diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c945a7d78e..4bd6e7eeca 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Changelog
 
-# Unreleased
+## Unreleased
 
 ### Features
 
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 ### Internal
 
+- Establish new native exception mechanisms to differentiate events generated by `sentry-native` from `ApplicationExitInfo`. ([#5052](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5052))
 - Set `write` permission for `statuses` in the changelog preview GHA workflow. ([#5053](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5053))
 
 ## 8.31.0
diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/NativeExceptionMechanism.java b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/NativeExceptionMechanism.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2dad712b19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/NativeExceptionMechanism.java
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+package io.sentry.android.core.internal.tombstone;
+
+import androidx.annotation.NonNull;
+
+/** Mechanism types for native crashes. */
+public enum NativeExceptionMechanism {
+  TOMBSTONE("Tombstone"),
+  SIGNAL_HANDLER("signalhandler"),
+  TOMBSTONE_MERGED("TombstoneMerged");
+
+  private final @NonNull String value;
+
+  NativeExceptionMechanism(@NonNull final String value) {
+    this.value = value;
+  }
+
+  @NonNull
+  public String getValue() {
+    return value;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java
index 18ad8ec825..18c10fac44 100644
--- a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java
@@ -142,9 +142,7 @@ private static Mechanism createMechanismFromSignalInfo(
       @NonNull final TombstoneProtos.Signal signalInfo) {
 
     final Mechanism mechanism = new Mechanism();
-    // this follows the current processing triggers strictly, changing any of these
-    // alters grouping and name (long-term we might want to have a tombstone mechanism)
-    mechanism.setType("signalhandler");
+    mechanism.setType(NativeExceptionMechanism.TOMBSTONE.getValue());
     mechanism.setHandled(false);
     mechanism.setSynthetic(true);
 
diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParserTest.kt b/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParserTest.kt
index efb1e963a1..954ad0eccc 100644
--- a/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParserTest.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParserTest.kt
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ class TombstoneParserTest {
     assertNotNull(crashedThreadId)
 
     val mechanism = exception.mechanism
-    assertEquals("signalhandler", mechanism!!.type)
+    assertEquals("Tombstone", mechanism!!.type)
     assertEquals(false, mechanism.isHandled)
     assertEquals(true, mechanism.synthetic)
     assertEquals("SIGSEGV", mechanism.meta!!["name"])