The Android ecosystem is a thriving world group constructed on belief, giving billions of customers the arrogance to obtain the newest apps. In an effort to keep that belief, we’re targeted on making certain that apps don’t trigger real-world hurt, comparable to malware, monetary fraud, hidden subscriptions, and privateness invasions. As unhealthy actors leverage AI to alter their techniques and launch more and more refined assaults, we’ve deepened our investments in AI and real-time defenses during the last yr to take care of the higher hand and cease these threats earlier than they attain customers.
Upgrading Google Play’s AI-powered, multi-layered person protections
We’ve seen a transparent influence from these security efforts on Google Play. In 2025, we prevented over 1.75 million policy-violating apps from being printed on Google Play and banned greater than 80,000 unhealthy developer accounts that tried to publish dangerous apps. These figures display how our proactive protections and push for a extra accountable ecosystem are discouraging unhealthy actors from publishing malicious apps, whereas our new instruments assist trustworthy builders construct compliant apps extra simply. Initiatives like developer verification, obligatory pre-review checks, and testing necessities have raised the bar for the Google Play ecosystem, considerably decreasing the paths for unhealthy actors to enter.
Consumer security is on the core of every part we construct. Through the years, we’ve regularly launched methods to assist customers keep protected and make knowledgeable app selections — from parental controls to knowledge security transparency and app badges. We’re always enhancing our insurance policies and protections to encourage protected, high-quality apps on Google Play and cease unhealthy actors earlier than they trigger hurt.
Apps on Google Play endure rigorous critiques for security and compliance with our insurance policies. Final yr, we shared that Google Play runs over 10,000 security checks on each app we publish, and we proceed to examine and recheck apps after they’ve been printed. In 2025, we continued scaling our defenses even additional by:
- Boosting AI-enhanced app detection: We built-in Google’s newest generative AI fashions into our overview course of, serving to our human overview crew proceed to seek out advanced malicious patterns quicker.
- Stopping pointless entry to delicate knowledge: We prevented over 255,000 apps from getting extreme entry to delicate person knowledge and continued to strengthen our privateness insurance policies. Our dedication to privacy-forward app improvement, supported by instruments like Play Coverage Insights in Android Studio and Knowledge security part, has empowered builders to proceed to: reduce privacy-sensitive permission requests, and prioritize the person of their design selections.
- Blocking spam rankings and critiques: Whether or not they result in overview inflation or deflation, spam rankings and critiques can negatively influence our customers’ belief and our builders’ progress. We’re regularly evolving our detection fashions to assist guarantee app critiques are correct. Our anti-spam protections blocked 160 million spam rankings and critiques final yr, together with inflated and deflated critiques. We additionally prevented a mean 0.5-star ranking drop for apps focused by overview bombing, defending our customers and builders from unhelpful critiques.
- Safeguarding youngsters and households: Our method to youngsters and households is constructed on the core perception that kids deserve a protected, enriching digital atmosphere. Our dedication is to empower dad and mom with strong instruments whereas offering kids with entry to high-quality, age-appropriate content material. Final yr, we introduced new layers of safety, along with our current safeguards, to stop youthful audiences from discovering or downloading apps involving actions like playing or relationship.
Enhancing Google Play Defend to assist hold your entire Android ecosystem protected
We additionally continued to enhance our protections for the broader Android ecosystem, by increasing Google Play Defend and real-time safety measures like in-call rip-off protections to assist hold customers protected from scams, fraud, and different threats.
As Android’s built-in protection in opposition to malware and undesirable software program, Google Play Defend now scans over 350 billion Android apps day by day. This proactive safety always checks each Play apps and people from different sources to make sure they don’t seem to be probably dangerous. And, final yr, its real-time scanning functionality recognized greater than 27 million new malicious apps from exterior Google Play, warning customers or blocking the app to neutralize the risk. To learn from these protections, we suggest that customers all the time hold Google Play Defend on.
Whereas fraudsters are always evolving their techniques, Google Play Defend is evolving quicker. Final yr, we expanded:
- Enhanced fraud safety: Google Play Defend’s enhanced fraud safety analyzes and mechanically blocks the set up of apps which will abuse delicate permissions to commit monetary fraud. This safety is triggered when a person makes an attempt to put in an app from an “Web-sideloading supply” — comparable to an online browser or messaging app — that requests a delicate permission. Constructing on the success of our preliminary pilot in Singapore, we expanded enhanced fraud safety to 185 markets, now masking greater than 2.8 billion Android gadgets. In 2025, we blocked 266 million dangerous set up makes an attempt and helped shield customers from 872,000 distinctive, high-risk functions.
- In-call rip-off safety: We additionally launched new protections to fight social engineering assaults throughout cellphone calls. This characteristic preemptively disables the power to show off Google Play Defend throughout cellphone calls, stopping unhealthy actors from with the ability to trick customers into disabling their system’s built-in defenses to obtain a malicious app whereas on a name.
Partnering with builders for a safer, privacy-friendly future
Retaining Android and Google Play protected requires deep collaboration. We wish to thank our world developer group for his or her partnership and for sharing their suggestions on the instruments and help they should succeed.
In 2025, we targeted on decreasing friction for builders and offering them with instruments to safeguard their companies:
- Constructing safer apps extra simply: We’re serving to builders streamline their work by bringing insights immediately into their pure workflows. It begins with Play Coverage Insights in Android Studio, which provides builders real-time suggestions as they code. We targeted first on permissions and APIs that grant deeper system entry or deal with private knowledge, like location or pictures. This provides builders a head begin on coverage necessities, together with distinguished disclosures or utilization declarations, whereas they’re nonetheless constructing. When builders transfer to Play Console to arrange their apps for submission, our expanded pre-review checks assist catch frequent causes for rejection, like improper utilization of credentials or permissions and damaged privateness coverage hyperlinks, making certain smoother, quicker critiques.
- Stronger risk detection with Play Integrity API: Day-after-day, apps and video games make over 20 billion checks with Play Integrity API to guard in opposition to abuse and unauthorized entry. In 2025, we added hardware-backed alerts to make it even tougher for unhealthy actors to spoof gadgets and launched new in-app prompts that permit customers repair frequent points like community errors with out leaving the app. We additionally launched system recall in beta to assist builders establish repeat unhealthy actors even after a tool has been reset, all whereas defending person privateness.
- Constructing belief by developer verification: We’ve seen how efficient developer verification is on Google Play, and now we’re making use of these classes to the broader Android ecosystem. By making certain there’s a actual, accountable id behind each app, verification helps legitimize genuine builders and prevents unhealthy actors from hiding behind anonymity to repeatedly trigger hurt. After gathering suggestions throughout our early entry interval, we’ll open up verification to all builders this yr. We’ve additionally added a devoted account sort for college kids and hobbyists, which is able to enable them to distribute these apps to a restricted variety of gadgets with out the complete verification necessities.
- Higher safety with each Android launch: In Android 16, builders can shield customers’ most personal data, like financial institution logins, with only one line of code. We’ve built-in this characteristic mechanically to sure apps for an immediate safety increase in opposition to “tapjacking,” a trick the place unhealthy apps use hidden layers to steal clicks for advert fraud.
Wanting forward
Our prime precedence stays making Google Play and Android probably the most trusted app ecosystems for everybody. This yr, we’ll proceed to put money into AI-driven defenses to remain forward of rising threats and equip Android builders with the instruments they should construct apps safely. To empower builders who distribute their apps on Google Play, we’ll keep our deal with embedding checks to assist construct apps which might be compliant by design, whereas offering steering to assist proactively keep away from coverage violations earlier than an app is printed. We’ll additionally roll out Android developer verifications to carry unhealthy actors accountable and stop them from hiding behind anonymity to trigger repeated hurt.
Thanks for being a part of the Google Play and Android group as we work collectively to construct a safer app ecosystem.
