Google’s Play Store is changing and changing fast. In recent days we have seen the latest in a long run of tweaks—concurrent app updates and a new auto-open feature, but the much bigger change—we hope—is the promised cull of poor quality, higher risk apps, significantly raising the bar for developers and upping security for users.
In a stark policy change, announced in July, Google warned developers that from August 31, apps must “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.”
If executed properly, this will certainly drive up Play Store’s quality, but it will also remove the shell-like apps that either hide malware or link to malware once installed on user devices, and apps in the burgeoning grey area of adware and subscription scamware, even if they haven’t ventured fully into the realms of malware.
This isn’t a cliff edge, of course, there was never going to be a starting pistol fired at midnight on August 31 with tens of thousands of apps disappearing. What we will see—again, if executed properly—is apps being suspended as they are updated until they’re improved, or apps not making their way back onto the store at all.
Google has been clear on its expectations and the warning signs for low-quality, higher-risk apps. Its “four pillars of Android app quality” cover usability as well as technical resilience and safety. And while it’s difficult for a user to judge privacy and security at face value, the other core values should be easy to assess.
This is critical because Google isn’t deleting apps from phones, and so if you have such low-quality, higher-risk apps on your device then the onus is on you to make an honest assessment and to delete—not just leave in place—those apps that fail the test.
That means being honest about whether an app genuinely does what it says—or it’s flakey and superficial and tricky and unenjoyable to use. It means you should not ignore technical issues, such as app crashes, failure to show updated info or respond as you’d expect as you navigate through. Google calls attention to an app’s adaption to different form factors—screen size, foldables, etc—as well as stability and performance, including load times and screen rendering.
And if an app on your phone fails these tests, delete it. It’s that simple. You don’t want such software on your device, the same device that likely holds all your sensitive data, security credentials, the networks of all you do and everyone you know. That doesn’t mean an app needs to be great, but it needs to work as you’d expect.
Because privacy and security is harder to judge just by using an app—although you should regularly check permissions and be very wary of those you grant, Google’s latest security upgrade due with Android 15 should significantly help. Its live threat detection, powered by on-device AI, will warn you if apps display such danger signs. Yet another reason to ensure Play Protect is enabled on your phone.
Just as Google’s August 31 policy change came into effect, a new report from Statista makes interesting reading for Android users. As of June 2024, the data experts show just under 1.7 million apps available on Play Store, down almost a million apps year-on-year and a huge reduction from Play Store’s 3.8 million peak.
Clearly this is a moving feast, but ignoring the actual numbers and focusing instead on the trend, it’s clear that Play Store’s number of apps is reducing markedly. This suggests the change of policy is formalizing what’s taking place anyway, a much higher bar for apps to make it into the store and more robust hurdles within Android itself that prevents a raft of apps from getting past even first base for store access.
We all know what a well–developed and tested, high-quality app feels like on our phones, and I’m certain everyone reading this will also have several trash apps clogging up space on their phones as well. Google’s change in policy is a wake-up call to delete those and to be more guarded about what gets on there in the first place.
