Google and bad apps have been a perennial problem but the company is slowly getting rid of the bad apples. Google has reportedly taken down over 1.5 million Android apps from the Play Store in 2024 and these figures are meant to help users feel safer using the platform. Most of you would say that having more apps shows you how Google is growing as an ecosystem and developers.

But what if the higher count of apps was actually a bad thing because of leniency in quality checks? Yes, Google is removing these low-quality apps, and turns out there were over 1.6 million of these hogging the space on the Play Store and making themselves available to billions of Android users for all these years. 

Android Apps Cut Down, Now You Are Safe? 

Google has become stricter with its developer policies which is meant to help Android become a safer haven for apps that truly add value for users. Having these low-quality apps meant you were either worried about their security levels, how the apps work and how regularly they are updating. 

Google seems to have found the right formula to clean up its act and that’s why we are now seeing the Play Store app count drop down from 3.4 million to almost half at 1.8 million. Tech companies are facing stringent rules across regions, especially in the EU countries where data usage and the methods need to be disclosed. 

The AI Effect

These changes have also worked in Google’s favour as developers are likely to have removed their apps to avoid further scrutiny. The company has already revealed that using human reviewers and AI has enhanced its checking systems, which is why over 2.3 million apps have been blocked on the Play Store and many developers being banned from the platform. 

There is no way to vouch for these published numbers but it is possible that cutting down on the app count will help Google to fix the issues at its end and give users more reasons to use Android in the coming years.