Google integrates reCAPTCHA into Android APIs to remove unnecessary user interaction

We’re all familiar with the CAPTCHA software used by sites to verify that you’re a real person and not a web trawler. It can be annoying, but it’s there to protect your privacy and assist in preventing access to sites by robots that may be used to try and brute force passwords or steal personal information.

Google has made moves in recent times away from manual CAPTCHAs which required transcribing words or numbers, to a semi-automated system that only required users to tick a checkbox, to the most recent iteration called Invisible CAPTCHA, which is — as the name implies — invisible to the end user, but performs the same checks to confirm that it is indeed a human accessing the web page and not some automated process.

Now, Google has introduced an Android API for reCAPTCHA, and this is a another step towards removing the intrusion into your web experience by these verification processes.

With this API, reCAPTCHA can better tell human and bots apart to provide a streamlined user experience on mobile. It will use our newest Invisible reCAPTCHA technology, which runs risk analysis behind the scene and has enabled millions of human users to pass through with zero click everyday. Now mobile users can enjoy their apps without being interrupted, while still staying away from spam and abuse.

It’s another step forward in the user protection offered within Android, and the API itself is included with Google SafetyNet allowing developers to do either device-based or user-based verification which is far more efficient than previous models of separate calls. Ultimately this will reduce superfluous user input and takes big steps into preserving the privacy on your data.