Google Now Requiring Verification of ID for Android Developers

Google getting ready to implement ID verification system for Android app developers

Noah Erickson via Pexels

Google is getting ready to implement a far-reaching ID verification system for Android app developers, a system that might substantially change how apps are shared and installed around the platform.

The new policy is set to apply to not just the ones publishing apps via the Play Store, yet also to developers who independently distribute their software, expanding the company’s role as a gatekeeper over which apps are permitted on Android, even when they are not downloaded through the app store on Google.

Without passing the process of verification, apps are going to be blocked from running on most Android devices.

At one time, Android was notorious for its hands-off approach, particularly when compared with the tightly managed ecosystem of Apple. Now, this distinction is disappearing.

According to Google, the system is made to address concerns about security, stating that internal data that apps acquired outside of the Play Store are fifty times more probable to include malicious software. However, that goes way beyond policing its own storefront. It, instead, lays out the groundwork for universal…