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Google Play Store Now Displays 'Account Deletion Available' Badge On Every App
Google has recently rolled out an important update to its Play Store, now displaying an "Account Deletion Available" badge on every app that allows user account creation.
(Photo : KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)Google Play Store now features an "Account Deletion Available" badge on apps, enhancing user control over data with a compliance deadline of May 31, 2024. Google Play Store Lets Users Know If App Allows Account Deletion In April 2023, Google implemented a new rule for apps listed on the Play Store: if an app allows users to create accounts, it must also provide an option to delete those accounts and the associated data.
Google advises developers that when they delete an app account at a user's request, they also have to delete the user data associated with that app account.
This requirement applies both within the app and through a web interface. The enforcement deadline for developers to comply with this rule is May 31, 2024. Developers can request extensions up to this date, but after that, non-compliant apps may face "additional enforcement actions," potentially including removal from the Play Store.
As Android Authority reports, the "Account Deletion Available" badge is now live on the Google Play Store, appearing in the Data Safety section of app listings. This update comes after a year of Google urging developers to include account deletion information in their store listings since December 2023.
As the deadline approaches, Google is ensuring that users can easily identify apps that comply with these new requirements.
Read Also: Android's Gmail Toolbar to Feature Revamped Gemini AI Button, Similar to Workspace
How the App Badge WorksGoogle's new policy aims to provide users with more control over their personal data and to enhance transparency about data management practices.
By making account and data deletion options easily accessible, Google helps users manage their digital footprint more effectively.
The badge serves as a clear indicator that users can delete their accounts and data directly within the app or through a web interface, without needing to reinstall the app if it has been uninstalled. This feature is designed to simplify the process of data management for users.
Google's data deletion policy specifies that developers must offer these deletion options within the app and on the web, ensuring that users have multiple avenues to manage their data.
Developers are also required to disclose if they need to retain certain data for legitimate reasons, such as regulatory compliance, security, and fraud prevention.
What It Means for UsersFor users, the new badge makes it easy to identify apps that allow account and data deletion, enhancing their control over personal information. This update is part of a broader effort by Google to improve data safety and transparency on the Play Store.
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Judge Hints At Plans To Rein In Google's Illegal Play Store Monopoly
A jury in December found that Google broke US antitrust laws through deals and billing rules that gave an unfair boost to its Google Play app store. On Thursday, a judge began laying out how Google could be forced to change its business as a penalty. The remedies under consideration could drive the most consequential shakeup ever to Google's dominance over the Android universe.
Fortnite video game developer Epic Games, which beat Google in the trial that saw a jury declare the Play store an illegal monopoly, is demanding that federal judge James Donato ban Google from contracts that deter competition. Epic also wants Google to be forced to help competing stores list more apps, giving them a competitive boost. The changes could enable Epic to realize its long-held plan to increase revenue by processing in-game purchases in Fortnite and other titles without using Google's payment system, and marketing games via its own app store.
Google contends that Epic's demands would threaten its users' security and impair the businesses of partners, including Android device makers and app developers. The search company is appealing the jury's verdict, which could delay the rollout of any penalties for many years—or void them altogether. But Google over the past few years already has had to make some costly changes in Europe and Asia due to court losses and new laws affecting the Play store, and a trial with Epic is currently underway in Australia.
"I want to be clear: Google as an illegal monopolist will have to pay some penalties," Donato told Epic and Google at a hearing in San Francisco on Thursday. He explained that Google's loss requires him to pry open the company's grip on the Android ecosystem in a way that ends Google's illegal monopoly and also removes its ill-gotten gains from years of unfair dominance.
That would mean major changes for the industry that has built up around Google's Android operating system—and potentially more choices for consumers. It could require Google investing cash into new projects to make things right, Donato said.
Donato expressed frustration with Google's claims that any changes would be bad for consumers and other businesses. "To jump up and down and say the new way is going to be a world no one wants to live in, it's unfounded," he said. But he also spent hours in the hearing quizzing two economists, one appearing on behalf of each company, about how to craft penalties for Google without being unreasonable.
Among Epic's requests is that Google be barred from striking deals that prevent or discourage companies from working with alternatives to its app store. In the past the company has required hardware companies that want to offer Google Play on their devices to agree not to work with or promote alternative app stores. That prevented most consumers from ever seeing other app stores, since most device makers want to offer Google's app store, because it is the largest.
Rival app stores such as those from Amazon and Samsung also have struggled to persuade developers to list their apps outside of Google Play, because maintaining apps in multiple stores takes extra work. To even the playing field, Epic proposes that Google be required for six years to provide rival stores a way to list apps that are hosted on Google Play. That would allow people to browse alternative stores without feeling they are missing out on popular apps, giving the store a better chance of success in the long term.
Android 15 Beta 2 Is Here With Private Space, App Pairs, Predictive Back, And More!
TL;DR
Google I/O 2024 is upon us, though Google largely relegated Android out of the keynote. Nonetheless, we now have new Android announcements, starting with the release of Android 15 Beta 2. Android 15 Beta 2 promises to minimize battery impact, maximize smooth app performance, protect user privacy and security, and more.
Android 15: Now available on more devicesAndroid 15 Beta 2 is rolling out for app developers and advanced users on the following devices:
Unfortunately, if you have a Pixel device not on that list, Android 15 will not work for you. If you have a supported device and you're ready to try it out, you can read our instructions on how to install Android 15.
Google is also expanding the Android 15 Developer Preview program, with several OEMs now offering Android 15 Beta 1 on their devices. Participating Android partners include:
Note that since we are still in the beta phases, Android 15 is recommended for advanced users only and definitely not on your daily driver phone. The update is bound to have bugs and system instabilities. If you require a smooth and stable experience, you will need to wait for Android 15's stable releases, which will be coming later in the year.
What's new in Android 15 Beta 2Most of the changes in the Beta announcement are geared toward the broader platform changes, but there are a few notable consumer-facing changes, too.
Private space
Private space allows users to create a separate space for sensitive apps on their device, protecting these apps with an additional layer of authentication. This feature uses a separate user profile which is paused (and the apps are no longer active) when the private space is locked. The user can choose to use the device lock or a separate lock factor for private space. The feature will be available at Settings > Security & privacy > Private space.
Private space apps appear in a separate container in the launcher. When the space is locked, the apps are hidden from recent view, notifications, settings, and other apps. Further, user-generated and downloaded content and accounts are separated between the private space and the main space. The system share sheet and the photo picker can be used to give apps access to content across spaces when private space is unlocked.
Improved large-screen multitasking: Pin the taskbar on the screen, and use App pairsWe have also spotted both of these features in the past, and now Google is making them official with Android 15 Beta 2.
Google is now giving large-screen device users the option to choose the transient taskbar or to make it permanent with a new "always show taskbar" toggle.
Google is also allowing users to save their favorite split-screen app combinations for quick access. The press release does not name the feature, but the attached graphic shows a "Save app pair" option. Google also mentions it explicitly for large-screen devices and not for smaller-screen devices like phones. From what we know, when you save an app pair, an icon is added to the home screen that shows the two apps in a saved pair configuration. Clicking on this icon will launch this app pair configuration.
Predictive BackOne of Android 14's highlight features was supposed to be the new predictive back gesture, but the feature remained gated behind Developer Options. Google is finally graduating the feature beyond Developer Options, so system animations such as back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity will appear for apps that have properly migrated to this feature.
Predictive back provides a smoother, more intuitive navigation experience while using gesture navigation, leveraging built-in animations to inform users where their actions will take them, to reduce unexpected outcomes.
New data types for Health ConnectAndroid Health Connect is adding support for additional data types to support even more health and fitness use cases. Two new data types are added with Android 15 Beta 2: Skin temperature and training plans.
Skin temperature tracking allows users to store and share more accurate temperature data from a wearable or other tracking device.
Training plans are structured workout plans to help a user achieve their fitness goals. Training plans support includes:
Richer Widget Previews with Generated Previews
App developers can now add personalized previews for their app's widgets. This way, when a user is at the widget selector, they will see a widget that is more representative of what the actual output would be.
"Choose how you're addressed" system preference
With Android 15 Beta 2, Google is building upon how the Android system addresses you in gendered languages. It is starting initially in French, with plans to expand soon to more languages. The new setting can be found in the system language settings: Settings > System > Languages & Input > System languages > Choose how you're addressed.
Essentially, for languages like French, this will change the gender agreement of the sentence that the system displays when addressing you.
ICU 74 and Unicode 15.1Android 15 Beta 2 includes API-related updates from ICU 74. ICU 74 contains updates from Unicode 15.1, including new characters, emoji, security mechanisms and corresponding APIs and implementations, as well as updates to CLDR 44 locale data with new locales and various additions and corrections.
New fonts: CJK Variable Font and New Japanse Hentaigana Font
Android 15 - NotoSansCJK
With Android 15 Beta 2, the font file for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, aka the NotoSansCJK, is now a variable font, allowing many weight and other variations.
Android 15 - Japanese Hentaigana
Android 15 Beta 2 also bundles a new font file for old Japanese Hiragana (known as Hentaigana).
ANGLE: Optional layer for running OpenGL ES on top of VulkanOpenGL and Vulkan are the two popular graphics APIs currently in use, while OpenGL ES is the variant used on embedded systems like mobile devices. Most popular Android games now use Vulkan for its superior features and performance, but some legacy games still use OpenGL ES for some of their rendering tasks.
Vulkan is Android's preferred interface to the GPU and will remain so. Therefore, with Android 15 Beta 2, Google includes ANGLE, a translation layer that converts OpenGL ES API calls to Vulkan.
ANGLE will also become the default driver on many 2025 devices for OpenGL ES interfacing, and beyond 2026, it will be the only way available.
Google clarifies that it plans to continue supporting OpenGL ES on all devices, but it strongly encourages the use of Vulkan for new projects.
More efficient AV1 software decodingdav1d, the popular AV1 software decoder from VideoLAN is now available for Android devices not supporting AV1 decode in hardware. It is said to be up to 3x more performant than the legacy AV1 software decoder, enabling HD AV1 playback for more users, including some low and mid-tier devices.
For now, Google says that apps need to opt-in to using dav1d by invoking it with the name "c2.Android.Av1-dav1d.Decoder." Subsequent updates will make it the default AV1 software decoder. This support is standardized and backported to Android 11 devices that receive Google Play system updates.
Secured background activity launchesAndroid 15 Beta 2 includes changes that prevent malicious background apps from bringing other apps to the foreground, elevating their privileges, and abusing user interaction.
Malicious apps within the same task can launch another app's activity and then overlay themselves on top, creating the illusion of being that app. This "task hijacking" attack bypasses current background launch restrictions because it all occurs within the same visible task. To mitigate this risk, Google has added a flag that blocks apps that don't match the top UID on the stack from launching activities.
Android 15 raises the target SDK version, making older Android Marshmallow apps incompatibleGoogle introduces new APIs and features with every Android release and banks on developers keeping their apps updated with these new APIs and best practices. However, older apps still exist, and developers may not be keen to keep them updated for various reasons. Regular users still need to be protected against the drawbacks of outdated APIs, so the Google Play Store hides older apps from users. Users could still sideload them, but Android 14 began blocking sideloading apps that were built for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, i.E. With a target SDK version 23.
With Android 15 Beta 2, Google has raised this target SDK version to 24. This means that apps targeting APIs for Android 6.0 Marshmallow will not be easy to install, and you'd need to default to apps built for Android 7.0 Nougat at least.
Miscellaneous changesOther changes that are coming with Android 15 Beta 2 are:
Above are the new items in Android 15 beta 2 that Google has told us about. However, Google almost always does not disclose other changes. Stay tuned as we dig into the beta to find out more changes!
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