Google Cracks Down on Low-Quality Android Apps (androidauthority.com) 15
Google has revised its Play Store policies, aiming to eliminate subpar and potentially harmful Android apps. The updated Spam and Minimum Functionality policy, set to take effect on August 31, 2024, targets apps that crash frequently, lack substantial content, or provide minimal utility to users, the company said.
This policy shift follows Google's ongoing efforts to enhance Play Store security, with the company having blocked over 2 million policy-violating apps and rejected around 200,000 submissions in 2023 alone.
This policy shift follows Google's ongoing efforts to enhance Play Store security, with the company having blocked over 2 million policy-violating apps and rejected around 200,000 submissions in 2023 alone.
Meh (Score:2)
Solutions, anyone? (Score:2)
Sorry, but I think that was a piss poor FP. Subject is vacuous emotion? But are you positioned to try harder in a self-reply? You did touch a number of aspects of the EVIL that is today's google, but...
If I wanted to go for Funny, then my new Subject could have been "Solutions, ladies and gentlemen?" Imagine, if you will, encountering a gentlewoman on Slashdot. However I usually prefer to think about solutions and my funny bone is not of the best, so...
With regards to the specific problems of Google Play pr
Re: (Score:2)
Lack of reply is par for the empty Slashdot of today.
So the opposite of Steam (Score:2)
Btw, Steam could just make it cost $2500 to launch a game. The end. Don
Who decides what "Minimum Functionality" means? (Score:2)
I get it - it's Google's walled garden, their bat, their glove, their rules . . . but I get the impression they'll be playing with our balls.
TOR Browser, for example, clearly provides low functionality - after all, the Chrome browser's already built in, think of it as Android's version of Insecure Exploder. K9 mail provides minimal functionality - after all, GMail's built-in, think of it as Android's version of MS-LookOut!. Slack provides minimal functionality - after all, Google Messages can handle unen
Too bad it's not an internal directive (Score:2)
It would be nice if they could give some attention to quality for their own products, especially the Family Link parental controls app. It's so bad that I would gladly throw it in the trash if only an API was available, but I need this functionality and it's unforgivably defective. You just find the parts that work reliably enough and kludge an actual solution around those.
The whole product reeks of overpaid software engineers on a scrum team delivering almost-correct software for story points.
You'll often
Re: (Score:2)
All of them then?
Close to it.
Sure will put a dent in Google's App Store revenue stream. Bet they can't predict the hit to their quarterly financials due to this business decision.
Google to Markets >>> "Yeah our quarterly numbers decreased Q-over-Q due to a business decision to clean up/out the junky apps cluttering our Apps Store."
Markets to Google >>> "So stop making such stoopid decisions! We want great financial numbers, every quarter, always increasing ad infinitum."
They're blocking Syncthing updates since February! (Score:3)
Meanwhile in the real world speaking about how they care about software quality:
https://github.com/syncthing/s... [github.com]
Google is just rejecting all updates because of permissions (surprise surprise, a file sync app needs access to files). Of course there's no way to escalate to anyone that would engage with the issue (probably only bots responding on all channels).
What's more and super-outrageous is that the existing version, with the same permissions, is just fine on the Play store, people can just use it, plus potentially any security issue or unfixed bug it might contain, no problem at all, not even a warning or anything!
For the ones that don't know it Syncthing is THE reference program for this, a shining beacon for such things, nothing comes close. Of course, FOSS.
Re: (Score:1)
Install Termux, run rsync.
And now that you've got Termux installed you can do lots of other stuff too!
Re: (Score:2)
Not even close, this is bidirectional (or omnidirectional if you want) sync between as many peers as you want, with automatic peer discovery, versioning, encryption so you can store on untrusted peers and so on.
BTW Termux had no updates from around 2020 till last month due to some restrictions too (the Play Store is fairly crippled too, probably nobody should be seriously consider using it).
The Apple model reigns supreme (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Everybody likes to mock Apple, but then they end up following the exact same path: from eliminating the headphone jack to enforcing app quality standards. People need to abandon the iOS vs Android mentality and recognize good business practices.
The difference with Android is that you don't need to use the Google Store, there are alternative app stores available. Apple has one app store, and it's hard to side load apps. Hell, I believe you have to pay a fee to develop and use your own app on iOS, even if you are the only user, and don't publish it. As for the headphone jack, the main reason given for removing that was to save internal space and waterproofing.
Monopoly power (Score:2)
... targets apps that crash frequently, lack substantial content, or provide minimal utility ...
After several years of enshitification, I claim a few of Google's own apps, are now low-quality. But Google has a monopoly on built-in apps.
Games that require an app to play, mostly card-game tournaments tend to crash frequently: Their customers must use the app so there's no incentive for QA. Maybe, this rule will remove that laziness.