Posted by Vijaya Kaza, VP, Product, App & Ecosystem Trust
The mobile ecosystem is always evolving, bringing both new opportunities and new threats. Through these changes, Android and Google Play remain committed to ensuring that billions of users can continue to enjoy their apps with confidence and developer innovation can thrive. Earlier this year, we shared how Android and Google Play kept the ecosystem safe in 2025 by deepening our investments in AI and real-time defenses. Today, we’re giving you a look at how we’re making it easier and faster than ever for millions of developers to publish safer apps.
Simpler ways to build safer apps from the start
To help you catch potential issues before you hit submit, we’re integrating insights and new customized guidance built with AI to your publishing journey:
- Catch policy issues while you code with expanded Play Policy Insights in Android Studio, which now offer warnings for common issues, like missing login credentials. Later this year, when you choose to connect your Play developer account directly to Android Studio, you’ll get tailored insights.
- Choose the right SDKs with confidence by leveraging SDK Index. Later this year, we are bringing SDK insights directly into your development workflow so you can instantly see which SDKs comply with Play policies.
More powerful protection for your business and users
With new ways to stay ahead of fraud and abuse, and better tools to protect your users, we’re also making it easier to secure your app’s revenue and reputation.
- Detect security threats and abuse faster with our stronger Play Integrity API, which developers rely on to make billions of checks everyday to help keep their business secure. With significantly shorter warm-up latency, you can use these real-time checks in your most speed-critical user journeys, like logins or payments, to catch unauthorized access and risky interactions.
- Simplify how you manage user privacy with easy-to-integrate tools like the contact picker and location button to give users clearer choices. We’re also updating our policies to raise the standard for user privacy.
- Future-proofing app signing security on your behalf. We’re adding support for post-quantum cryptography in Play App Signing this year, which will protect your apps and app updates from potential threats with the emergence of quantum computing.
Faster, more predictable app publishing
We know how important it is to maintain a predictable release cycle, so we’re making the publishing process faster and more transparent.
- Avoid unexpected review rejections with our expanding pre-review checks, which now identify unnecessary photo permission requests and other common violations before you submit.
- Improve the speed and predictability of your review cycles by using the new release status API to check if your release is approved and published. We also added a new way for you to block new commits if a review is already in progress, so you don’t unintentionally restart your place in the queue.
- Publish your releases even faster when we change our review architecture later this year to enable parallel publishing and faster reviews for your test tracks. You’ll be able to isolate your closed, open, and production tracks so that a review on one track no longer holds up updates on another.
- Track your release history with the Submission history log later this year. Built at your request, this feature provides a complete record of every time you send an app or update for review and its status. This makes it easier for your team to coordinate and troubleshoot without digging through multiple menus.
- Manage business changes securely with the account transfers feature to help you move ownership to new partners, entities, or team members (video). We’ve designed this highly developer-requested feature with safeguards to protect your business from fraud and account hijacking.
- Get the right policy support when you need it. In the coming months you’ll see AI-powered recommendations directly in your Play Console that help you resolve minor issues immediately. For more complex issues, you can create a ticket to connect with our policy specialists. We’re also giving new developers more guided support, including new Play Academy courses, to publish their first app with confidence. Later this year, we’ll expand this coaching experience for new developers.
Stronger security across the ecosystem
Finally, we’re bringing developer verification to the entire Android ecosystem to add another layer of security and make it much harder for malicious actors to repeatedly spread harm. Starting in September, these protections will roll out in select countries to help users feel more confident in the apps they download and without changing most users’ install experience. We will also update Android Bench to uplift the entire ecosystem’s ability to build and launch safer, higher quality apps using generative AI.
What’s next
Google Play is committed to helping you grow your business while keeping users safe, and we appreciate your continued feedback on the tools and programs. Thank you for partnering with us to make Android and Google Play a secure, trusted platform for everyone.
