Google recently suspended a number of apps for violating the policy that does not allow an app that encourages or incentivises users into removing or disabling third-party apps
Days after removing two popular and trending apps – Remove China Apps and Mitron – Google India has clarified the reason behind this decision. The company has updated its blog – the official news and notes blog from Google India. The blogpost titled ‘Clarifying Recent App Decisions on Play’ written by Sameer Samat, Vice President, Android and Google Play, says: A number of recent app removals received particular attention in India and we wanted to clarify our actions.
The post highlights that Google Play was designed to provide a safe and secure experience for consumers while also giving developers the platform and tools they need to build sustainable businesses. Play Store’s global policies were designed with that goal in mind.
Samat writes, earlier this week, we removed a video app for a number of technical policy violations. We have an established process of working with developers to help them fix issues and resubmit their apps. We’ve given this developer some guidance and once they’ve addressed the issue the app can go back up on Play.
This refers to the Mitron app – which has been a popular TikTok alternative. The app with over 5 million downloads was removed from Google Play store earlier this week.
Even Remove China Apps, that was the top trending free application on the Play Store, was suspended. Samat writes, “We also recently suspended a number of apps for violating the policy that we don’t allow an app that “encourages or incentivises users into removing or disabling third-party apps or modifying device settings or features unless it is part of a verifiable security service”.
This is a longstanding rule designed to ensure a healthy and competitive environment where developers can succeed based upon design and innovation. When apps are allowed to specifically target other apps, it can lead to behaviour that we believe is not in the best interest of our community of developers and consumers. We’ve enforced this policy against other apps in many countries consistently in the past – just as we did here, he writes.
Google India hopes that this will help clarify the rationale behind these recent actions.