Apps are disappearing from Google Play’s app store.
According to a recent report by app intelligence company Appfigures, the number of apps available on the Android app marketplace has decreased from over 3.4 million to just about 1.8 million since the beginning of 2024. This is a substantial purge of the apps that have been accessible to Android users worldwide, with a drop of almost 47%.
The company adds that the drop is not a part of a broader worldwide trend. For example, the number of apps in Apple’s iOS App Store increased somewhat over the same time period, from 1.6 million to approximately 1.64 million.
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For Android device owners who have had to sift through spammy, scammy, and otherwise subpar apps to find the best ones to install, Google’s app decline may be a relief. Developers that have had to struggle for visibility may potentially benefit from the reduction.
Google Play’s laxer app review standards over time have resulted in an abundance of subpar apps in the marketplace. Google frequently uses automated inspections in conjunction with malware scanning to expedite the app review process, but Apple maintains stringent app review procedures prior to publishing. Because of its lenient approach to human review, it typically has a shorter app review period.
The quantity of Play Store app listings that were available might have been impacted by Google’s announcement in July 2024 to increase the minimum quality requirements for apps.
The business announced that it will start prohibiting apps that showed “limited functionality and content,” rather than only those that crashed, wouldn’t install, or didn’t function properly. Text-only apps and PDF file apps were examples of static apps that lacked app-specific capabilities. Apps with limited content, such as those with just one wallpaper, were also included. Google also prohibited apps that were intended to be useless or unusable; these could have been tests or other developer projects that were shelved.
Google, when contacted for comment, acknowledged that its new policies—which included a broader range of authentication criteria, mandatory app testing for new personal developer accounts, and more human reviews to look for apps that attempt to trick or scam users—were contributing factors in this case.
The business also mentioned more 2024 expenditures in AI for enhanced developer tools, more robust privacy regulations, threat detection, and more. Consequently, Google banned almost 158,000 developer accounts that had tried to publish damaging apps and stopped 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being released on its Play Store, the company claimed.
The EU’s new trader status requirement, which went into effect in February and required developers to include their names and addresses in the app directory, was one of the factors Google failed to mention. Apps from those that didn’t comply would be taken down from EU app marketplaces. (It’s important to note that Apple did not observe a drop in the number of apps available after demanding trader status information in February.)
Additionally, Appfigures reports that it started observing a drop in the quantity of apps available on the Google Play Store prior to the purge’s formal commencement last summer; it has not yet provided an explanation for this shift. But according to the company, as of April, there have been 10.4K releases on Google Play so far this year, up 7.1% from the same period last year.
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