Not a release, but a test on a subset of users — yet the direction is telling. Google is trying a new verification in reCAPTCHA: instead of traffic lights, turn on the camera and make a hand gesture.
Mechanics: a short video of the hand is recorded, 21 points (knuckles) are extracted from it, and based on the movement pattern, it decides whether it's a human or a bot. Audio is not recorded, and the video is promised to be deleted immediately and not linked to identity. (yeah, sure)
Status per sources — limited rollout, feature in testing, Google does not announce a general launch date. And this is currently about reCAPTCHA Enterprise (anti-fraud for website owners), not the free CAPTCHA everyone is used to seeing.
Why it matters: text and image CAPTCHAs are solved by multimodal models for pennies — old protection is dead. The anti-bot war is moving into biometrics and behavior. The price of progress — your camera for website access. I don't make that trade.
Sources: <a href="cloud.google.com/recaptcha/docs/hand-gesture-verification">Google" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://docs.cloud.google.com/recaptcha/docs/hand-gesture-verification">Google Cloud Docs</a>,
