Short answer: it isn't live yet, and we're not going to give you a date. The process has started and we've set out each stage below. The reason we're not giving a date is at the end of the article.
How you install Companion right now
Companion is distributed from our own site today. You get the Android version as an install file from the download page, and updates come from our server too. The app works, it updates and new versions keep coming — the Google Play process doesn't stop any of that.
Why is it taking this long?
Putting an app on Google Play isn't uploading a file and waiting. Because of what Companion does, there are three separate gates we have to pass.
1. Organization developer account and business identity
Opening an organization developer account on Play requires a D-U-N-S number — an international identification number Dun & Bradstreet issues to businesses. We applied on 2 September 2026 and are currently waiting for the number.
Why an organization account? Because for personal accounts opened after 2023, Google requires that 12 testers keep the app installed for 14 uninterrupted days before going to production. An organization account is exempt from that. Waiting for the business identity is a shorter path than trying to gather testers and stretching the process over months.
2. Sensitive permissions go through a separate review
Companion is a safety app. Features such as location reminders, sharing your location in an emergency, alarms and reminders need permissions like background location and exact alarms.
Google doesn't approve these automatically. A separate declaration form is filled in for each one, and for background location a video showing where the app actually uses that permission is required. The video has to show both the flow where the user grants the permission and the one where they don't.
The good news: in Companion every one of these permissions is genuinely tied to a core feature — not a single one was added because it "might be nice". That is exactly what Google is looking for. But the queue doesn't move until the form and the video are ready.
3. Privacy and data safety declaration
Companion handles sensitive information such as location, emergency contacts and health-related notes, and it can send them to the people you choose. Play counts that as both sensitive data and data sharing.
So the privacy policy, the data safety form and the account deletion route all have to match exactly what the app really does. The most expensive mistake here is glossing over the form and being caught later. We're not taking that road.
For people using the app today: your data will be kept
This is the question we're asked most about the process, and the one we care about most.
When the Play version arrives, you won't have to uninstall and reinstall the app. We're publishing the Play version with the same signing key as the build you installed from the site. In practice that technical detail means one thing: the version from Play lands as an update over your current install.
So your contacts, saved locations, reminders and settings stay where they are. You won't be asked to set everything up from scratch.
This is one of those decisions you can't fix later. When you open an account, Google offers to generate its own signing key; had we accepted, current users wouldn't have been able to update and would have had to uninstall the app. We'll be using our own key.
What happens when it's out?
When the Play version is out we'll roll it out in stages: first to a small share of users, then step by step to everyone if nothing goes wrong. In a safety app some bugs only show up in real use; a staged rollout limits the impact in that case.
Installing from the site won't be switched off either. The two channels will run side by side for a while.
Why we're not giving a date
Because most of the next steps aren't in our hands.
Dun & Bradstreet decides when the business identification number arrives. Reviewing the permission declarations and the video depends on Google's timeline. Each of these can take longer than expected.
Giving a date for something outside our control means missing that date later. Instead, here's what we can tell you: we'll update this page with the stage we're at and announce it here when the release is out.
Until then, Companion keeps being installed, updated and improved from the site.
