Google will make all Android application developers verify their identity from next year

Android Open Nature Leave it apart from the iPhone when the era of smartphones with touch screen began almost two decades ago. Little by little, Google has changed part of this security opening, and its next security initiative could make the greatest concessions until the name of blocking bad applications.

Google has announced plans to start verifying the identities of all Android application developers, and not only those published in Play Store. Google intends Verify the identities of the developer regardless of where they offer their contentAnd the applications without verification will not work on most Android devices in the coming years.

Google used to do very little healing of Play Store (or the Android market, if it returns far enough), but for a long time it has sought to improve the reputation of the platform as less safe than the Apple App Store. Years ago, it could publish real feats in the official store to obtain access to the root on the phones, but now there are multiple revisions and detection mechanisms to reduce the prevalence of malware and prohibited content. While the Play store is Is not yet perfectGoogle Claims Applications from outside their store are 50 times more likely to contain malware.

This, we are believed, is the impetus for the new Google developer verification system. The company describes it as an “identification check in the airport.” Since they required all Google Play application developers to verify their identities in 2023, he has seen a precipitated fall in malware and fraud. The bad actors on Google Play took advantage of anonymity to distribute malicious applications, so it is logical that verifying application developers outside Google Play could also improve security.

However, make that happen outside your app store will require Google Take a page from Apple’s play book and flex your muscle in a way that many Android users and developers could find intrusive. Google plans to create an optimized Android developer console, which developers will use whether they plan to distribute applications outside Play Store. After verifying their identities, developers will have to record the name of the package and the signing keys of their applications. However, Google will not verify the content or functionality of applications.

Google says that only applications with verified identities will be installed on certified Android devices, which is practically all Android -based devices; If you have Google services, it is a certified device. If you have an Android construction without Google on your phone, none of this is applied. However, that is an irregular fraction of the Android ecosystem outside China.

Google plans to start trying this system with early access in October of this year. In March 2026, all developers will have access to the new console to verify. In September 2026, Google plans to launch this function in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. The next step is still confusing, but Google goes to 2027 to expand verification requirements worldwide.

A seismic change

This plan occurs at an important crossroads for Android. The Google Play antimonopoolio case presented by epic games can finally force Google Play changes in the coming months. Google He lost his appeal From the verdict several weeks ago, and although he plans to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, the company will have to begin to alter its application distribution scheme, except for a greater legal maneuver.

Among other things, the Court has ordered that Google must distribute third -party application stores and allow Play Store’s content to re -rehnuate in other shop windows. Giving people more ways to obtain applications could increase the choice, which is what Epic and other developers wanted. However, third -party sources will not have the deep integration of the Play Store system, which means that users will stop reverence these applications without Google security layers.

It is difficult to say how much genuine security problem is this. On the one hand, it makes sense that Google would be worried, most of the main threats of malware to the Android devices distributed through third -party application repositories. However, enforcing a white installation list on almost all Android devices is hard hand. This requires that all those who make Android applications meet Google’s requirements before virtually any person can install their applications, which could help Google retain control as the application market opens. While the requirements can be minimal at this time, there is no guarantee that they stay that way.

He Documentation currently available It does not explain what will happen if you try to install an unsecured application, or how the phones will verify the verification status. Presumably, Google will distribute this white list in game services as the implementation date approaches. We have communicated with details about that forehead and we will inform if we listen to something.

This story originally appeared in Ars Technica.