Google to ban “useless” apps from the Play Store

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Google said applications that provide “Restricted use only” will be delisted from the Google Play Store soon. This comprises even blank applications, applications containing mere texts, applications with only a single wallpaper, or even applications with goals to serve no purpose at all.

Google frequently tries to optimize the app store by altering the rules and eradicating unwanted applications. Old apps for download were removed from the Play Store in billions in 2022 & Google cracked down on the Play Store safety in 2023.

Important updates to the Play Store are on the way, as on August 31st Google will roll out the new Spam and Minimum Functionality policy. The earlier Spam and Minimum Functionality Policy excluded ‘useless’ applications meant to do nothing. However, the new policy concludes that applications that do not contain ‘app-specific functionality’ or ‘an engaging UX’ are spam.

” We’re updating the Spam and Minimum Functionality policy to ensure apps meet uplifted standards for the Play catalog and engage users through quality functionality and content user experiences … Apps should provide a stable, responsive, and engaging user experience. Apps that crash, do not have the basic degree of adequate utility as mobile apps, lack engaging content, or exhibit other behavior that is not consistent with a functional and engaging user experience are not allowed on Google Play.”

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Notably, Google retained the formulation of the ‘Broken Functionality’ within its Spam and Minimum Functionality policy unaltered. This is so, even though some gigantic applications, such as the Sonos application, are usually discredited on account of their numerous broken features.

The high cost of today’s “app purge,” similar to the previous cleanup initiatives by Google is that the company will inevitably remove some apps that matter to people. Users may also have asked why Google is interested in only the “do-nothing” or the “static” apps; are not the scams more relevant?

However, to its credit, Google has recently changed the Play Store SDK Requirements and added the Malware policy. But these policies have now not affected in any way and this is because Google believes that its enforcement standards and practices have not been altered.

The new policies, Spam, Minimum Functionality, and Google mobile policies can be found at the Play Console Help, website. Please bear in mind that this policy will only come into operation from August 31st. If an app is delisted from the Play Store before this date, it is because it violated yet another policy or the developer just pulled it out.

Source: Google according to The Verge