- Google's new Play Integrity verdicts may spill trouble for old Android phone owners.
- Play Integrity API will get new "meets-strong-integrity" and "meet-basic-integrity" verdicts.
- Devices that haven't been updated in a year could have their ability to run banking apps snatched.
Google has worked a great deal on improving Android security in the past few years. At the heart of this effort lies Google Play Integrity, a security hub system API that ensures developers their apps are running on devices that pass Google’s tests. However, after these Play Integrity changes, banking apps may refuse to work if the phone didn’t get any updates in over a year.
In its latest blog post, Google has announced that devices with Android 13 and above will have new verdicts starting May 2025. Besides, the Play Integrity API will get new “meets-strong-integrity” and “meet-basic-integrity” verdicts. The former will help app developers, especially ones responsible for banking apps, to ensure whether the device has received an update in the last year.
This means apps, especially from the banking and government sectors, could require you to be on the latest security patch for them to function normally. Failure to do so may result in your Android devices being downgraded to the “meets-basic-integrity” level. This may cause banking apps to cease functioning on over 35% of Android devices in the world.
The Issue and Merit of New Play Integrity Additions
So, does this mean devices with Android 12 and below won’t be able to run banking apps? Not if the developers don’t want to. Google has made it optional, so if banks are afraid many may lose access to their apps and services, they may choose not to apply these changes.
Still, some apps may embrace the new changes right away, and that could be a problem. You see, a great chunk of Android devices are still on older Android versions, and this could force users to upgrade to newer devices, with older devices ending up in landfills.
Alerting users about the potential implications of using a device that no longer receives regular updates is the way to go rather than making optional rules that can be adopted by developers, which would lead to millions of abandoned devices.
Besides, we highlighted a conversation in our custom ROMs article that suggests Google Play Integrity certifies devices even though they don’t fully pass the API’s checks. Sure, improving security is always a good thing, and Google wants to ensure Android doesn’t get the blame is reasonable.
We should be able to do monthly updates from 2025— Alvin T (@atytse) December 1, 2024
However, one bright side to this is that OEMs will likely provide monthly or bi-monthly security patches, making the overall experience more secure. In fact, could it be a coincidence that Xiaomi has decided it will provide monthly patches starting next year?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on these Play Integrity changes and Google’s decision to allow developers to stop their apps from running on older devices. Do share your insights in the comments below.
