com.google.android.microdroid.empty_payload Copy

A test payload package for the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF), not an app. In the Android source, AVF's com.android.virt APEX contains EmptyPayloadApp, whose manifest declares the package com.android.microdroid.empty_payload, marks the application android:testOnly="true" with android:hasCode="false", requests MANAGE_VIRTUAL_MACHINE and requires the android.software.virtualization_framework feature. Microdroid is the small Google-provided Android OS that AVF runs inside a virtual machine, so an empty payload is a minimal guest workload for that environment. The package recorded here has the same name with a com.google prefix, and this site records it requesting MANAGE_VIRTUAL_MACHINE, matching the AOSP manifest. In our sample it appears only on Google Pixel and Googlebook devices, has no launcher entry, and where signer data is available is signed by a key this site classifies as Google. Treating it as Google's build of the AOSP empty payload is an inference from the matching name and permission. Version note: the AOSP build file sets a minimum and target SDK of 34 (Android 14), and in our sample this package appears from API 35 to API 37, including on a Pixel 9a at API 35. It was not recorded on the Pixel 7 at API 33 that carries the other two packages in this file. AOSP states that AVF is supported only on ARM64 devices. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use, no enrolment, policy or user-facing role is identified in the sources cited here. It will show up in an app inventory and can be ignored. If it is the AOSP test payload its name indicates, it ships inside a platform APEX, and there is nothing to gain from trying to remove it, so leave it alone.

• Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) overview - Android Open Source Project →
• Microdroid - Android Open Source Project →
• EmptyPayloadApp AndroidManifest.xml - Android (packages/modules/Virtualization) source →
• EmptyPayloadApp Android.bp - Android (packages/modules/Virtualization) source →
• Package provenance for com.google.android.microdroid.empty_payload - Android System App Database →
• Package provenance for com.google.android.compos.payload - Android System App Database →
• Package provenance for com.google.android.virtualmachine.res - Android System App Database →

• 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, and that single certificate is consistent across all 10 device profiles.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 1 permissions: 1 vendor or uncatalogued.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.