I'd like an example of a site that does this. Name and shame. It might be the choice of the developer, too.
I see...
A Reddit post and an article from a BS content farm:
https://piunikaweb.com/2026/05/07/google-recaptcha-play-services-requirement/
The support page both refer to seems to be real though? https://support.google.com/recaptcha/answer/16609652?hl=en
Does what it's saying mean that Google Play Services is required to pass their captchas on mobile?
Edit: Found a comment in the Reddit thread from someone claiming to have seen one of these captchas in the wild, which supposedly does do this check but is easily bypassed:
Got good news, I just had this captcha. As you can see in the image there is an audio and an eye icon at the bottom. We can protest against this captcha by clicking the eye and doing the original one. As long as a substantial amount of people keep doing that I assume it wont' go away.
google and microsoft are creating a fault line in tech. one that was previously only drawn by Apple. now everyone will be forced to either assimilate or decentralize. which ironically is exactly what the internet needed, it's grown entirely too privatized in the past decade or so. i sincerely hope this results in more people thinking critically about their tech. and that the next billionaire with an "idea" doesn't just make everyone complacent again. but all i can do is hope.
This is a line only few care about. Millions will blindly and gladly give their information over and happily play in the walled gardens. They see privacy focused people as old men yelling at clouds (pun intended).
that's how they are NOW, but pessimism doesn't get anyone anywhere.
A website that pulls this crap is a website I will simply not use.
That's all fine until you actually need the site. If it's your bank, payment portal for your new apartment, scheduling page for your doctor, etc. Not every site is optional.
You can visit your bank in person, send a check to pay for your apartment, call your doctor to schedule an appointment, etc. Not everything has to be done online.
That might be true where you live, good for you. Where I'm from, calling the doctor is still possible, but the other two examples are not an option or practically unfeasible. So many services are digital by default, some have options for communication by physical mail, but that comes with extra fees. Straight up avoiding websites if they use these new captchas introduces a disproportionate burden.
If a school's assignment submission software has it, it's not the same story.
My kids' school district provides district-managed chromebooks. I stuck them on their own walled-off VLAN. Out of sight, out of mind. Any time my kids come to me with an issue on their chromebooks, I point them back to the school's IT guy. Trying to instill the "this thing belongs to the school, therefore any issues with it are the school's problem" mindset. I'm not rude about it, just very frank.
Get real. Nobody is enough of a masochist to do college homework on a de-googled android phone. (Sent from my Brax3)
Wow, I really am one i guess
I guess I won't be visiting those shitty websites then. fuck off, google.
Seems poorly thought through. Some chump with Photoshop and a text editor could replicate this but change the QR code to a malware site in minutes.
Is this just bullshit? What if the visitor has an iPhone? Or a Huawei? I don't think a website is going to force Google on all visitors
I think iPhones already have Play Services with Chrome, but I could be wrong
iPhones have been doing this for a while. It's enabled by default but as far as we know is privacy preserving
As far as we know, about a proprietary software?
We can see what it gives to the website
C'mon Motorola, hurry up.
Why would a mobile site give a QR code to prove you're human?
I think that would prove you're robot, if anything. I need my phone's camera to scan the QR code, but it's on the screen!
I got a QR code like that from google drive today. I was trying to create a new account and it presented me with a QR code to scan with my phone. I didn't try using it on my phone or wanted anything to do with it from my phone. But it wouldn't let me continue if I didn't scan their code
I'm willing to bet a million dollars that Google had this shit locked and ready for quite some time.
Thanks Americans for bringing in this administration. Lina Khan was too horrible to head FTC I guess.
And users have to abandon all services that force a militarized google/microsoft into their ecosystem.
And I will. They'll lose me as customer.
Gives an opportunity for more privacy-respecting websites to meet the demand.
Unfortunately I have banking apps and the such, but they work with normal browsers as well so I guess I can just do away with most Google things but it is a pain in the ass to deal with.
Coolcoolcool this will totally not be used for quishing
hcaptcha exists, people.
Also, how will iOS deal with this?
Google's documentation suggests it will just work on iOS devices. Maybe you'll need a separate app. Either way, this isn't very reassuring, because it requires you to finance a piece of hardware that's not really under your control (unless Graphene can actually put this crap on lockdown).
Apple already utilizes Google apps (like Chrome or Photos) to handle these things.
And mcaptcha
A screenshot to a tweet. Totally reliable source.
