It’s unambiguous that Google wants to make Android even more like the iPhone. In recent months, there have been several announcements of features akin to those found on the iPhone, and Android 15 claims to offer the broadest collection of security and privacy enhancements ever included in a single version.
However, in the area of app safety and security, Android still lags behind iPhone by a significant margin. Google is unable to prevent stories about potentially harmful Play Store apps from appearing in the media, despite its best efforts. Additionally, even though Google Play Protect does a fantastic job of keeping many consumers secure, the threat is growing. However, it appears that Google is now taking the issue more seriously and wants to solve it permanently.
Introducing AI-powered live threat detection
Yes, Android 15 will include “live threat detection”, which will employ artificial intelligence on the device to “analyze behavioral signals related to the use of sensitive permissions and interactions with other apps and services” and promptly report violators. However, that doesn’t solve the problem of how the app got onto the Play Store in the first place. It will just shorten the period between when an app misbehaves and when it is reported and deleted.
Now for the impending Play Store mass app removal, which Google has officially announced is only four weeks away, as you can see in the preview: “To ensure apps meet higher standards for the Play catalog and engage users through high-quality functionality and content user experiences, we’re updating the Spam and Minimum Functionality policy.”
Google will begin to target certain app categories on August 31. These categories will include apps that lack app-specific functionality, such as text-only or PDF-file apps, have minimal content, and don’t offer an engaging user experience, like single wallpaper apps, or are made to do nothing at all.
Here, Google is being smart by raising the bar for quality. Lately, there have been several instances of worthless but seemingly innocent apps entering the Play Store and either being utilized as a gateway to more malicious apps or, more lately, serving as evil twin decoys for those alternatives.
This is a great way to tighten the net if one believes that the majority of harmful apps on the Play Store have few valid uses. Consequently, even though Google has always removed apps, this time it feels different. A growing number of people anticipate that this may even affect well-known apps with millions of installations, and some respectable apps with poor quality will also be excluded.
Google Play Store purge: A move towards enhanced security and quality control
Google cautions developers that their apps need to “offer a stable, responsive, and engaging user experience”. Applications that crash, don’t work as basic or sufficiently useful as mobile apps, don’t offer interesting content, or behave in a way that is inconsistent with a useful and enjoyable user experience are not permitted on Google Play.
Play Store with an emphasis on increased security
Google announced policy changes on July 17. These include stricter enforcement of existing regulations for spyware avoidance as well as new guidelines for better malware prevention, such as requiring developers to remove third-party code from websites known to distribute malware, independent of the code itself.
Developers should not be surprised by any of this, and they have six weeks to determine whether or not they comply. Google no longer promotes third-party shops or allows users to sideload programs from any source. Play is quickly getting closer to being a replica of Apple’s App Store.
Not surprisingly, after the announcement this week, Google’s Great Play Store Purge has made headlines around the world. Industry observers were caught off guard by the extent of the potential removals, as the warning’s “sudden” nature and the purge’s sheer size drove traffic. According to PCMag: “There may be a mass deletion event coming up.” This might result in the abrupt disappearance of thousands of apps from the Google Play Store the next month.
However, before the ink on those reports has even dried, Google and its Android users are being starkly reminded that there is still significant work to be done in order to repair security gaps in the store and better protect consumers than they are currently doing.
This reminder is provided by Android Police, which has recently brought to light another significant Play Store bug that, while it may seem like a quality control issue, has major security ramifications and keeps Google’s own store behind Apple’s closed doors.
The Android technology website begs Google to “just make updates work on the first try”. The ugly practice of the Play Store to “falsely claim your apps or Android version are up-to-date even when they’re not” is the problem. Additionally, even though Android Police notes that a “simple refresh” should resolve the issue with the phone and store syncing, “that’s an extra step many people won’t bother to take”.
Recall that although the purging appears to be motivated by quality control, security is actually the main priority. Google is acutely aware that it may not be able to protect consumers against malware, even though it has previously committed significant resources to the seemingly intractable problem. The App Defense Alliance and Play Protect are excellent examples, as is how quickly they address security reports. However, the purge is visible to everyone, even though those initiatives are taking place behind the scenes.
Striving for security amid growing comparisons to Apple
The Android Police revelation is relevant because it provides yet another illustration of Google’s attempt to compete with Apple. For the same kind of problem, instead of releasing all of the security upgrades at once like Apple does, Samsung and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are releasing them gradually over several weeks, according to model, region, and carrier. A zero-day vulnerability related to this kind of issue was addressed for Pixels in June; however, it is still there for other OEMs. According to the original story, Samsung has only now verified that it will be correcting this in August.
“When Google uncoupled app updates from system updates, security patches and overall improvements could roll out to individual apps, ” according to Android Police; the version sync problem started with the Play Store.
Even if the Play Store frequently fails to indicate when an app update is ready, this is still “a great feature and one of the things that sets Android apart from iOS”. Unfortunately, this also distinguishes Android from iOS in a negative way that exposes consumers.
Congratulations to Google for this purge, but the people who are most familiar with Android are still saying “Please try harder”. Despite some ardent Android users’ opposition to anything resembling Apple entering the ecosystem, feedback regarding the purge itself has been largely good in the field. Better restrictions would be wonderful, but I hope it’s not more like Apple, said one Reddit user. Another slyly inquired: “So the Play Store will be useful now?”
In the meantime, four weeks remain till the purge. Therefore, if you can’t get enough of the cheap flashlights, horoscopes, and PDF or QR-code readers, now is the perfect moment to stock up on them.
(Tashia Bernardus)