Play Store Waves Goodbye to 700000 Apps: Let’s Find Out Why

Posted on February 1, 2018

I know, you might have skipped a heartbeat or your eyeballs might have come out looking at the huge number of 700000. The number of existing apps in the Google Play store is increasing day by day and not that it is anything less. The number of apps in the Play store at the current date is 3.5 million, again a huge number to digest. This number would not be so high if Google was not so lenient. One of the advantages of the Google play store that we always get to hear is its easy app submission guidelines. For Android, it is very easy to get the apps and games published on the play store. This is not the case with the Apple app store. They have very stringent app submission guidelines which the Google is devoid of. There is no manual app testing or checking before making the app live in the Google play store which is there in the Apple app store. This doesn’t mean Google is weak on the part of the security and protection. One of the massive security measures taken by Google is taking down 700000 apps at once. No, of course, this is not because the Play store has become a crowded place, but because they have infringed Google policies.

Back in the date also, 500 apps were eradicated by the Google on the account of a security breach. As compared with the number of apps removed from the app store of 2016, it’s 75% higher in 2017. Out of this 75% apps also, 99% of these apps are rejected even before the users get to install them. The review of these many apps and its rejection on such agile basis is because of automated scans and machine learning which will hunt for the vulnerabilities like inappropriate content, malware, and impersonation. With these new techniques, Google detected almost 100000 developers and banned them who were caught for submitting vulnerable apps. Google also made really complicated for those developers to create new accounts and repeat such things again.

The question here is why Google was forced to take such a huge step? One of the major reasons behind these apps is copy apps which are keyword targeted. Their prime agenda is to deceive the users and make use of the goodwill and popularity of the original and legitimate apps. They basically used Unicode characters which were relevant to other apps along with hiding the icons in a separate locale. However, Google was smart enough to point such apps out take them down. There were 2,50,000 of such apps which are now eradicated.

Android app development company have to be extra careful now and stop indulging in submitting copy apps or apps with security flaws as they can be taken down at any moment now. Another category that was spotted by the Google was games and mobile apps having irrelevant and inappropriate content. This can be anything against public interest like extreme violence, hate or any illegal things. Machine learning is made smarter with the inclusion of feature of hunting policy violation.

Such actions will continue to be taken from the Google’s side till they make Play store, the most and trusted platforms for the mobile apps. Google has lined up the process to detect harmful apps which indulge in SMS frauds, work as trojans and sneak out users personal information.

Play Store Waves Goodbye to 700000 Apps: Let’s Find Out Why