Android’s open nature set it aside from the iPhone because the period of touchscreen smartphones started practically 20 years in the past. Little by little, Google has traded a few of that openness for safety, and its subsequent safety initiative might make the most important concessions but within the identify of blocking dangerous apps.
Google has introduced plans to start verifying the identities of all Android app builders, and never simply these publishing on the Play Retailer. Google intends to verify developer identities no matter where they offer their content, and apps with out verification will not work on most Android units within the coming years.
Google used to do little or no curation of the Play Retailer (or Android Market, in the event you return far sufficient), but it surely has lengthy sought to enhance the platform’s fame as being much less safe than the Apple App Retailer. Years in the past, you would publish precise exploits within the official retailer to realize root entry on telephones, however now there are a number of evaluations and detection mechanisms to scale back the prevalence of malware and banned content material. Whereas the Play Retailer is still not perfect, Google claims apps sideloaded from exterior its retailer are 50 instances extra prone to include malware.
This, we’re led to consider, is the impetus for Google’s new developer verification system. The corporate describes it like an “ID verify on the airport.” Since requiring all Google Play app builders to confirm their identities in 2023, it has seen a precipitous drop in malware and fraud. Unhealthy actors in Google Play leveraged anonymity to distribute malicious apps, so it stands to motive that verifying app builders exterior of Google Play might additionally improve safety.
Nevertheless, making that occur exterior of its app retailer would require Google to take a page from Apple’s playbook and flex its muscle in a manner many Android customers and builders might discover intrusive. Google plans to create a streamlined Android Developer Console, which devs will use in the event that they plan to distribute apps exterior of the Play Retailer. After verifying their identities, builders should register the bundle identify and signing keys of their apps. Google will not verify the content material or performance of the apps, although.
Google says that solely apps with verified identities shall be installable on licensed Android units, which is just about each Android-based gadget—if it has Google companies on it, it is a licensed gadget. When you have a non-Google construct of Android in your cellphone, none of this is applicable. Nevertheless, that is a vanishingly small fraction of the Android ecosystem exterior of China.
Google plans to start testing this technique with early entry in October of this yr. In March 2026, all builders can have entry to the brand new console to get verified. In September 2026, Google plans to launch this function in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The following step remains to be hazy, however Google is concentrating on 2027 to increase the verification necessities globally.
A Seismic Shift
This plan comes at a significant crossroads for Android. The continued Google Play antitrust case introduced by Epic Video games might lastly power modifications to Google Play within the coming months. Google lost its appeal of the decision a number of weeks in the past, and whereas it plans to enchantment the case to the US Supreme Court docket, the corporate should start altering its app distribution scheme, barring additional authorized maneuvering.
Amongst different issues, the court docket has ordered that Google should distribute third-party app shops and permit Play Retailer content material to be rehosted in different storefronts. Giving folks extra methods to get apps might enhance selection, which is what Epic and different builders wished. Nevertheless, third-party sources will not have the deep system integration of the Play Retailer, which suggests customers shall be sideloading these apps with out Google’s layers of safety.
It is laborious to say how a lot of a real safety drawback that is. On one hand, it is sensible Google could be involved—many of the main malware threats to Android units unfold by way of third-party app repositories. Nevertheless, implementing an set up whitelist throughout virtually all Android units is heavy handed. This requires everybody making Android apps to fulfill Google’s necessities earlier than just about anybody will be capable to set up their apps, which might assist Google retain management because the app market opens up. Whereas the necessities could also be minimal proper now, there isn’t any assure they’ll keep that manner.
The documentation currently available does not clarify what is going to occur in the event you attempt to set up a non-verified app, nor how telephones will verify for verification standing. Presumably, Google will distribute this whitelist in Play Companies because the implementation date approaches. We have reached out for particulars on that entrance and can report if we hear something.
This story initially appeared on Ars Technica.
