Skip to main content

Google removes 600 apps with annoying pop-up ads from the Play Store

Google removed 600 apps from the Google Play Store that had too many annoying ads as an effort to crack down on its disruptive ad policy. 

Apps that were removed reportedly had ads that resulted in poor user experiences or disrupted essential functions of people’s phones. Google said these pop-up ads could lead to people unintentionally clicking on them. 

Recommended Videos

“We define disruptive ads as ads that are displayed to users in unexpected ways, including impairing or interfering with the usability of device functions,” wrote Per Bjorke, the senior product manager of Ad Traffic Quality at Google in a blog post. “While they can occur in-app, one form of disruptive ads we’ve seen on the rise is something we call out-of-context ads, which is when malicious developers serve ads on a mobile device when the user is not actually active in their app.”

Android Messaging
Digital Trends

You’ve probably experienced the ads Google is calling out before: They can pop up as a full-screen ad while you’re in the middle of using an app when you attempt to do certain things. You have to find a way to close the ad or, you accidentally end up clicking on it, which can bring you to an entirely different app altogether. 

According to Buzzfeed News, apps that were removed from the Play Store were mostly utilities or games.

Google is cracking down on apps with these disruptive ads and even developed machine-learning technology that can detect when and which apps show these types of out-of-context ads. This technology reportedly helped Google weed out the bad apps resulting in their removal from the Play Store. 

Google seems to be in an ad-policing mood, since earlier this month, it announced that Google Chrome would start to block three of the most annoying types of video ads beginning in August. 

According to Google Chrome’s guidelines, the types of ads that will be blocked include those that require you to wait a certain amount of time before you can skip them, ads that begin to play while you’re watching a video, and ads that take up more than 20% of your screen space. 

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Tired of downloading terrible apps? This Google Play Store update will help
A person holding an Android phone while on a bike. The display shows the Google Play Store.

The Google Play Store has an estimated 3.3 million apps available, but they most certainly are not all created equal. Some are no longer updated, some don't work the way they're meant to, and others are just plain terrible — but a new update to the Play Store could make finding the diamonds in the rough much easier.

This update is already live for some users, but it's still rolling out to others. When browsing the Play Store, warnings will appear just below the app information and provide a high-level overview of its performance. For example, it might warn that an app is frequently uninstalled, or the app might not get as much engagement compared to others, according to Android Authority.

Read more
A native Android Apple TV app is now in the Google Play store
The Apple TV app on a Samsung Android phone.

It's been five years since the Apple TV app was launched, and we're now getting a version for Android devices -- built from the ground up for native Android integration -- in the Google Play store that will have the same Apple TV+ functionality as the Apple ecosystem version. The new app means users with Android OS 10 or later will finally have the ability to sign up for Apple TV+ on their Android-based phones and tablets to watch shows and movies like Severance, Silo, Killers of the Flower Moon, and CODA. There will be no difference in pricing on Android compared to Apple.

This should enable seamless interactivity across platforms for features such as Continue Watching -- which keeps track of where you are in a show or movie and allows you to pick up from that spot when you return, regardless of the device you watch on. Customer's Watchlist will be kept up to date across devices as well, and since purchases are linked to your Apple account, all the content you own will be accessible on any device with the new updated app. One thing missing at launch, though, will be the ability to cast Apple TV content from your Android device.

Read more
You can officially download the TikTok app again on Android phones
Download page for TikTok app on Android in the US.

The TikTok app has not returned to the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store, ever since it went dark in the US with a ban looming over its head. That means fresh downloads are not possible on Android and Apple smartphones. Things have finally eased, at least for Android fans.

The official TikTok website now lists the software package that lets users download the app directly, instead of an app repository such as the Google Play Store. Third-party websites have hosted the app's software bundle for a while, but that route usually comes with the risk of malware.

Read more