Google has purged around 46 apps from the Play Store over the last week. All these 46 apps have been made by a Chinese developer called iHandy. No reasons have been given for the takedown by Google yet.
This isn't the first time Google has taken down apps made by Chinese developers. According to a report by Buzzfeed News, the removed apps include those related to selfies, security and antivirus, keyboards, horoscopes, emojis and health-related apps. A popular app called Sweet Camera - Selfie Beauty Camera, Filters, which had been downloaded 50 million times, was also taken down. The app isn't visible on the Indian Play Store either.
Google Play Store. Image: tech2
While Google has not given a statement as to why these apps were taken down, a spokesperson has said that iHandy is currently under investigation. Despite this, eight other apps from the same developer still exist on the Play Store.
iHandy claims to have around 180 million monthly active users in over 200 countries.
Sweet Camera is one of the 46 apps taken down from the Play Store: Image: iHandy
Speaking to Buzzfeed News, iHandy VP Simon Zhu said that they were in touch with Google regarding this. Calling the action unexpected, Zhu said that the company was trying to find the reasons for the takedown.
Earlier in August this year, Google had taken down 85 apps from the Play Store that were found to be hiding adware inside them. Among those apps, the research firm Trend Micro (which discovered the adware) said that most of them were posing as photography as well as gaming apps which were downloaded over eight million times.
Super Selfie, Cos Camera, Pop Camera and One Stroke Line Puzzle were the most popular among the total 85 apps that were discovered by researchers as being adware-infected.
The report by the researchers said that all these apps were uploaded on the platform by different developer accounts and were signed by different digital certificates, however, they all exhibited similar behaviour and shared the same code.
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