The app ID is com.google.android.verifier, which I assume will be used for the upcoming developer verification program for installing 3rd party apps.
Starting September 30, developers (signing authors) need to be verified from Google to distribute apps in the following app stores:
- Google Play Store
- Honor App Market
- OPPO App Market
- Samsung Galaxy Store
- Transsion Palm Store
- vivo V-Appstore and
- Xiaomi GetApps
only in the countries of Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
F-Droid is not included for this time.
It is planned to be rolled out globally across all markets/app stores by January of 2027.
Relevant sources:
https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides
https://keepandroidopen.org/
I used App Manager (io.github.muntashirakon.AppManager) for the screenshot; you can use your regular ‘Installed Apps’/‘Apps’ menu to see if it’s been rolled out automatically for you as well.
edit: First link was originally a typo, my bad. Fixed it.
Update: Interestingly, since it is still classed as a User app, I can uninstall it myself without any special perms. The installation source is shown as Google Play Store, and you can manually find the app on the store.
Here’s a screenshot of that - though it has no ratings, reviews, options to review etc. that you would expect from ordinary or even other Google produced apps.
they learned from last time. the last forced verification app had horrible reviews. google deleted for example my review which had the word spyware in it. later you were able to spot the insane amount of ai generated reviews blessing the app for totally different reasons.
I saw those AI-genned reviews this time as well. At first the Reviews page was totally hidden and no aggregate rating shown for me, but a day or two after I posted this I checked the Google Play Store page and I could see the reviews, though still no option to post a review myself. Bunch of AI-like comments praising it like a save-all, and the more sane ones from actual users and developers which were predominantly negative or even hateful.
Right now it has a 4.1 rating on the store, with 27,191 reviewers. I highly suspect many of those are authentic reviews.Actually it’s a 4.3 with 46.8k reviews. The preview values on Google search differ from the actual metrics on the page. That probably says Google has been pruning reviews that are 1 or 2’s recently, hence the bumped up average.
I can find it there, but only uninstall updates. Guess it’s ADB time.
Same for me, I can only uninstall the updates, and I can’t tell the play store to not update it automatically, so it will obviously do this. I’m eyeing at fairphone, or graphene, or /e/os, or Jolla, or iodé, or calyx, or lineage, or pinephone a bit more everyday
Thanks, I just checked and it was installed so I’ve uninstalled it
had it on my tablet uninstalled that shit so fast
Thanks for sharing. It was installed for me as well on the 14th apparently, even though my phone’s not getting updates anymore. I was hoping I wouldn’t get it because of that, but I guess it’s purely a play services thing.
My kids’ phones (Pinwheel-managed Moto G Play models) attempted to install this in the background as well. I only found out about it because I got an app request from the devices; the kids had zero knowledge of it.
I blocked the installation.
Hold up, what magic is this? You can gatekeep installations of any app on their phones? I’ve looked into doing this with Google Play but as far as I can tell they only enable it for mature content. Which doesn’t help to stop my old father in law from installing trash “security” apps on his phone.
Yes. It’s a company called Pinwheel, they provide phones pre-setup with what is essentially MDM, but geared towards child usage.
I can do the following remotely from the “caregiver portal”:
- Install/uninstall apps from Pinwheel’s “curated” app list
- Enable/disable Google Play store (apps still require approval)
- See their texts and calls (including actual content - they know we can see this, we don’t hide it)
- Approve/block contacts; or, allow them to manage their own contact list, but blocked contacts cannot be bypassed
- See their live location and location history
- Set schedules and modes to enable/disable apps/features at certain times, and after any specific duration if desired
- Remove the lockscreen passcode
…all remotely.
If your FIL can’t handle smartphone stuff, I would absolutely recommend something like this for him.
The catch is that Pinwheel costs about $15/mo per device. Worth it IMO. They also have their own optional MVNO plan, with everything rolled into one price. I forget how much it is - I just put my kids on Mint Mobile.
Spying on every text and call your kids make is wild, I’m glad I didn’t grow up in an era where it’s normal to have 0 privacy as a kid, y’all crazy parents.
The world we grew up with is gone, my dude. Its not spying when they know about it - we do not hide the fact that we can see their texts and calls, they knew this from day 0. They’re kids, and kids fuck up a lot. I would know - I have 5 of the little shits.
Hell, my first cell phone in the early 2000s wasn’t even mine, it was the family cell phone. Yet all of my texts with my now-wife were on it. You bet your ass my parents read those texts.
I fucked up a lot as a kid and my parents didn’t use this as a justification to have an all seeing eye on every single one of my conversations. You’re fucking weird.
You don’t have kids, I can tell. No judgement from me. However, I am raising kids right now. And this is the reality of the world we live in.
And for what it’s worth - we don’t read every single text, in fact we don’t really read any of their texts unless one of the kids brings up a concern.
F-Droid is not included for this time.
How-To:
- Open Developer Options and select Apps from unverified developers.
- Turn on Allow apps from unverified developers.
- Authenticate using your screen lock.
- Confirm that nobody is pressuring you to change the setting.
- Restart your phone and wait 24 hours.
- Return to the setting and choose whether to allow apps from unverified developers for seven days or indefinitely.
Source:
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-android-advanced-flow-sideloading-rollout-begins-3700073/
https://www.pocket-lint.com/android-new-sideloading-option/That’s some pretty big hurdles to be honest, just a reminder of how sketchy Google is these days.
Less issue for me than Apple lol.
You can always (for now) go to LineageOS or GrapheneOS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On my pixel 10, I see this app is installed with only the option to disable, not uninstall.
Goto “app details” at the bottom of the settings page for the app. Then select “uninstall updates” should no longer appear in app list.
“App details” is greyed out for me. Pixel 7 Pro.
Edit: never mind - it was because I had the Play Store disabled. Not that it’ll mean much, but I flagged the app as inappropriate while I was there.
Edit 2: Wow, they’re paying for fake reviews that are blatantly a bad joke.
Pixel 7 Pro supports GrapheneOS, I recommend you install that.
