Today, Google announced the reCAPTCHA API for Android as a part of Google Play Services. The reCAPTCHA API uses Google’s new invisible technology that doesn’t even require users to click on any checkboxes to grant access.
The reCAPTCHA API is included with Google SafetyNet API and developers can perform both device and user attestation in the same API to prevent their apps from any potential security threats.
Google’s reCAPTCHA is one of the most popular CAPTCHA services out there that has helped millions of sites block spam and scripted bots. Google acquired reCAPTCHA back in 2009 from a group of students at Carnegie Mellon University’s main Pittsburgh campus and made it free to use.
Now, the company is bringing the service to the Android platform so that app developers can also take advantage of it in their applications.
The API runs its Advanced Risk Analysis service in the background to automatically pass a user; only when the service detects any suspicious activity, it will prompt the user to complete CAPTCHA challenge. Google says “it actively considers a user’s engagement with the CAPTCHA — before, during, and after — to determine whether that user is a human.”
If you’re an app developer, you can learn more about implementing reCAPTCHA API in your app here. Integrating the API will require developers to set up Google Play Services in their app project. Google already uses tools like Google Play Protect to monitor potential security issues and harmful apps on Android devices. With this new API, developers have an option to implement one more layer of security to their apps.
Credit: xda developers, Android Blog
