Google Play Store will get more tools to protect users from scammy apps

What you need to know

• Google announced increased safety measures that will roll out soon to its Play Store.
• In an attempt to create a safer Android Ecosystem, Google will expand Play Protect to “target malicious applications that try to impersonate financial apps."
• It will start adding more verified badges to help users identify and validate genuine apps — “Verified” for VPNs.

Google announced today that it will be extensively working on making its Play Store a safer platform for both app developers as well as users. In a lengthy Android Developers' blog post, the company chalked out protection plans for 2025 that will make it easier for developers to build safe apps right from the get-go, which will help users recognize "real" apps from fraudulent ones.

To start, Google Play Protect, which has its live threat detection in place, is expanding its protection to target more "malicious applications that try to impersonate financial apps."

Recently, the Google Play Store was impacted by a massive ad fraud that made users download "vapor apps" disguised as genuine popular apps. These ran recurring ads, making it difficult for users to delete and generating tons of revenue for fraudsters. After that, Google had to take down 180 apps from the platform.

Google started warning users when it detected an unsafe app that originated from sources outside of Google Play. The tech giant will also be expanding its financial fraud protection pilot to additional countries where it has seen "higher levels of malware-based financial fraud."

The blog further adds that the company's most recent analysis found over "50 times more Android malware" from sources outside the Play Store like internet browsers and messaging apps, likely from users clicking on scam texts or links.

"This year we’re 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," the blog stated.

Furthermore, the company is going to add a "verified badge" on specific VPN apps to help users discover more secure VPNs and will expand this to other app categories in the future.

App developers will also see tools to help protect their apps/businesses from fraud. The Play Integrity API tool, which helps keep fraud, bots, cheating, and data theft at bay, will see “stronger protection for even more users” that will help them "re-identify abusive and risky devices in a way that also preserves user privacy." Google is also working on self-help tools that allow users to solve issues "for when they're using a tampered version of the app." These features will be rolled out to developers as early as May.

Lastly, Google is leaning in on the importance of feedback from developers through new features in Console and Android Studio. The Google Play Developer Help Community will also include more languages, such as Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese, catering to a wider audience.