Google has been purging apps from its Android app retailer, with round half culled prior to now 12 months.
A brand new report from JHB (utilizing figures from Appfigures) notes that, from the beginning of 2024 to at the moment, the Google Play Retailer dropped from 3.4 million apps worldwide to round 1.8 million apps. That’s a lack of 47% of the apps out there to Android customers.
This isn’t a basic pattern both, as Apple’s iOS App Retailer library grew ever so barely throughout the identical time, from 1.6 million to 1.64 million apps.
Why are Android apps disappearing?
Google’s shorter, extra lax app overview course of has led to a proliferation of poor high quality and even downright scamming apps on the Google Play Retailer.
The sheer variety of apps has made it harder for the real article from exhausting working builders to get seen.
This led Google to boost its minimal necessities for app apps in July 2024 – smack bang in the midst of the interval in query. From this level on, Google introduced that it could cull apps that had “restricted performance and content material,” slightly than for merely being damaged.
What does Google say concerning the drop in apps?
In response to this investigation, Google additionally revealed that it had invested in AI menace detection to chop down on hostiles apps on the Play Retailer, in addition to instituting stronger privateness legal guidelines.
The results of these mixed measures is that the corporate rejected the purposes of a staggering 2.36 million apps, and banned greater than 158,000 developer accounts – all stopping probably dangerous or policy-violating apps from being made out there to Android customers.
It’s price noting one remaining level, nevertheless: app releases are up 7.1% 12 months on 12 months as of April. Hopefully this means a resurgence of real fine quality apps and video games slightly than a return to the Wild West days of the Google Play Retailer.