Here’s why Apple, Google have removed close to 600,000 apps – Times of India

Both Apple App Store and Google Play Store are thriving and have millions of apps. The two tech giants keep a vigilant check on the apps that are on the platforms. Earlier in May this year, Apple and Google had warned developers about the removal of apps for a variety of reasons. According to a report by Pixalate, a fraud protection firm, Apple and Google have “delisted” close to 5.92 lakh apps from their app stores in Q2 2022. The report further reveals that this number has increased significantly — from 2.2 lakh apps — in the first quarter.
Why have these apps been removed?
According to the report, one of the big reasons why these apps have been removed is because there have been no updates for years. Apple, which delisted 4.39 lakh apps, from the App Store had not seen almost 64% of these apps get any updates for the last two years. Further, as per the report, 31% of the apps Apple removed had no mention of any privacy policy. On its App Improvements Page, Apple has mentioned that “We are implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps, removing apps that no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines, or are outdated.”

Google also updated its guidelines in April this year and said that it is expanding Play Store’s Target Level API requirements. What this means is that new apps and updates already have to “target an Android API level within one year of the latest major Android OS version release,” or they cannot be published.
With apps that haven’t been updated, there is always a risk of security. If apps aren’t updated then they don’t get security patches and will also have bugs that can be problematic. Also, if a developer is seeking revenue from advertisers then the app would need to be updated regularly.

The delisting of the app just leads to it being removed from the App Store as users who have downloaded can still continue to use them on their devices.