Cleaning Up Google Play: Say Goodbye to Spam Apps

New anti-spam strategies.

Olha Bahaieva
UX Designers Club
Published in
2 min readJul 18, 2024

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Man stands near to a mobile device with an app and a circle inside it
unDraw illustration

I really love to try new apps on the Google Play Store. Work, productivity, personal life… There are apps for any directions.

The downside of unlimited app options is that sometimes (or not sometimes), you can download an app that will be absolutely different from what you expected.

For example, you want to find a great productivity app. You start to look for great options. While there are many paid apps, you want to consider a free alternative.

How lucky you are! You found it. Your download process starts, and you are already very excited. How much money will you save with a free alternative?

You open a new app and realize that there is nothing.

Either the app prompts you to watch ads for some kind of “points” or, worse, a spam app.

As a designer, I always rely on app presentations on the store, but even this is not a 100% guarantee.

Luckily, Google takes action for app checks.

According to the Android Police article, there will be a new policy. Google is going to remove apps with broken functionality from the Play Store.

The new policy has a higher app-level requirement and will definitely be a better gateway against spam apps.

While there are concerns about whether normal apps will struggle with new policies, I believe it’s still a good step against spam apps.

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Olha Bahaieva
UX Designers Club

Lead UX/UI Designer, Mentor, UXDC Founder • UX/UI Design • Get 100+ UX/UI design tools collection: https://olhabahaieva.ck.page/52893cef89