US BigTech companies including Google and Apple after briefly warning app developers over ‘mistrustful’ apps, both Apple App Store and Google Play Store, while keeping a vigilant check on the apps that are on their platforms, have removed as many as 5.92 lakh apps from their app stores in Q2 2022.
According to the tech giants, earlier in May, Apple and Google had warned developers about the removal of apps for a variety of reasons. Since the two companies ‘delisted’ about 5.92 lakh apps.
As per reports this number has increased significantly — from 2.2 lakh apps — in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, among the reasons why these apps have been removed is because there have been no updates for years. Apple, which delisted 4.39 lakh apps, from the App Store had not seen almost 64% of these apps get any updates for the last two years.
Further, as per the report, 31% of the apps Apple removed had no mention of any privacy policy. On its App Improvements Page, Apple has mentioned that “We are implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps, removing apps that no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines, or are outdated.”
Google also updated its guidelines in April this year and said that it is expanding Play Store’s Target Level API requirements. What this means is that new apps and updates already have to “target an Android API level within one year of the latest major Android OS version release,” or they cannot be published.
With apps that haven’t been updated, there is always a risk of security. If apps aren’t updated then they don’t get security patches and will also have bugs that can be problematic. Also, if a developer is seeking revenue from advertisers then the app would need to be updated regularly.
The delisting of the app just leads to it being removed from the App Store as users who have downloaded can still continue to use them on their devices.
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