Google will do everything in its power to make your Android mobile device more safe, private, and secure. We can’t enumerate all the ways the tech giant has done but know that the company is always being professional. A few weeks ago, it made another move in partnership with SafetyNet as the latter integrates with the Google Play Console. This particular update allowed app developers choice not to show apps to certain devices.
This time, we’re learning SafetyNet as a new API by Google. The devs made this one to evaluate the state of a device. This will benefit those people who have an older device as it can check if it is in a known-good state or not as it can check your device’s compatibility.
For the developers, you must check if your app passes SafetyNet tests. Feel free to enable toggle in the console if you want to hide your app on the Play Store for a while. From now on, you can rely on SafetyNet to check your device or disable some functions when necessary.
There may be some limits to some custom OS like Lineage because a lot of apps may not pass, leaving only a few worthy apps in the Play Store. You still have an option to bypass SafetyNet but it is not recommended. If you do, there is a chance Google will block your app from the Play Store.
Because of this change, the team behind Lineage OS (formerly CyanogenMod) has to make a statement because the OS is affected in some ways. However, the Lineage OS team doesn’t have plans to “intentionally circumvent an integrity check that Google has put in place for app developers”. So what is Lineage OS going to do with the SafetyNet? Nothing. The devs believe that “customizations should not change the underlying Android architecture in ways that developers cannot predict.”
SOURCE: SafetyNet
SafetyNet is a bad choice for blocking rooted devices. If it was fair, they should also have added the opposite: to block non-rooted devices (because some apps can be used only on rooted devices).