Google announced it is shuttering its Google Play Security Reward Program, a bug bounty program that paid rewards for bugs found in popular apps.

Google introduced the Google Play Security Reward Program in 2017. Two years later, any app with more than 100 million downloads was eligible for coverage by the program. Now the company announced in an email to devs that the program is ending.

Sean Pesce shared the email he received X:

Dear Researchers,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to express my sincere gratitude to all of you who have submitted bugs to the Google Play Security Reward Program over the past few years. Your contributions have been invaluable in helping us to improve the security of Android and Google Play.

As a result of the overall increase in the Android OS security posture and feature hardening efforts, we’ve seen fewer actionable vulnerabilities reported by the research community. Due to this decrease in actionable vulnerabilities reported, we are winding down the GPSRP program. The GPSRP program will end on August 31st. Any reports submitted before then will be triaged by September 15th. Final reward decisions will be made before September 30th when the program is officially discontinued. Final payments may take a few weeks to process.

I want to assure you that all of your reports will be reviewed and addressed before the program ends. We greatly value your input and want to make sure that any issues you have identified are resolved.

Thank you again for your support of the GPSRP program. We hope that you will continue working with us, on programs like the Android and Google Devices Security Reward Program.

Best regards,
Tony
On behalf of the Android Security Team”

Google has updated its bug bounty page to reflect the change:

Important note: The Google Play Security Reward Program (GPSRP) will close for submissions of new reports on August 31st 2024. All reports submitted before August 31st will be processed. Final reward decisions will be made before September 30th when the program is officially discontinued. Final payments may take a few weeks to process.