▲ Source androidauthority

Google today announced updates to its developer policies, specifically around the topic of generative AI. The company said that early next year, the platform will require developers to provide the ability to “report or flag offensive AI-generated content” within their apps. Google said it wants developers to use these reports to inform the filtering and review of content in their apps.

Additionally, developers will need to follow Google’s guidelines to prohibit and prevent the generation of restricted content, with some examples provided by Google including any content depicting child abuse.

It is noted that these policy changes apply to any apps that use AI chatbots, AI image / voice / video generators. However, apps that use AI to aggregate content or improve productivity are not subject to the policy.

The company says that future app access to photos and videos will need to be “for purposes directly related to the app’s functionality”. This means that apps that don’t regularly need access to these features will have their permissions restricted.

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However, Mani also mentioned the security of sideloading, he said, Google is adopting a “three-step” strategy to ensure the safety of user data and the distribution of apps from third-party stores.

First, when a user installs an app outside of Google Play, Android will issue a clear warning that the app has exceeded standard security procedures.

Second, if the user acknowledges the warning message and still chooses to install it, no further warnings are implemented.

Finally, there is a Google Play Protect mechanism running on the Android operating system that warns users if malware or apps with suspicious behavior are detected. In some cases, these apps will be forcibly disabled.

Mani emphasized that these three processes will continue to be implemented regardless of the outcome of the mandatory discussions between governments about sideloading.

Mani also said that if new app store operators enter the market using mandatory sideloading as an opportunity, it will lead to an increase in distribution destinations for app developers and the potential for competition between stores. However, for many developers, distribution on Google Play will be the most viable option. This is because Google Play has a large number of users within reach, is compatible with countries’ legal systems and payment systems, and has security measures in place.

Japan’s Cabinet Committee on Competition in Digital Markets prepared a final report in June that clarified the direction of new regulations for large IT companies, including regulations to open up the app market, such as forcing Apple and Google to open up third-party app stores for iOS and Android.

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As Google promised to bring the beta to more regions sometime this year, the Play Games for PC beta landed in 42 new countries today, bringing the total to 56. It was previously only accessible to gamers in 14 countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.

Google Play Games for PC currently supports over 100 titles, including Air Force 1945, Raising a Blade, and Kingdom of the Gingerbread Man. Google will add more games to the service over time.

To run the game suite, users need at least a computer running Windows 10, an SSD with at least 10GB of available storage, at least an Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU, at least a 4-core CPU, and at least 8GB of RAM. Additionally, the user needs to have Windows administrator access to the computer being used, and hardware virtualization must be turned on.

It’s worth noting that controller grips are currently not available on Google Play Games for PC, as available games are optimized for keyboard use. Of course, not all games that are playable on Android devices will be available on the PC beta.

The official website of Google Play Games Beta, click here to view more content.

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There are currently 50 detail page templates available to App developers, and Google’s generative AI tool will make it easier for developers to design detail pages. First of all, it introduces the design of detail page grouping, so that developers only need to make a basic page for the App, and then make it adapt to different users by modifying specific elements. For example, users who jump to the App details page from YouTube may see a set of screenshots of the original video, and users in different countries may see different pictures and software descriptions based on the user’s native language.

The new AI assistant can also generate text for the purpose of highlighting highlight features, marketing themes, etc. according to the needs of developers. The new AI translation tool can generate 10 different language profiles for the app, making it easier for developers to target more regional user groups. For App users, Google also brought an AI-driven evaluation summary function to help users quickly obtain valuable evaluation content, but for the time being, it can only summarize positive evaluations in English.

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The South Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said on Tuesday that Google had prevented game makers from releasing their games exclusively on Google Play by requiring them to do so in exchange for providing app exposure from June 2016 to April 2018.

The KFTC said the move against Google is part of an effort to ensure a fair marketplace, and that game makers affected by Google’s restrictions include Netmarble, Nexon and NCSOFT, as well as other smaller companies.

This is not the first time Google has been fined by South Korea. 2021 saw Google fined more than 200 billion won (currently about RMB 1.042 billion) by the KFTC for blocking custom versions of the Android operating system

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Google will upgrade the Google Play App Store to Android 14, and users will be unable to install a particular app if they encounter one that has not yet had its API upgraded.

The change will also restrict users from sideloading specific APK files and prevent the app shop from installing those same apps.

Also understands from reports that this Android 14 feature is initially going live and is aimed at particularly outdated Android apps. It will be extended to Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) in a subsequent push, with Google maintaining a “step-up” mechanism. Android app developers can choose to actively block them.

The report mentions that Android manufacturers plan to block the spread of malware applications on the operating system. The developers responsible for the change noted that some malware apps were intentionally targeting older Android versions to bypass certain protections that were only in place for newer apps.

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The full name of the API is called the application programming interface, which allows apps and services to work seamlessly with third-party websites in the background.

APIs are the type of applications that online companies and services use to collect customer contact information and manage outbound marketing campaigns, which means there is a lot of vulnerable data that is transmitted through API keys.

CloudSEK investigated 600 Google Play apps through its own BeVigil security engine and found that about half of them use API keys from Mailchimp, Sendgrid, and Mailgun. These three API keys are vulnerable and can pass sensitive data to malicious third parties, compromising user safety and making them targets for cyber crooks.

The affected apps have been downloaded more than 54 million times, and each of them could now potentially leak any and all details via API keys. According to CloudSek, the vulnerability could enable malicious actors to read emails, steal customer data, access email lists, and even conduct email marketing campaigns as representatives of affected businesses. This last one means that users exposed in this way would be particularly vulnerable to sophisticated phishing campaigns that would be very difficult to detect.

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But is Google Play a good store? That’s debatable. While it has many high-quality products, it is also polluted by low-quality apps and games. To make matters worse, some software downloads are designed by evil developers who wish to trick and scam unsuspecting users. Yes, Google Play actually contains some malware. Sadly, Google’s digital store is not as secure as Apple’s App Store.

Although Google Play isn’t perfect, it’s still the best choice for Android users. To celebrate the store’s 10th birthday, the search giant has decided to redesign the Google Play logo to bring it closer to the design of other apps, such as Gmail and Photos. you can see the new logo at the top of this page, while the old one can be seen below. As you can see, it’s fairly similar, but with more rounded corners and new color tones.

Google shared the following statement regarding Play’s 10th birthday and redesigned logo/icon.

Ten years later, more than 2.5 billion people in more than 190 countries use Google Play every month to discover apps, games and digital content. More than 2 million developers work with us to build their businesses and reach people around the world. To round out the decade, we’re launching a new logo that better reflects the magic of Google and matches the brand shared by many of our useful products – Search, Assistant, Photos, Gmail and more.

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