed, then rotate to ed25519. Treat 4 November as the fire drill: a brownout is the day your pipeline tells you whether you were wrong, at a time you chose.
Google's pricing page schedules a doubling of Gemini 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 Flash prices on 1 January 2027
Pricing1 Jan
The Gemini Developer API pricing page lists Gemini 3.8 Flash input at $0.75 through 31 December 2026 and $1.50 starting 1 January 2027, with output going from $3.75 to $7.50 per million tokens on the same date. Gemini 3.7 Flash and 3.6 Flash carry identical figures. The same date raises both 3.8 TTS models, both Gemini Robotics ER 2 previews, and context caching, which goes from $0.075 to $0.15 per million tokens on 3.8 Flash. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at $0.30 and $2.50 has no scheduled increase, and neither does any Pro tier.
So what
Google does not call this introductory or promotional pricing anywhere on the page. It simply lists two prices with a date between them, which is a scheduled increase by any other name. If a workload runs on a 3.x Flash model, build the 2027 budget on $1.50 and $7.50 now, and benchmark it against Flash-Lite, which carries no scheduled rise. We have logged the date in our price change log.
Node 20 is gone from GitHub Actions runners, and the opt-out that let you pin back is gone too
Breaking change23 Sep
GitHub published what it calls the final notification that Node 20 is no longer available on GitHub Actions runners. Runners now use Node 24 for JavaScript actions, maintainers must set an action's runs.using value to node24 and cut a new release, and the temporary ACTIONS_ALLOW_USE_UNSECURE_NODE_VERSION opt-out is no longer available. GitHub also flags that Node 24 is incompatible with macOS 13.4 and earlier and has no official ARM32 support, so self-hosted runners on those systems are no longer supported.
So what
Search .github and any action.yml you publish for node20 and node16, and move runs.using to node24. There is no longer an escape hatch, so a workflow that depended on the opt-out fails on its next run rather than warning you. If you run self-hosted runners, check the macOS version and the architecture before the next scheduled job rather than after it.