Google “Blinda” Android: the Play Integrity API updates and strikes Root and Custom ROM

Google has recently implemented a significant update to his Play Integrity APIa move that aims to strengthen the safety of the Android apps but which, as a side effect, is making life more difficult for users “smonettoni” and could create some scratch cards even to less experienced users.

Starting from May 2025as announced during the Google I/O 2025 Keynote held a few days ago, these changes have become predefined, which involves the introduction of more severe integrity controls based on hardware.

The main news is that this evolution of the Play Integrity API makes significantly more complex for smartphones with root permits or they use Custom rom overcome the safety checks imposed by many applications. But let’s go in order to better understand what’s going on.

What is the Play Integrity API and why is it important?

There Play Integrity API It is a crucial tool that Google makes available to developers. In a nutshell, its purpose is to allow apps to verify that the interactions and requests from the servers are originating from an unrealized version of the app itselfrunning on an “genuine” Android device.

Many developers use it to mitigate abuses that could translate into economic losses or sensitive data. For example the API can help prevent access to premium content without payment oa protect financial data blocking access from potentially compromised devices.

What changes with the new update? The problem for SMANETTONI users

The core of the issue for users who root their phones or install Custom ROM lies in the definition that Google gives of “genuine” Android device: Specifically, it is a device that performs a Build of Android certified by Google Play. This definition intrinsically excludes almost all Custom ROMs, pushing many users of the latter to use alternative routes to simulate certified build.

Also who runs the rootalthough not installing a Custom ROM, unlocks the bootloader, an operation that makes the most stringent checks of Play Integrity fail, an activity that can lead to the blocking of numerous apps, especially banking ones, payment, medicals, relating to gaming and even catering, which often rely on the most rigorous assessments of the API.

In the past, the Play Integrity API and its ancestor, the Safetynet Attestation APIthey were not an insurmountable concern for expert users, since they often could find workaround relatively simple.

Precisely for this reason Google is moving decisively towards the imposition of Hardware -based security signalswhich are significantly more difficult to get around because, unlike the simplest methods adopted previously, they are rooted in the hardware of the device itself.

The news in detail: the verdicts of integrity become more “stronger”

Already in December last year Google had announced an important update to the Play Integrity API that enhanced The “Basic”, “Device” and “Strong” integrity verdicts on the devices with Android 13 or subsequent versions. As easily intuitive, the “Device” and “Strong” verdicts are the two most stringent.

Previously only the “Strong” verdict used hardware -based security signals. With the December update, Google has made all the most severe verdicts:

• The verdict “device“It has been updated to also use hardware -based security signals.
• The verdict “strong“It was reviewed to request a level of security patches released in the last year.
• Also the verdict “basic“Although less stringent, it has been updated to use hardware -based signals, but still manages to pass on devices with qualified root or unlocked bootloader, thanks to its less rigid requirements.

There motivation Bedy by Google for these changes it is to make the Play Interitity API more Fast, reliable and respectful of privacy For users, reducing the number of signals to be collected, all also to make the bees intrinsically more difficult and expensive to bypass for the attackers.

At the time of the announcement, which took place during the event dedicated to developers as announced at the opening, these updated verdicts had not been tax With immediate effect, but the Mountain View giant had declared that all the additions of the API would automatically pass to the new verdicts during the month of May. And so it was.

During the Google I/O 2025, Raghavendra Hareesh, Lead of Play Developer and Play Monetization of Google, confirmed the activation of these more stringent verdicts for all developerswithout any intervention by their part.

If you want to deepen the question of the verdicts of integrity (also known as the outcomes of integrity), you can consult the official documentation made available by Google itself at this address.

“The Play Integrity API is a vital tool in any complete security strategy. It helps you to defend the entire experience of your app. It is crucial in preventing abuse that can lead to revenue losses and damage your users. The developers who have used this bees are seeing more than 80% less than unauthorized use than other apps. This means less fraud, less cheating or data theft. Integrity API to keep up with all the existing threats.

– Raghavendra HareeshLead of Play Developer and Play Monetization at Google

So what are the consequences?

This means that users with phones rooted or with custom Roma inside them could suddenly find that Some apps stop working one day to the nextespecially on devices with Android 13 or later.

But that’s not all: even users with devices with more recent versions of the unwanted green robot operating system could meet problems if their devices do not receive a software update for some time. This is because the apps that verify the “Strong” verdict require a rather recent level of security patches to successfully pass control.