Skip to main content

Google took down more than 700,000 apps from the Play Store in 2017

Google play
Ymgerman/123RF
Apple’s App Store has traditionally been known as slightly more secure than the Google Play Store, thanks largely to the amount of control that Apple exerts over the marketplace. Google, however, is seriously stepping up the security of the Google Play Store and just published a blog post highlighting exactly how it did that in 2017.

According to Google, the company took down more than 700,000 apps from Google Play because they violated Google’s policy. That’s a hefty 70 percent more apps than 2016. On top of that, Google was able to identify and remove apps earlier than ever — and Google notes that 99 percent of malicious apps were taken down before anyone installed them.

Google isn’t just targeting malicious apps — it is also targeting the developers behind them. That is especially true of repeat offenders on the Google Play store. Google has been working to create new detection models that can identify repeat offenders, even when those developers create new accounts — 100,000 developers were banned from the Google Play store in 2017.

There are a few common types of apps that pop up that violate Google’s policies, and the company highlighted a few of them in its blog post. For starters, it bans copycat apps — or apps that try to impersonate already popular apps. Popular apps are often searched on the Google Play Store, so apps that impersonate them may get a lot of search traffic — and hence a lot of downloads. That could mean that a lot of people download an app with malicious intentions.

Google also doesn’t allow apps with “inappropriate content.” That could include pornographic content, but it could also mean apps with extreme violence or those that promote hate or illegal activities of any kind. Google is leveraging its machine learning chops to identify these apps.

In general, it seems as though Google is slowly but surely tightening its grip on the Google Play Store but, ultimately, that is a good thing. What it means is that the billions of people who use an Android phone are more protected, and ultimately at a lower risk of having their device compromised, their identity stolen, and so on.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Google Play Store now offers third-party app payments, but only for some users
The Google Play store icon on an Android phone.

Google will now open up its Play Store as a result of the European Union's Digital Markets Act, the company announced today. Now, any developers distributing apps or games in Europe (the European Economic Area, to be precise) will be able to sidestep the Google Play billing system with no penalty. The change comes after a similar push in South Korea.

"As of today, Google will not remove or reject updates of non-gaming apps from participating developers for offering alternative billing systems for EEA users. Google Play’s billing system will continue to be required for apps and games distributed via Play to users outside the EEA and for games distributed to users within the EEA. We expect to expand billing alternatives to developers of gaming apps for their users in the EEA, in advance of the DMA's effective date," Google's Estelle Werth, director of EU Government Affairs and Public Policy, said in a blog post.

Read more
Google backs down, keeping cheaper way to date online intact
A user checks the dating app Tinder on a mobile phone.

Match Group, the maker of popular dating apps such as Tinder and Hinge, scored a victory in its tussle against Google over the Play Store’s taxation policy. The immediate impact for users is that they will continue to have the option of making in-app purchases from an external source and won’t be limited to the Play Store’s own billing system.

Google recently issued a directive that apps listed on its application repository will have to embrace the Play Store billing system. The aforementioned policy ensures that Google gets a 30% cut of all in-app purchases, which include subscriptions to the premium tiers of Match Group’s dating apps. Google had warned that apps that don’t agree to the policy by June won’t be able to push updates and risk being removed from the Play Store.

Read more
Google Play improves privacy, payments, and subscriptions 
Person holding Samsung Galaxy smartphone showing Google Play Store.

Google is introducing several new features that will help game and app developers to engage and grow their audience while further improving privacy and security.

At this year’s Google I/O conference, the Google Play team is focusing on new initiatives to create an even safer app ecosystem for users and developers alike while also adding new tools for developers. These include new custom store listing options, increased flexibility in pricing models for in-app subscriptions, and more. The Google Play team outlined these new initiatives during its What’s New in Google Play session at Google I/O 2022.

Read more