Choose a developer program

Privacy Sandbox on Android offers two programs to help ad tech platforms and app developers design, test, and prepare for future production rollouts to users.

  • Developer Preview program - Use the Developer Preview program to conduct initial testing of proposed APIs, evaluate how to integrate them with your solutions, and provide feedback. We'll introduce new APIs and features in this program over time and promote stabilized APIs to the Beta program.

  • Beta program - Use the Beta program to integrate your solutions with stable Privacy Sandbox APIs for testing on a limited number of Android 13 devices in production, which will increase over time. Access the APIs in Beta releases through the Extension SDK, a new mechanism for delivering features outside of major Android releases.

As you read through the Privacy Sandbox on Android documentation, use these Developer Preview or Beta buttons to select the program version that you're working with, as instructions may vary.

Developer Preview program

The Privacy Sandbox on Android Developer Preview program continues to provide a way to conduct initial testing of proposed APIs, provide feedback, and evaluate how you might adopt them for your solutions. New public APIs and behaviors will first appear in the Developer Preview program. You’ll have access to the Developer Preview SDK, tooling, and documentation. Once the APIs are stabilized, they’ll graduate to final APIs released in a Beta program release.

Get started

To get started, perform the following steps:

Step 1: Enroll your organization in with the Privacy Sandbox

You need to complete an enrollment process in order to utilize the ads-related APIs.

Step 2: Set up your development environment

You need to set up the Privacy Sandbox on Android SDK in Android Studio.

Step 3: Configure AdServices permissions

You need to declare API-specific permissions and configure SDK access to resources managed by the targeted API.

Step 4: Set up a device or emulator image

To perform end-to-end testing, you need to interact with a supported Android 13 device. You can either download and configure a Developer Preview Pixel device image or use an emulator image.

Step 5: Configure devices to use Privacy Sandbox on Android

You need to configure a number of settings to enable (or disable) Privacy Sandbox on Android to run on devices.

What developer resources are available?

The Privacy Sandbox on Android Beta program includes the following tools and resources.

SDK and emulator system images

Using Android Studio, you can download the latest Ad Services Extension and emulator system images through the SDK Manager. The Privacy Sandbox APIs are final for the particular Ad Services Extension release. Learn more about how to set up your development environment and set up API access.

API Reference

The full Beta API reference is available.

Support and feedback

As you test and develop with Privacy Sandbox on Android, review the release notes and use the issue tracker to report issues and give feedback.

Timeline and updates

The Privacy Sandbox on Android Beta program starts in early 2023 to a small percentage of devices. You can use the beta release to build and distribution solutions for limited production testing. We plan to iterate the beta releases for developers throughout 2023.

Keep your development environment up-to-date

We strongly recommend you keep your development environment up-to-date with the latest release. When new updates are available, we'll notify you on the Android Developers Blog and on the progress updates page. Sign up for email updates, to receive a message in your inbox, as well.