Google has launched a brand new function known as Restore Credentials to assist customers restore their account entry to third-party apps securely after migrating to a brand new Android system.
A part of Android’s Credential Supervisor API, the function goals to scale back the trouble of re-entering the login credentials for each app in the course of the handset substitute.
“With Restore Credentials, apps can seamlessly onboard customers to their accounts on a brand new system after they restore their apps and knowledge from their earlier system,” Google’s Neelansh Sahai stated.
The tech large stated the method happens robotically within the background when a consumer restores apps and knowledge from a earlier system, enabling apps to signal customers again into the respective apps with out requiring any further interplay.
That is completed by the use of what’s known as a restore key, which, in actuality, is a public key that is suitable with FIDO2 requirements equivalent to passkeys.
Thus when a consumer indicators in to an app that helps this function, their restore key’s saved to the Credential Supervisor regionally on system and in encrypted format. Optionally, the encrypted restore key will also be saved to the cloud if cloud backup is enabled.
Ought to they transition to a brand new telephone and restore their apps, the restore keys are requested as a part of the method, permitting them to robotically check in to their account with out having to re-enter their login data.
“If the present signed-in consumer is trusted, you may generate a restore key at any level after they’ve authenticated in your app,” Google instructs app builders. “As an example, this may very well be instantly after login or throughout a routine verify for an current restore key.”
App builders are additionally beneficial to delete the related restore key as quickly because the consumer indicators out to keep away from them getting caught in a unending loop of signing out deliberately and robotically getting logged again in.
It is value noting that Apple already has an identical function in iOS that leverages an attribute known as kSecAttrAccessible to regulate an app’s entry to a particular credential saved within the iCloud Keychain.
“The kSecAttrAccessible attribute lets you management merchandise availability relative to the lock state of the system,” Apple notes in its documentation.
“It additionally allows you to specify eligibility for restoration to a brand new system. If the attribute ends with the string ThisDeviceOnly, the merchandise may be restored to the identical system that created a backup, but it surely is not migrated when restoring one other system’s backup knowledge.”
The event comes as Google shipped the primary Developer Preview of Android 16 with the newest model of the Privateness Sandbox on Android and an improved Privateness Dashboard that provides the flexibility to view which apps have accessed delicate permissions over a seven-day interval.
This additionally follows the launch of the up to date Android Safety Paper, which delves into the working system’s suite of built-in safety capabilities, together with options like theft safety, non-public house, sanitizers, and lockdown mode, which goals to limit entry to a tool by turning off Sensible Lock, biometric unlocking, and notifications on the lock display.
