Android will verify all apps that can be verified
That is an interesting improvement on Apple’s contact key verification.
The only problems are that Google is historically incapable of getting Android developers to do anything standard, and they’ll probably abandon this app in a month 
Edit: I see this was previously discussed at Contact verification feature for Google Messages - #3 by CyberOtter
Because Android is an open ecosystem, which is the complete opposite of Apple’s locked-down nature. But they could add this featire as a requirement for listing on the Play Store, but I doubt they will.
Eh, I think of Android being “open” as primarily marketing, in a similar sense to Apple’s “privacy” being primarily marketing. In many respects modern Android is at least equivalently locked down.[1]
Google getting hammered even more than Apple on all these anti-trust lawsuits lately is proof of that.
Obviously if you use a de-Googled ROM that’s a different story, but we’re talking about Google’s Android and apps here so that doesn’t apply.
If not more so, tbh. 1. The only functional backups in the Android ecosystem are to Google’s cloud. 2. If I want to have a Google account which is actually secure — with Advanced Protection Program—it is impossible to install custom APKs without resorting to ADB. Why? These things do not have to be related. ↩︎