Android devices are full ofsecurity featuresdesigned to keep you safe from bad actors. However, not everyone takes advantage of these tools, and some of them fly under the radar altogether. Android Protected Confirmation (APC) is one of these features, which was originally introduced with Android 9. It was aimed at ensuring you were only consenting to transactions with trusted apps, and Google had high hopes for it — APC could even one day be further developed for person-to-person money transactions, for instance. Now, it seems Google’s future plans for APC have fallen by the wayside.
As reported by Android expertMishaal Rahmanon X (formerly Twitter), Google appears set on killing off APC, supposedly due to low usage among OEMs. Although the feature is undoubtedly useful, it seems like many manufacturers — and users — didn’t adopt it or its benefits. This is despite the fact that Google said on its blog in 2023 that APC was garnering more attention.
By the end of the year, people caught wind of two patches uploaded by Google engineers to the Android Open Source Project that deprecate the hardware abstraction layer for APC. Although the patches haven’t been officially submitted, one noted that only the Pixel — Google’s flagship phone — has embraced APC, while other OEMs have left it unused. The patches and the associated comments indicate that the company isn’t focusing on further developing the feature.
Although the news might come as a surprise to some, it’s understandable given theAndroid security patchesthat have required Google’s attention as of late. Security patches are standard protocol, but the company has had to resolve a number of high- and critical-severity vulnerabilities in the updates that have followed the release of the highly anticipated Android 14, and unused code is an attack surface that should be minimized.
Despite these issues, it may give some Android device owners peace of mind knowing that Google is keeping an eye on emerging threats. It’s also seemingly taking more preventative measures as of late to help keep users protected. For instance, the company announced that it will now be giving some Play Store appsa verification badgeif developers ensure that they meet industry-wide security and privacy standards. This means that you can worry less about potentially downloading an app with malware, for instance, that could hijack your data.
Even if you or your phone’s OEM weren’t using APC on your Android device, it’s always worth taking an extra moment to verify all of your transactions before you make them. With bad actors lurking in every corner of the web, extra data protection has gone from optional to essential in the digital age.
