On August 31, Google began removing certain Android apps from its Play Store, saying it wanted to offer “a stable, responsive, and engaging user experience.” The move, part of the company’s latest update to its spam and minimum functionality policy, could impact developers.
Apps with “limited functionality and content,” such as those that are static and have no specific functionalities, will be removed. This includes apps that only contain text or PDF files and apps with a small amount of content that do not provide an engaging user experience, such as apps with only one wallpaper, according to the policy.
Google is also removing apps with faulty features, such as apps that “crash, freeze, force close, or otherwise behave abnormally.” This includes apps that:
- Do not install.
- Install but do not load.
- They charge but do not respond.
The company declined to comment further on the move.
Less freedom for developers
Andrew Cornwall, a senior analyst at Forrester, told TechRepublic that while Apple’s app store on iOS “has traditionally rejected apps that don’t meet its quality guidelines, Google, on the other hand, has allowed developers to publish many more.” More apps means more choice, which gives Google an advantage, he said.
Cornwall said many developers first published a low-value test app on Google Play. “However, the developer never intended for anyone to be able to download the app,” he said.
Some people have used free app-building tools to create apps that were nothing more than advertisements for a service, he said. “The creators of these apps often used app store optimization techniques to encourage downloads, resulting in a poor user experience.” For example, “users would see ads when they searched instead of the apps that did what they needed,” Cornwall said.
Another use case involved writers who sometimes published a book by delivering it as an app on Google Play, using the in-app purchase as a payment method, he said.
“They probably should have been e-books to begin with, rather than apps,” Cornwall said.
Does this measure affect security?
The policy change does not significantly affect security – it is more about improving the user experience, Cornwall stressed.
“It's possible that this policy change could weed out some single-pane apps that simply install adware or mimic another app's login process and do nothing else,” he said. “However, they would also run afoul of the privacy, deception, and abuse policy anyway.”
He added that Google has updated its Play Console Requirements “to ensure that financial, health, VPN, and government app products and services are from registered organizations, not individual developers, which could help prevent users from leaking private information to an untrusted source.”
Another upcoming policy change that adds audio to Google's Manipulated Media clause under its Privacy, Deception and Abuse policy is “more about keeping Google out of trouble than end-user safety,” he said.
Preliminary steps to address Play Store violations
This is not the first time that Google has regulated applications hosted on its Play Store.
In 2023, the tech giant blocked 2.28 million apps that violated its policies from being published on the Play Store, according to a Google blog post published last April. Google attributed the actions taken to investments in “new and enhanced security features, policy updates, and advanced machine learning and app review processes.”
Google also said at the time that it had strengthened its developer onboarding and review processes and now requires more identity information when Play accounts are first created. Investments in its review tools and processes allowed it to “more effectively identify bad actors and fraud networks,” the company wrote. 333,000 “bad” accounts were subsequently banned from Play for violations including “confirmed malware and severe, repeated policy violations.”
Additionally, Google said it has improved the privacy posture of more than 31 SDKs affecting more than 790,000 apps by partnering with software development kit providers to limit access and sharing of sensitive data.
The result for users
Google's updated minimum functionality policy is intended to keep these lower-value apps off Google Play, just as Apple already does with the App Store, Cornwall said.
“Users probably won’t notice any difference except that searches will improve,” he explained.
“For publishers, they will have to find another method of payment or distribution,” he said. “Spammers will move to another low-cost channel. App developers can practice with Google Play’s internal testing options.”
By updating the spam and minimum functionality policy, Google will remove a lot of spam from Google Play, Cornwall added.
“This is good news for users, who will find useful apps more quickly,” he said. “Legitimate developers shouldn’t worry. If they hope to release the next ‘I’m rich’ app and then walk away with the profits, they’ll have to make it do something interesting first.”
Google lists a comprehensive set of tips to help developers publish their apps on Play.
