🔍 Google ties reCAPTCHA to Play Services

The new reCAPTCHA on Android requires Google Play Services version 25.41.30 or higher. Without these, verification fails, blocking users on custom ROMs like GrapheneOS that lack Google software.

Instead of image challenges, users must now scan a QR code. This depends on background Play Services connecting to Google servers. iOS devices running 16.4 or later pass without Google apps.

Google introduced this update as part of its Cloud Fraud Defense platform on April 23. The Play Services dependency was not mentioned then.

By linking web verification to proprietary services, Google forces Android users to run its software and share data to access many websites.

📊 @tech