A big update that Google has revealed for Android might drastically affect how apps are deployed on the platform. The business will mandate that verified developers register all apps on certified Android devices beginning in September 2026. Users will no longer be able to sideload programs from unidentified or unconfirmed sources as a result.
Google claims that this action is intended to improve security and lower the possibility of malware, which is frequently distributed by hackers using APKs.
Why Google Is Blocking Unverified APKs?
The goal of the new regulation, according to Google, is “improving Android’s security to keep it open and safe.” The business contends that requiring developers to authenticate themselves will provide the ecosystem a crucial new level of accountability.
Additionally, by making it more difficult for criminals to disseminate dangerous programmes anonymously, the policy would shield users from financial fraud, frauds, and other threats. Notably, Google has stated that it would not be limiting the origin of apps or examining their actual content as a result of this new identity verification requirement.
How the New APK Verification Policy Works?
According to Android Authority, the emphasis is instead on verifying the developer’s identity, similar to an ID check. To put it briefly, Google’s new policy will make it much more difficult for dishonest developers to conceal themselves behind fictitious names or disposable accounts, but it won’t completely eradicate malware.
What Developers Must Do to Get Verified?
Google explains how the new policy will work, stating that developers who distribute Android apps—whether independently or through the Play Store—will have to go through a certification procedure. There will be two primary steps involved: Developers must supply personal information, including their legal name, address, phone number, and email address, in order to verify their identification.
Along with a government ID for individuals, organisations would also need to present their official website and D-U-N-S number. When registering apps, developers will also need to provide package names and app signing keys as proof of ownership.
According to Google, a large portion of this procedure is already finished for developers who have previously published their apps on the Play Store, and the apps will be registered automatically. To handle verification, a new Android Developer Console will be made available to developers that distribute apps outside of the Play Store. In response to privacy-conscious hobbyist developers, Google has promised that the personal data gathered during this procedure would not be disclosed.
Timeline for Global Rollout of APK Restrictions
In October 2025, invited developers will be able to obtain early access. Google plans to make verification accessible to all developers worldwide by March 2026. The modifications will take effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand in September 2026. Apps on approved devices in these markets now have to be developed by verified developers. By 2027 and beyond, the global deployment will continue to other regions.
Quick
Shots
•From Sept 2026, Google will block
unverified Android APKs on certified devices.
•Move aims to reduce malware, fraud,
and scams spread via shady APKs.
•Policy verifies who publishes apps,
not the apps’ content itself.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by AppsFlyer.
Apps are a big business, with the global market estimated to grow to $407.31 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 18.4%. 10 to 15 years back, there was a burgeoning App market driven majorly by the success of the iPhone’s App Store, but the market faced challenges due to limited ways to measure app user engagement and success.
Not even Google had satisfactory mobile app analytics and attribution solutions. It’s when AppsFlyer came into the picture and revolutionized the market dynamics. AppsFlyer’s leading mobile app analytics and attribution software equip app developers with the information required to understand how to grow and retain their users profitably.
This article discusses every vital detail about AppsFlyer, from its founders and startup story to funding, products, and growth.
AppsFlyer is a SaaS mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform that app developers and advertisers use as a CRM. The company helps users make good decisions for their business and customers with its advanced measurement, fraud protection, data analytics, deep linking, data clean room, engagement, and privacy-preserving technologies.
It is built on the idea that brands can provide exceptional customer experiences while increasing privacy. With 20 offices worldwide, AppsFlyer offers services to over 80K companies, including Coca-Cola, VISA, Nike, KFC, eBay, Telefonica, and more.
Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann are the co-founders of AppsFlyer.
Oren Kaniel
Oren Kaniel – Co-founder and CEO, AppsFlyer
Oren Kaniel attended Technion – Israel Institute of Technology to complete BA in Computer Science and Reichman University for MBA. He worked as Software Engineer at Intel and Avaya.
Moreover, he is the ex-Project Manager of Veraz Networks. Currently, Oren Kaniel is the co-founder and CEO of AppsFlyer.
Reshef Mann
Reshef Mann – Co-founder and CTO, AppsFlyer
Reshef Mann graduated from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology with a BSc in Information Systems. He has been Software Developer at Intel and Software Engineer at SAP and Jajah.
He also worked at Xsights as Senior Software Engineer and System Architect. At present, he is the Co-Founder and CTO at AppsFlyer.
AppsFlyer is employed with more than 1,650 employees.
AppsFlyer – Startup Story
Around 10 to 12 years back, Oren interned at a Philadelphia-based VC firm when he realized that a company makes decisions without data and data analytics tools. It was when he thought someone needed to solve this issue but couldn’t find even a single independent and unbiased company entirely representing the app developer.
Oren returned to Israel to develop pure software that allows the ecosystem to work and collaborate. He started working on this technology along with Reshef Mann. It was in 2011 that Oren and Reshef founded AppsFlyer.
The Microsoft Ventures Accelerator funded the company for the first time. In 2014, AppsFlyer invented a complementary product named OneLink to provide deep linking support for custom media sources.
It became one of the first members of Fiksu’s Preferred Partner Program for Mobile Ad Campaign measurement in 2015. In February 2018, AppsFlyer opened its head office in San Francisco, and in 2020, the company’s valuation stood at $1.6 billion. AppsFlyer launched a new PC and Console Measurement solution and All-In-One Cost and Revenue Suite ROI360 in 2023.
AppsFlyer – Mission and Vision
AppsFlyer’s mission is to enable market innovation. The innovators and creators the company want to empower are app developers, its partners, and the ecosystem as a whole.
AppsFlyer – Business Model
AppsFlyer allows app developers and advertisers to manage, analyze, and secure their first-party end-user data while meeting privacy regulations and platform policies. The platform provides valuable insights into marketing campaign performance, scale app installs, and maximize customer LTV using a new standard of privacy-increasing measurement and deep linking solutions.
Furthermore, the AppsFlyer Software Development kit can be used for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone apps.
AppsFlyer – Revenue Model
AppsFlyer offers three subscription plans– ‘Zero,’ ‘Growth,’ and ‘Enterprise.’ Below is the pricing for all the plans –
Plan
Price
Zero
Free
Growth
7cents/conversion
Enterprise
Custom
AppsFlyer – Products and Services
AppsFlyer products include NativeTrack, OneLink, and AppsFlyer ID, and services include Measurement Suite, ROI Measurement, Marketing Analytics, Predictive Analysis, Incrementality, CX & Deep Linking, Fraud Protection, Audience Segmentation, and more.
AppsFlyer – Funding and Investors
AppsFlyer has undertaken 6 funding rounds and raised $293.1 million in total. Its latest funding round – Venture Series Unknown Round, was conducted on November 24, 2020. 12 investors fund the company, mainly General Atlantic, Magma, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce Ventures, Qumra Capital, Pitango, and more.
The estimated annual revenue of AppsFlyer in the last few years was:
Year
Amount
2022
$353.2 million
2020
$200 million
2019
$150 million
And the company’s valuation in 2022 stood at $2 billion. Its employee count increased by 10% last year, and monthly web visits growth was 27.53%, with 368,202,335 visits.
What people think mobile marketers do | AppsFlyer
AppsFlyer – Social Media Presence
AppsFlyer markets the brand on leading social media platforms and, thus, has increased visibility in the digital landscape.
Social Media Platform
Followers
Instagram
4.6K
LinkedIn
104.8K
Facebook
54.1K
Twitter
12.2K
YouTube
5.37K
AppsFlyer – Partners
AppsFlyer has partnered with 304 leading companies, of which 263 are technology partners, and 40 are channel partners. Some of its partners are:
AppsFlyer is a SaaS mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform that app developers and advertisers use as a CRM. The company helps users make good decisions for their business and customers with its advanced measurement, fraud protection, data analytics, deep linking, data clean room, engagement, and privacy-preserving technologies.
Who are the founders of AppsFlyer?
Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann are the co-founders of AppsFlyer.
Who are the main competitors of AppsFlyer?
Some main competitors of AppsFlyer are as follows:
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by WellTech.
Who doesn’t like to stay fit? Moreover, in the past few years, the significance of health and fitness has increased to a great extent. You would find every other person talking about fitness and following a number of health apps on their smartphones.
Every person is conscious of reducing those extra kilos to look better and stay in shape. It can be seen that fitness and health have become a hot topic of discussion but, just like starting anything new, you need to have a certain goal or a plan beforehand. Similarly, to embark on the journey to fitness and health you need to know the appropriate measures to start a healthy life.
Every other day, you find there’s an app related to health and fitness, in which you can get a customized plan designed to cater to your health needs. WellTech is one such IT startup company that develops mobile applications related to health and fitness.
Here’s the success story of WellTech, where you can learn everything about WellTech, its story, and team, products and services, competitors, and more.
WellTech is a private corporation, which focuses on information technology and services. The company mostly creates mobile applications for the health and fitness sector.
WellTech presently has over 200 million downloads worldwide. There are more than 400 people on the team who are dedicated to creating products to make millions of people feel better.
The company is dedicated to enhancing the health of numerous people worldwide. WellTech’s philosophy and ideals make it very evident that they aim for excellence in everything they do.
It is a data-driven company.
WellTech – Industry
It can be assured that the IT industry is one of the leading industries in the world. It is estimated that the projected spending for the worldwide information technology (IT) sector in 2022 is 5.3 trillion dollars.
In the market for IT services, the average Spend per Employee is anticipated to reach US$322.30 in 2022.
WellTech – Mission and Vision
WellTech’s mission is, “Improving the Health of Millions of People around the World”
WellTech – Name, Logo, and Tagline
WellTech logo is like a half circle full black in colour.
WellTech Logo
WellTech – Business Model
WellTech has created health & fitness applications like Omo, FitCoach, WalkFit, Yoga Go, and Muscle Booster.
Let’s a take detailed look into the following five applications:
Omo
Omo is the all-in-one weight loss application. It is a calorie-counting software that makes it simpler than ever to register your meals, keep track of your activities, and view your progress. It is not only about losing weight but the app gives a lot more than this.
It is more than just a food journal; it also provides its users with nutrition advice so they may eat well. Users can learn how to choose healthier foods and steer clear of junk food with the help of these suggestions, making it simpler to withstand cravings and establish lasting healthy habits.
Omo also helps users with intermittent fasting and gives a personalised workout plan.
How to use the app?
Users can need to go to the App Store or Google Play Store (depending on your device) and download the Omo App to get started. After it is downloaded, create an account to get started, by responding to a few straightforward questions in order for the app to develop a plan that is unique to you and your requirements.
Users’ weight loss plans will be computed when they have completed the questionnaire. Once done, Omo develops a highly customised weight loss plan rather than a generic one, making sure that its users won’t have any trouble adhering to it.
Yoga Go
Yoga Go by WellTech lets customise yoga and pilates routines to improve customers’ physical health, emotional stability, and overall well-being.
The app already has 23 million plus downloads and is available in 11 languages. Yoga-Go offers quick, at-home yoga and pilates routines that customers can use at any time they want. Yoga-Go workouts only last 7 to 30 minutes, and each session might result in a 200-calorie calorie burn.
With this app, users can enjoy a variety of yoga exercises:
Pilates
Face Yoga
Breathing Practices
Stretching
Yoga at the Office
Morning Yoga Practices
High-Intensity Yoga
Relaxing Yoga Practices
FitCoach
FitCoach has over 29 million downloads and is available in 13 languages. WellTech’s FitCoach is the perfect fitness app for those who are concerned about their health, want to get fit, and lose weight, but lack the time to go to the gym. The best part about this app is it offers a fully customised plan for its users.
FitCoach app offers the following variety of workouts:
Strength
Stretching
7 Minutes workouts
Yoga
Walking
Pilates helps
Cardio
Libido Boost
Recovery workouts
Morning
Fitness Mix
Muscle Booster
With over 60 million downloads, Muscle Booster by WellTech aims at offering daily plans for the overall body workout.
The app has a weekly calendar that is located at the top. Users have to select a day in the calendar, which will display options for both the main workout and extra workouts.
The main workout (if there is one that day) should be completed at the very least, but putting in the extra session will yield faster results. The exercise plan pages in the app list the exercises that will be done during the workout and how long it will take to complete the entire session.
Here are some of the features of the Muscle Booster App:
An Extensive and Varied Training Library
Workout Overviews
A Personalized Training Plan
Workout Player, this includes – audio prompts, 3Dmodel highlighting muscles, music synchronization
Apple Watch Synchronization – to synchronise with Apple Watch to track workouts
A Personalized Meal Plan
WalkFit
WalkFit is available in 9 languages for both Android and iOS users and has over 16 million downloads from all over the world. This app offers individualized walking plans and in-the-moment advice to help people get healthier and more fit. The app can be downloaded for free but requires a reasonable fee to access other features.
WalkFit app helps the users in the following ways:
Countdown of total time and active time.
Pedometer with alerts to let users know when milestones are reached in terms of steps.
How many calories are burned?
The app measures the distance travelled, as well as the pace and speed of users.
WalkFit makes it possible for users to be phone-free by syncing the app’s data to their Fitbit.
The app gives a selection of fitness tasks
There are statistical charts that reflect users’ progress and trends using the exercise data they have already completed.
Other than creating mobile applications, WellTech is also engaged in offering courses for those who want to start their career in IT.
WellTech Academy
WellTech Academy is an educational platform that is designed to offer coachings for those professionals who are interested in joining the IT industry. The company has a total of three years of experience in implementing educational projects.
WellTech Academy has a total of 29 projects to start IT careers, 270+ alumni of educational projects, and 56 graduates from the academy. Once the candidate finishes the course, they even get the chance to join a product IT company and have the opportunity to develop Fitness & Health Apps.
They offer programs like;
Digital Marketing Camp (online)
Creative Marketing Camp (online)
Product Camp (online)
QA Bootcamp (online)
The main goal of WellTech Academy is, “To impact product IT development by improving the knowledge and expertise of entry-level specialists.”
On 26th August, Apple Inc. the leading American corporation announced that it will allow iPhone or iOS app developers to use alternative payment options to the App store. The new advertising policy will help the developers to promote alternative pricing, excluding the apple cut.
However, the catch to this is that the app makers are not allowed to buy or add subscribe button that will lead to a webpage to complete the transaction. This is why app manufactures can promote alternative pricing plans and share other payment information only on their website or by sending their users an email.
According to Apple’s statement in the press release, the users of the apps must give their consent to the communications and must also have the right to opt-out. The tech giant has also expanded from lesser than 100 price options to over 500 different price options for subscriptions, in-app purchases and paid apps.
For many years, Apple has been surrounded by controversies about its practices and treatment of developers on the App Store. Apple has made this change because many small app developers were filing a lawsuit against the company. This move is said to be the biggest and the most effective change the company has made in response to the accusations made by small app developers saying Apple uses monopolistic tactics on its App Store.
The company has finally decided to include new concessions and a new fund that will help small developers in America instead of settling the lawsuits. Up until now the iOS developers had to pay a share of their total revenue that was generated on the Apple app store, which was called the Apple Tax. Earlier Apple had said that it will try to resolve a class-action suit from the American app developers.
How can iOS users avail other payment options?
Since the App developers are not allowed to advertise payment methods within the apps themselves and can advertise other payment options only through email or their website, the users of the apps can sign up for alternate payment options on the app’s website. Besides payment options, Apple will also allow App developers to make over 500 alternative pricing options for subscriptions, in-app purchases and paid apps, among others.
According to the statement by Phil Schiller who oversees the App Store said that, “From the beginning, the App Store has been an economic miracle; it is the safest and most trusted place for users to get apps, and an incredible business opportunity for developers to innovate, thrive, and grow.” He also added that, “We would like to thank the developers who worked with us to reach these agreements in support of the goals of the App Store and to the benefit of all of our users.”
Other concessions made by Apple
Apple will also continue to take its revenue cut but will allow a reduced commission to app developers that earn lesser than $1 million through the app store between June 2015 and April 2021. This is known to account for over 99% of the Apple app developers. This business can pay a reduced commission for the next three years as a part of Apple’s App Store Small Business Program.
Apple will also be publishing an annual App Store transparency report that will include important information and statistics about the app review process. It will also contain significant data such as the number of apps rejected and the reason behind it, number of customers, data based on search queries and results written in detail.
During the difficult times of the Covid 19 pandemic, the tech giant had pledged its support to small businesses by offering over $100 million to the app developers. Over the years Apple has made many concessions in order to keep boundaries such as not allowing third-party apps. There was also no mention of the third-party app stores or page loading of apps in the press conference.
Apple is allowing its app developers to advertise external payment methods through their website or email.
What is Apple Tax?
Apple tax is the share of the total revenue generated on the app store that is paid by iOS developers to Apple.
What are the other concessions Apple toward the app developers?
During the difficult times of the Covid 19 pandemic, the tech giant had pledged its support to small businesses by offering over $100 million to the app developers.
