Posted by Suzanne Frey – VP, Product, Belief & Development for Android & Play
Understanding that you simply’re constructing on a protected, safe ecosystem is important for any app developer. We constantly spend money on defending Android and Google Play, so thousands and thousands of customers world wide can belief the apps they obtain and you may construct thriving companies. And we’re devoted to repeatedly bettering our developer instruments to make world–class safety even simpler to implement.
Collectively, we’ve made Google Play one of many most secure and most safe platforms for builders and customers. Our partnership over the previous few years contains serving to you:
Right now, we’re excited to share extra about how we’re making it simpler than ever for builders to construct protected apps, whereas additionally persevering with to strengthen our ecosystem’s safety in 2025 and past.
Making it simpler so that you can construct safer apps from the beginning
Google Play’s insurance policies are a essential part of making certain a protected expertise for our shared customers. Play Console pre-review checks are an effective way to resolve sure coverage and compatibility points earlier than you submit your app for assessment. We just lately added the power to verify privateness coverage hyperlinks and login credential necessities, and we’re launching even extra pre-review checks this 12 months that will help you keep away from widespread coverage pitfalls.
That can assist you keep away from coverage issues earlier than you submit apps for assessment, we’ve been notifying you earlier about sure insurance policies related to your apps – beginning proper as you code in Android Studio. We at the moment notify builders via Android Studio about just a few key coverage areas, however this 12 months we’ll broaden to a a lot wider vary of insurance policies.
Offering extra coverage help
Performing in your suggestions, we’ve improved our coverage expertise to offer you clearer updates, extra time for substantial modifications, extra versatile necessities whereas nonetheless sustaining security requirements, and extra useful data with dwell Q&A’s. Quickly, we’ll be making an attempt a brand new manner of speaking with you in Play Console so that you get data if you want it most. This 12 months, we’re investing in much more methods to get your suggestions, provide help to perceive our insurance policies, navigate our Coverage Middle, and assist to repair points earlier than app submission via new options in Console and Android Studio.
We’re additionally increasing our standard Google Play Developer Assist Group, which noticed 2.7 million visits final 12 months from builders trying to discover solutions to coverage questions, share information, and join with fellow builders. This 12 months, we’re planning to broaden the group to incorporate extra languages, reminiscent of Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
Defending your online business and customers from scams and assaults
The Play Integrity API is a vital instrument to assist defend your online business from abuse reminiscent of fraud, bots, dishonest, and information theft. Builders are already utilizing our new app entry threat characteristic in Play Integrity API to make over 500M day by day checks for doubtlessly fraudulent or dangerous habits. Actually, apps that use Play Integrity options to detect suspicious exercise are seeing an 80% drop in unauthorized utilization on common in comparison with different apps.
This 12 months, we’ll proceed to improve the Play Integrity API with stronger safety for much more customers. We just lately improved the expertise that powers the API on all gadgets operating Android 13 (API stage 33) and above, making it quicker, extra dependable, and extra non-public for customers. We additionally launched enhanced safety alerts that will help you resolve how a lot you belief the surroundings your app is operating in, which we’ll routinely roll out to all builders who use the API in Might. You may decide in now to start out utilizing the improved verdicts immediately.
We’ll be including new options later this 12 months that will help you take care of rising threats, reminiscent of the power to re-identify abusive and dangerous gadgets in a manner that additionally preserves person privateness. We’re additionally constructing extra instruments that will help you information customers to repair points, like in the event that they want a safety replace or they’re utilizing a tampered model of your app.
Offering extra validation in your app
For apps in choose classes, we provide badges that present an additional layer of validation and join customers with protected, high-quality, and helpful experiences. Constructing on the work of final 12 months’s “Authorities” badge, which helps customers establish official authorities apps, this 12 months we launched a “Verified” badge to assist customers uncover VPN apps that take further steps to display their dedication to safety. We’ll proceed to broaden on this and add badges to extra app classes sooner or later.
Partnering to maintain children protected
Whether or not your app is particularly designed for youths or just attracts their consideration, there’s an added accountability to make sure a protected and trusted expertise. We need to companion with you to maintain children and teenagers protected on-line, and defend their privateness, and empower households. Along with Google Play’s Trainer Authorized program, Households insurance policies, and instruments like Prohibit Declared Minors setting throughout the Google Play Console, we’re constructing instruments like Credential Supervisor API, now in Beta for Digital IDs.
Strengthening the Android ecosystem
Along with serving to builders construct stronger, safer apps on Google Play, we stay dedicated to defending the broader Android ecosystem. Final 12 months, our investments in stronger privateness insurance policies, AI-powered menace detection and different safety measures prevented 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being printed on Google Play. Against this, our most up-to-date evaluation discovered over 50 instances extra Android malware from Web-sideloaded sources (like browsers and messaging apps) than on Google Play. This 12 months we’re engaged on methods to make it even tougher for malicious actors to cover or trick customers into dangerous installs, which won’t solely defend your online business from fraud but additionally assist customers obtain your apps with confidence.
In the meantime, Google Play Shield is all the time evolving to fight new threats and defend customers from dangerous apps that may result in scams and fraud. As it is a core a part of person security, we’re doing extra to maintain customers from being socially-engineered by scammers to show this off. First, Google Play Shield dwell menace detection is increasing its safety to focus on malicious purposes that attempt to impersonate monetary apps. And our enhanced monetary fraud safety pilot has continued to broaden after a profitable launch in choose international locations the place we noticed malware based mostly monetary fraud coming from Web-sideloaded sources. We’re planning to broaden the pilot all through this 12 months to extra international locations the place we’ve seen larger ranges of malware-based monetary fraud.
We’re even working with different leaders throughout the {industry} to guard all customers, it doesn’t matter what machine they use or the place they obtain their apps. As a founding member of the App Protection Alliance, we’re working to ascertain and promote industry-wide safety requirements for cell and net purposes, in addition to cloud configurations. Lately, the ADA launched Utility Safety Assessments (ASA) v1.0, which gives clear steering to builders on defending delicate information and defending towards cyber assaults to strengthen person belief.
What’s subsequent
Please hold the suggestions coming! We recognize realizing what could make our builders’ experiences extra environment friendly whereas making certain we preserve the best requirements in app security. Thanks in your continued partnership in making Android and Google Play a protected, thriving platform for everybody.
