What Changed
Google's announcement described a multi-year initiative.1 The goal was new advertising technology that would limit sharing of user data with third parties and work without cross-app identifiers, including the Advertising ID.
The plan included Android versions of the web proposals, such as Topics for interest-based ads and APIs for remarketing and attribution, plus safer ways for apps to work with advertising SDKs.1 That became the SDK Runtime in Android 14, which runs ad SDKs in a separate, isolated process, so by default they can't reach the app's memory or storage.2
Google contrasted its approach with Apple's. It said other platforms had taken a blunt approach, restricting existing technologies used by developers and advertisers, and that such approaches were proving ineffective.1 Google committed to support existing ads platform features, including the Advertising ID, for at least two years while the new solutions were designed and tested, and to give substantial notice before future changes.1,3
Google also tied the plan to its web commitments. It said it would apply the principles of the commitments it had offered the UK's competition regulator for Chrome to its Android work as well, and quoted app makers including Snap, Rovio and Duolingo supporting the approach. Developer previews were planned through 2022, with a beta by the end of the year.1 Those commitments had been accepted a few days earlier.
Why It Mattered
The announcement signalled that Android's Advertising ID would eventually be phased out, but on a much slower and more collaborative path than App Tracking Transparency on iOS. App developers and ad networks had time to test instead of reacting to a sudden change.
In practice, the Advertising ID was never phased out. Google retired most of the Privacy Sandbox on Android, including Topics, Protected Audience, the Attribution Reporting API and the SDK Runtime, in October 2025. Android advertising still runs largely on the Advertising ID, subject to users' ability to delete it.
Notes
- Anthony Chavez, “Introducing the Privacy Sandbox on Android,” The Keyword, Google, February 16, 2022, https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/introducing-privacy-sandbox-android/. abcde
- “SDK Runtime Overview,” Privacy Sandbox, Google, accessed October 17, 2026, https://privacysandbox.google.com/private-advertising/sdk-runtime/architecture. ↩
- “Google Introduces Privacy Sandbox for Android,” IAB UK, February 16, 2022, https://www.iabuk.com/news-article/google-introduces-privacy-sandbox-android. ↩