Google is removing nearly 900,000 old apps as part of its new policy changes. The new policy change looks at abandoned apps that haven’t received an update in two years.
According to CNET, which credits the analyst firm Pixalate, this amounts to nearly 869,000 apps in the Play Store.
Apple recently made a similar move.
“As part of the App Store Improvements process, developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold — meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period — receive an email notifying them that their app has been identified for possible removal from the App Store.” The company included in a press release.
Apple developers were pretty upset about the situation last month, and I’m sure Android developers are also not very happy about the situation.
I feel sick. Apple just sent me an email saying they're removing my free game Motivoto because its more than 2 years old.
It's part of their App improvement system.
This is not cool. Console games from 2000 are still available for sale.
This is an unfair barrier to indie devs. pic.twitter.com/7XNcLfiEcR
— Protopop Games (@protopop) April 23, 2022
According to CNET, apps will be hidden from view on the Play Store and won’t appear in search results. Including apps on the App Store, this is a removal of 1.5 million apps.
Source: CNET
