Google Ad ID

Third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome has been delayed so many times it’s become a punchline. But progress in the Android Privacy Sandbox is proceeding apace.

There’s rapid progress being made on the Android version of Privacy Sandbox. Google said it plans to roll out the initial Privacy Sandbox beta to Android 13 mobile devices starting early next year. Google first announced the Android Privacy Sandbox less than a year ago, in February. Android 13 was released in September.

The app-based phone service TextNow, which offers free calls and texting subsidized by ads, is especially vulnerable to the ongoing deprecation of mobile device IDs. So TextNow started testing alternate IDs, turning to InMobi’s UnifID and LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) and RampID.

Although cookies will soon be off the menu and mobile identifiers are under fire, advertisers are taking their sweet time to cook up alternatives. Two-thirds of marketers say they’ve hit pause on actively transitioning from third-party identifiers, according to a new survey from Advertiser Perceptions.