Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Google Play Store could warn you if an app seems to be of low quality.
- The store could specifically warn you if an app has been frequently uninstalled, has limited user data, or has few active users.
- These warnings aren’t guarantees of a low-quality app, but could still be useful for many people.
The Google Play Store offers millions of apps, and it’s only natural that at least some of these aren’t worth the download. Now, it sounds like the store itself could warn you if an app is likely of low quality.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We dug into a recent version of the Play Store app (version 43.7.19-31) and discovered that Google will display a few cautionary messages for apps that are likely to be low-quality downloads.
Check out the Play Store messages below:
- This app is frequently uninstalled compared to similar apps on Play
- Play has limited user data about this app
- This app has few active users compared to others on Play
It looks like these messages will show up on the app’s details page rather than popping up as warnings before you download it. This more conservative approach makes sense in theory, as these criteria aren’t necessarily a surefire way of knowing whether an app is a waste of time. After all, some niche apps might have limited user data or few active users anyway. Some genuinely good apps might also be used for a specific purpose and then uninstalled.
Nevertheless, we’re still glad to see Google working on a solution like this to inform people about potentially low-quality apps. These messages could be particularly helpful for people who aren’t tech-savvy. It could also be handy for people who have slow internet connections or limited mobile data plans, allowing them to quickly get an idea of whether an app is worth the long download time or data used.