Policy announcement: July 15, 2026

Updated policies

You'll have at least 30 days from July 15, 2026 to update your app to comply with the policy changes below. For more details, go to the Policy Deadlines page.

• To better protect minors, our Age-Restricted Content and Functionality and Child Safety Standards policies have new requirements and restrictions for anonymous chat and random chat apps. Our Families Policy Requirements policy also now prohibits anonymous chat apps from targeting children.

• Our SMS and Call Log Permissions policy will no longer permit account verification via phone call as a use case for the READ_CALL_LOG permission. To securely verify accounts without requiring sensitive app permissions, use the Digital Credentials API instead, either directly or through a verification provider built upon it, or the SMS Retriever API. Please refer to this page for additional alternative APIs.

• To meet Android developer verification requirements and Play Console requirements, you must register your Play apps in Play Console. While 99% of apps on Play have been registered automatically, you should check your Play Console Home page and register any remaining apps you want to continue distributing to avoid global removal from Google Play and ensure a seamless user installation experience.

  You can also use Play Console to register apps you distribute outside of Google Play to ensure they can be installed on certified Android devices.

Clarifications

Additionally, we've added clarifications to some of our existing policies. Because these changes aren't new or updated, our enforcement standards and practices remain the same.

• We're reframing and clarifying our Personal Loans policy requirements for Earned Wage Access (EWA) apps to ensure that EWA services maintain the same high standards for transparency and user privacy protections as other financial service apps.
• We're clarifying that our User Data requirements also apply to third-party AI integrations and that developers remain responsible for ensuring compliance with this policy, including limited use, disclosure and consent.
• We're clarifying the Content Ratings policy to indicate that we don't allow unrated apps on Google Play.
• We're providing more guidance around precise and approximate locations disclosures in the Play Data safety section.

• To provide Android and Google Play users with a safe experience, Google Play requires all apps to meet the latest target API level requirements by August 31, 2026. This is our regular yearly update.
• To help you catch potential issues before you submit your app for review, we've launched a new Android skill to help you with Play Policies. It's an open-source tool that grounds LLMs in Google Play Policies so your preferred AI assistant can evaluate your code right inside your IDE or CLI. Read more.
• We're introducing a standardized numbering system across some policies for better tracking and clarity. You will see these starting today, with more being updated over time.