Google Play has put a lot of effort into protecting Android users from low-quality apps and helping them find high-quality apps more easily. First, there were a series of new policies regulating app developers, followed by a new app monitoring system introduced in November of last year. But despite all the efforts, the number of low-quality applications continues to increase.
According to data presented by Sports Lens, the number of low-quality apps on the Google Play store increased by 80,000 in the past year, reaching over a million last week.
Over 12,000 new low-quality apps since November, despite new monitoring system
Google’s new app monitoring system, which started on November 30, 2022, makes it easy to discover high-quality apps. That means higher quality apps become more visible. Conversely, low-quality apps are removed from recommendations, including apps with a user-perceived block rate greater than 1.09% and a user-perceived ANR rate of 0.47%.
Even before this new system, thousands of low-quality and policy-violating apps were regularly removed from Google’s Play Store. But, despite all the measures and efforts, the number of low-quality Android applications has increased.
According to AppBrain data, the number of low-quality apps listed on the Google Play Store increased 8% year-over-year, from around 930,000 in January 2022 to over a million last week. Statistics show that March and April saw the most new low-quality apps last year, at 11,000 and 12,000, respectively. However, all other months of 2022 also witnessed a four-digit increase.
Interestingly, the number kept increasing even after November, when the Google Play Store announced its new app monitoring system. While November alone saw a drop of 8,800, almost the same number of low-quality apps were listed on Google Play the following month. Data from AppBrain shows that more than 12,000 new low-quality apps were listed on Google Play in the last two months, or 15% of the total year-over-year increase.
Total number of apps on Google Play increased by 50,000 year-over-year
Due to its stricter regulatory policies, Google has significantly reduced the number of apps available on its Play Store over the years. In 2020, Android users could choose from 2.9 million apps. By the end of 2021, this number had dropped to 2.7 million and continued to fall.
In January 2022, the number of apps available was 2.64 million, which shows a whopping 260,000 drop in two years. Statistics show that the total number of available Google Play apps has increased by around 50,000 since then, reaching 2.69 million last week. Regular apps make up 62% of that number, with low-quality apps making up the remaining 38%.
