Google will make all Android applications check their identity starting next year

Open Android nature He designed it for iPhone, where the era of touch smartphones began nearly two decades ago. Something slowly, Google has exchanged some of this openness to safety, and the following safety initiative can make the largest concessions after the Bad applications.

Google has announced plans to start checking the identities of all Android app developers, not only those who are published in the Play Store. Google intends Check the identities of the developer, regardless of where its content is presentedAnd applications without verification will not work on most Android devices in the coming years.

Google used to do very little of the Play (orroid Market store, if she returns far away), but has long sought to improve the reputation of the articles of association as less safe than the Apple App Store. For years, you can publish actual exploits in the official store to reach the root on phones, but there are now many reviews and detection mechanisms to reduce the spread of harmful programs and banned content. While the play store is It is still not perfectGoogle claims that Sideloladed applications outside their store are 50 times more likely to contain malware.

This, we lead us to belief, is the motivation for the new developer verification system. The company describes it, such as “Airport’s ID”. Since all Google Play application developers have claimed to verify their identities in 2023, it has witnessed a huge decrease in harmful programs and fraud. Google Play Fannelding has been used to distribute harmful applications, so it makes sense that checking applications outside Google Play can enhance safety.

However, achieving this outside its application store will require Google to Take a page from Apple play It folds its muscles in a way that many Android users and developers can find. Google plans to create a simple Android developer controller, which will be used by Devs if they are planning to distribute applications outside the Play Store. After checking their identities, developers will have to record the name of the package and sign the keys to their applications. Google will not check the content or functions of applications.

Google says that applications that contain identities only will be installed on credit Android devices, which are almost every device that depends on Android-if it has Google services, it is an approved device. If you have a non -floors building from Android on your phone, none of this will not apply. However, this is a small part of the Android ecosystem outside China.

Google plans to start testing this system with early arrival in October this year. In March 2026, all developers will be able to reach the new console to verify it. In September 2026, Google plans to launch this feature in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. The next step is still blurry, but Google targets 2027 to expand the worldwide verification requirements.

Seismic

This plan comes at a large crossroads for Android. Google Play on Google Play, which is offered by epic games, may force Google Play changes in the coming months. Google She lost her call From the ruling several weeks ago, while plans to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court, the company will have to start changing its application distribution plan, except for more legal maneuvering.

Among other things, the court ordered that Google must distribute the third -party application stores and allow the restoration of the Play Store content in other store fronts. Giving people may lead to more ways to get applications, which EPIC and other developers wanted. However, third -party sources will not have the integration of the Play Store’s deep system, which means that users will download these applications without layers of safety from Google.

It is difficult to say how much a real security problem. On the one hand, it makes sense that Google feels anxious-most of them are the main threats of harmful programs for Android devices that spread through third-party applications. However, the application of the white menu to install in almost all Android devices is delivered. This requires every person who makes Android applications to meet Google’s requirements before almost anyone can install their applications, which may help Google to keep control while opening the application market. Although the requirements may be minimal at the present time, there is no guarantee that they will remain in this way.

the The documents currently available It does not explain what will happen if you try to install an unprecedented application, nor how to verify the verification status of the verification. Google will distribute this white list in playing services with the approaching date of implementation. We have continued to get details about that front and we will inform us if we hear anything.

This story was originally appeared on Art Technica.