Google has announced plans to scrap about 900,000 apps from Play Store by November 1st, 2022.
The affected apps are those that have not received any update since 2020. Google says such apps pose a risk to users since they don’t take advantage of the latest security features and updates on Play Store.
The tech giant will reportedly hide the abandoned apps or those that have not been updated as a way to protect their users’ security. Both Google and Apple have announced measures to deal with such apps on their platforms. Owners of such apps have until November 1st 2022 to update their apps or have them restricted in the Play Store Library.
Google plans to host only apps with an application programming interface (API) that is compliant and compatible with the most updated Android version. This means they have to be supported on Android 11(API level 30), which is now headed to Android 12 for apps under development.
The move by Google and Apple has attracted concerns from a section of developers who say it might have a negative effect on their products. The argument is that in some cases, there’s nothing much that can be done once an app has been developed and released. Google plans to descend on 869,000 apps, whereas Apple has 650,000 that might be removed from the store.