Google to Require Play Store Developers to Use 2-Step Verification

In what can only be described as a reasonable change, Google will require developers who publish apps to the Play Store to enhance their account security and provide additional proof of identification.

“Over the past few years, Google Play has seen tremendous growth. Android apps and games have become a critical part of people’s lives, built by developers of all sizes from all over the world, whether professionally or just for fun,” Google’s Luke Jefferson and Raz Lev write in a new post to the Android Developers Blog. “To keep Google Play safe and secure and to better serve our developer community, we are introducing two new security measures.”

They are:

2-Step verification. To improve security, Google will require developers to sign in to their Google accounts using 2-step verification.

Additional identification proof. To date, developers who created a Google Play developer account were required to provide an email address and a phone number. Going forward, new and existing developers will also be asked to provide a contact name and a physical address, and to verify their email address and phone number.

These changes go into effect in August for new developer accounts and later this year for existing accounts.