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<\/p>\nPosted by Suzanne Frey \u2013 VP, Product, Trust & Growth for Android & Play<\/em><\/p>\n Knowing that you\u2019re building on a safe, secure ecosystem is essential for any app developer. We continuously invest in protecting Android and Google Play, so millions of users around the world can trust the apps they download and you can build thriving businesses. And we\u2019re dedicated to continually improving our developer tools to make world\u2013class security even easier to implement.<\/p>\n Together, we\u2019ve made Google Play one of the safest and most secure platforms for developers and users<\/b>. Our partnership over the past few years includes helping you:<\/p>\n Today, we\u2019re excited to share more about how we’re making it easier than ever for developers to build safe apps, while also continuing to strengthen our ecosystem’s protection in 2025 and beyond.<\/p>\n Google Play\u2019s policies are a critical component of ensuring a safe experience for our shared users. Play Console pre-review checks<\/a> are a great way to resolve certain policy and compatibility issues before you submit your app for review. We recently added the ability to check privacy policy links and login credential requirements, and we\u2019re launching even more pre-review checks<\/b> this year to help you avoid common policy pitfalls.<\/p>\n To help you avoid policy complications before<\/i> you submit apps for review, we\u2019ve been notifying you earlier about certain policies relevant to your apps \u2013 starting right as you code in Android Studio. We currently notify developers through Android Studio about a few key policy areas, but this year we\u2019ll expand to a much wider range of policies<\/b>.<\/p>\n Acting on your feedback, we\u2019ve improved our policy experience to give you clearer updates, more time for substantial changes, more flexible requirements while still maintaining safety standards<\/a>, and more helpful information with live Q&A’s<\/a>. Soon, we\u2019ll be trying a new way of communicating with you in Play Console so you get information when you need it most. This year, we\u2019re investing in even more ways to get your feedback<\/a>, help you understand our policies, navigate our Policy Center, and help to fix issues before app submission through new features in Console and Android Studio<\/b>.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also expanding our popular Google Play Developer Help Community<\/a>, which saw 2.7 million visits last year from developers looking to find answers to policy questions, share knowledge, and connect with fellow developers. This year, we\u2019re planning to expand the community to include more languages, such as Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.<\/p>\n The Play Integrity API<\/a> is an essential tool to help protect your business from abuse such as fraud, bots, cheating, and data theft. Developers are already using the APIs to make over 500M daily checks for potentially fraudulent or risky behavior. In fact, apps that use Play Integrity features to detect suspicious activity are seeing an 80% drop in unauthorized usage on average compared to other apps.<\/p>\n <\/image><\/p>\n This year, we\u2019ll continue to enhance the Play Integrity API with stronger protection<\/b> for even more users. We recently improved the technology that powers the API on all devices running Android 13 (API level 33) and above, making it faster, more reliable, and more private for users<\/a>. We also launched enhanced security signals to help you decide how much you trust the environment your app is running in, which we\u2019ll automatically roll out to all developers who use the API in May. You can opt in now<\/a> to start using the improved verdicts today.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be adding new features later this year to help you deal with emerging threats, such as the ability to re-identify abusive and risky devices in a way that also preserves user privacy<\/b>. We\u2019re also building<\/a> more<\/a> tools<\/a> to help you guide users to fix issues<\/b>, like if they need a security update or they\u2019re using a tampered version of your app.<\/p>\n For apps in select categories, we offer badges that provide an extra layer of validation and connect users with safe, high-quality, and useful experiences. Building on the work of last year\u2019s \u201cGovernment\u201d badge<\/a>, which helps users identify official government apps, this year we introduced a \u201cVerified\u201d badge<\/a> to help users discover VPN apps that take extra steps to demonstrate their commitment to security. We\u2019ll continue to expand on this and add badges to more app categories in the future.<\/p>\n Whether your app is specifically designed for kids or simply attracts their attention, there is an added responsibility to ensure a safe and trusted experience. We want to partner with you to keep kids and teens safe online, and protect their privacy, and empower families. In addition to Google Play\u2019s Teacher Approved program<\/a>, Families policies<\/a>, and tools like Restrict Declared Minors<\/a> setting within the Google Play Console, we\u2019re building tools<\/a> like Credential Manager API, now in Beta for Digital IDs<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to helping developers build stronger, safer apps on Google Play, we remain committed to protecting the broader Android ecosystem. Last year, our investments in stronger privacy policies, AI-powered threat detection and other security measures<\/a> prevented 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play. By contrast, our most recent analysis found over 50 times more Android malware from Internet-sideloaded<\/b> sources (like browsers and messaging apps) than on Google Play. This year we\u2019re working on ways to make it even harder for malicious actors to hide or trick users into harmful installs, which will not only protect your business from fraud but also help users download your apps with confidence.<\/p>\n <\/image><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Google Play Protect<\/a> is always evolving to combat new threats and protect users from harmful apps that can lead to scams and fraud. As this is a core part of user safety, we\u2019re doing more to keep users from being socially-engineered by scammers to turn this off. First, Google Play Protect live threat detection<\/a> is expanding its protection to target malicious applications that try to impersonate financial apps. And our enhanced financial fraud protection pilot<\/a> has continued to expand after a successful launch in select countries<\/a> where we saw malware based financial fraud coming from Internet-sideloaded sources. We are planning to expand the pilot throughout this year to additional countries where we have seen higher levels of malware-based financial fraud.<\/p>\n We\u2019re even working with other leaders across the industry to protect all users, no matter what device they use or where they download their apps. As a founding member of the App Defense Alliance<\/a>, we\u2019re working to establish and promote industry-wide security standards for mobile and web applications, as well as cloud configurations. Recently, the ADA launched Application Security Assessments (ASA) v1.0, which provides clear guidance to developers on protecting sensitive data and defending against cyber attacks to strengthen user trust.<\/p>\n Please keep the feedback coming! We appreciate knowing what can make our developers\u2019 experiences more efficient while ensuring we maintain the highest standards in app safety. Thank you for your continued partnership in making Android and Google Play a safe, thriving platform for everyone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEicI9pyzJVyOd7B83tjLaL1PCY1o1I2ORcELHXKVtTDv7kio-xxnprXvwqFW_HhBIzsUcXZpmTFclmXWVZy3UXihpSB_07oE25zxQ4C86Wc8-DCRQsVp958sHvWEKrFE6jFQtNL99hj0YbT0ZhddhrsNwskhRvp9ic2A3FVnwla16U2_ysa7CzrWVlvTQs\/s1600\/Bad%20Apps%20Blog%20%20Data%20Visualisation%20Assets_Header_graphic-4209x1253px%20b.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMaking it easier for you to build safer apps from the start<\/span><\/h2>\n
Providing more policy support<\/span><\/h2>\n
Protecting your business and users from scams and attacks<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\nProviding additional validation for your app<\/span><\/h2>\n
Partnering to keep kids safe<\/span><\/h2>\n
Strengthening the Android ecosystem<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\nWhat’s next<\/span><\/h2>\n