Google Play is about to do a mass deletion of ‘low quality’ apps — what you need to know

Google is done messing around with garbage apps on the Play Store that don't do anything.

I'm being a little more harsh than Google, but the general idea remains true: The company is planning to purge "low quality" apps from its store starting August 31st.

Regarding what constitutes "low quality" from an app perspective, Google describes them as apps with "limited functionality and content" on its Spam and Minimum Functionality policy page .

"Apps should 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," reads the page.

Some examples would be barebones text-only apps, ones that do nothing but offer a single wallpaper, or those that are actually designed to do nothing. Starting August 31, if one of these apps is submitted to the Play Store, it'll be rejected.

The change will allow Google to "ensure apps can meet the uplifted standards for the Play catalog and engage users through quality functionality."

While this particular crackdown is new, Google has made plenty of attempts to clean up the Play Store in the past, and they've been relatively successful. For example, in a blog post, Google said that "we prevented 2.28 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play in part thanks to our investment in new and improved security features, policy updates, and advanced machine learning and app review processes."

Google already had rules in place to keep out apps that don’t install or apps that install but don’t load, and this new rule beefs up the requirements, which is always a good thing for users just trying to find the apps they want on the Google Play store.

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