com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver Copy

Part of Android's cell broadcast system, made by Google. Cell broadcast is how mobile networks push Wireless Emergency Alerts (government and presidential warnings, AMBER alerts and severe-weather notifications) to every device in a geographic area at once. This package is the receiver app that presents an incoming alert to the user; its companion com.google.android.cellbroadcastservice decodes and routes the message before handing it over for display. Version note: from Android 11 the cell broadcast code became an updatable CellBroadcast Mainline module, signed with a Google signature rather than the platform signature and updatable through Google Play. On Android 10 and earlier the equivalent function shipped as the platform-signed AOSP package com.android.cellbroadcastreceiver baked into the system image. The com.google.android.* package name recorded here is the newer Google-signed Mainline variant, which is why it appears under a Google signer rather than the device maker's platform key. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use it has no role in enrolment or management, but it is a public-safety component: disabling it stops the device receiving emergency alerts, and reception of those alerts is legally mandated in many countries. On a device with no SIM or cellular radio it has no function. Treat removal with caution. Where the aim is only to quieten non-critical categories, the per-category toggles in the alert settings are usually the better route than disabling the package outright.

• CellBroadcast - Android Open Source Project →
• Emergency alerts - Android Debloat List →

• Signed by Google's own signing key (the same key Google uses across devices), so it is a Google-provided preinstall that updates independently of the system image, though 2 different Google signing keys appear across the fleet. This certificate spans 16 device makes - the hallmark of a globally distributed Google key.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 27 permissions: 5 runtime (user-granted), 11 signature or system-level, 8 install-time and 3 vendor or uncatalogued.
• APK size ranges from 9.4 MB to 22.5 MB across the reporting device profiles, so the build differs substantially between them.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.