Lineage OS update: SafetyNet stance on Android downloads

By Chris Burns/June 6, 2017 1:15 pm EST

The folks formerly designing and releasing CyanogenMod now working on Lineage OS have revealed their stance on SafetyNet. This is an Android safety precaution made by Google to stop users working with rooted and/or bootloader unlocked devices from accessing certain apps. It's a safety precaution made by Google – one that Google takes extremely seriously. As such, the team developing Lineage is going to take SafetyNet serious as well.

SafetyNet is an API made by Google for the Google Play app store. More specifically it's a security system that's built in to the Google Play app store as well as a switch in Android that developers can choose to employ at will. SafetyNet detects whether the device it's checking is in a known-good state.

Just a few apps don't work or do not appear in Google Play as a result of SafetyNet switches at the moment. But the number is growing. Developers have found, it would appear, that Android users who root aren't exactly their top customers. When the amount of profit a developer makes from a type of user is less than that of their cost/risk analysis, they flip the SafetyNet switch.

SEE TOO: Lineage OS is a go!

In a release pushed this week by the folks that develop Lineage OS, they describe how they'll handle SafetyNet through the future. "Our official stance is that we will not intentionally circumvent an integrity check that Google has put in place for app developers," said the Lineage OS team.

"Any action taken to bypass SafetyNet risks a backlash against all custom OSes, and could cause Google to block them entirely from the Play Store," said the Lineage OS team. "We have always taken the approach that our customizations should not change the underlying Android architecture in ways that developers cannot predict."

For more information on Lineage OS, hit up the link presented just above this paragraph. We'll be diving more into the insides of Lineage OS soon. All you Android users that want to take the fork in the road – now's as good a time as any!