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.
Thanks, I just checked and it was installed so I’ve uninstalled it
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/After going through both my Galaxy 24U and Pixel Tablet initially, I wasn’t seeing the option (was looking for the old “Install from unknown sources” which is in a different location (and per app toggles). I went back and manually disabled and enabled the “Android Developer Verifier” app and then saw the option for “Apps from unverified developers” show up. Then was able to follow the steps (very glad you provided that second source which is what led me to what I did).
So I guess if you don’t see it. First search in your apps that the verifier app is present. If it is, then go into the app info for it and toggle disable and then enable. Willing to accept that maybe I was just blind to it due to the old way of sideloading that made me miss it in Developer Options. But for sure saw it after the toggles. Now I just need to remember to go back tomorrow to set the “indefinitely” option. Curious if this will allow Play Protect to not try to yeet apps if PP is turned back on. I had to turn it off a couple months ago because it kept flagging SyncThing-Fork installed from F-Droid trying to trick me into uninstalling it (which was weird that was the only app it freaked out about out of all the third-party store and Obtainium apps).
Only for stock android, right?
Who knows until it drops.
Not a user of graphene and it was a bit ago with LineageOS.
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.
GrapheneOS, my beloved
When it rolled out, it removed my root as well. I guess I may be jumping ship to lineageos soon. I like root features too much.
I have Xiaomi POCO M3 5G on Brazil and nothig has changed at all, maybe becayse I already have all google pre installed system apps disabled
Pichai, you fucking banchode.
Other than affecting the general open source app community as a whole, does anyone know how this will affect Graphene IS phones yet? I haven’t seen a good discussion on it yet.
The amount of high-ranking spam reviews for that program is astounding.
It looks like Google hijacked their own project “Google Package Verifier” that has been dormant in the Play Store since 2012, and hadn’t been touched in 13 years until 2025.
Google is no better than the spammers this process purports to protect against.
The original:
