Developer resources

Prepare your app for Google Play and Android changes

Google Play and Android recently announced several new policy updates and technical changes. Review the following recommendations to ensure your app stays up to date and in compliance. 

Provide information for Google Play's Data safety section

In May 2021, Google Play announced the new Data safety section, a developer-provided disclosure of apps' user data collection, sharing, and security practices. 

You’ll soon be required to tell Google Play about your apps' privacy and security practices by completing a form in Play Console. Later, this information will be shown on your store listing to help Google Play users understand how you collect and share user data before they download your app.

Learn more about Google Play’s Data safety section and how to prepare for Google Play's data disclosure requirements.

Update to the SDK with support for the new app set ID 

Starting with Android 12 devices, Google Play will remove the advertising ID when a user opts out of personalization in their Android Settings. This change will be applied to other versions of Android phones, tablets, and Android TV starting April 1, 2022.

Google Play has also introduced app set ID, which offers a privacy-friendly way to correlate usage or actions across a set of apps owned by the same organization. 

To support reporting and fraud prevention on opt-ed out users, we recommend updating to the Google Mobile Ads (GMA) SDK version 20.5.0+ or Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDK 3.25.1+, which includes support for the new app set ID.

Update your app for advertising ID permissions

Note: Google Play will require advertising ID permission declaration when your apps are able to target Android 13, instead of starting with Android 12 as previously announced. 

Apps updating their target to Android 13 will need to declare a Google Play services normal permission in the Android manifest file in order to use the advertising ID. For apps that do not declare this permission and target Android 13, the advertising ID will automatically be removed and replaced with a string of zeros. 

You can update your app to GMA SDK 20.4.0+ or IMA SDK 3.25.1+, which will automatically have the permission declared. If you’re using GMA SDK 20.4.0+ or IMA SDK 3.25.1+, , no further action is required to continue using the advertising ID. 

To learn more about the new permission, including how to disable it, refer to the Play Console Help Center.

Review updates to the Google Play Families policy

Google Play announced updates to the Families Policy Requirements. If one of the target audiences for your app is children, your app must not transmit certain identifiers (including the advertising ID) for children or users of unknown age.

If your app has a target audience that includes children, we recommend updating to:

These SDK updates ensure that the advertising ID is not transmitted when an ad request is tagged for child-directed treatment through tagForChildDirected (TFCD) or tagForUnderAgeOfConsent (TFUA).

If your app has a mixed audience, you may need to implement a neutral age screen in order to differentiate between children and adults. We will be launching a neutral age screen message as part of Ad Manager's Privacy & messaging tool in early 2022.

Was this helpful?
How can we improve it?

Need more help?

Sign in for additional support options to quickly solve your issue

Search
Clear search
Close search
Google apps
Main menu
Search Help Center
true
true
false
true
true
148
false
false