The Google Play Store Will Soon Warn You Before You Download a Bad App

Not all apps are created equal. For every incredible, must-have app on the Play Store, there are dozens of low-effort, ad-ridden, useless options as well.

There’s a lot you can do yourself to try to avoid these shovelware apps as you peruse the Play Store: Pay attention to reviews, scan the provided screenshots, investigate the privacy policy, and absorb the app’s overall “vibe.” This is not foolproof, however. No matter who you are, eventually, you download an app you think is interesting, only to open it and find another program you have to delete.

Google may soon warn you about useless apps

As it happens, this responsibility might not be all on you going forward. Android Authority recently investigated version 43.7.19-31 of the Play Store app, and found something interesting: Google might soon tip you off whenever it thinks an app is a poor choice. The site found three messages Google is working on sharing with users whenever it detects one of these mediocre apps:

• 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.

As you can tell from the messages themselves, Google is working off of a few pieces of evidence here: The company is looking at how many uninstalls the app has, against other apps in this particular category; the amount of user data available for the app (or lack thereof); and how many active users this app has when compared to others like it.

According to Android Authority, these messages won’t appear as alerts when you tap on the Play Store page for any given bad app. Instead, the message will be displayed inline with the rest of the details about that app. So, as you browse the page, you’ll see a summary of the app from the developer, the app’s safety, ratings and reviews for the app, and, oh, a tag that subtly suggests this app isn’t worth your time at all.

Because these metrics aren’t necessarily smoking guns that the app is trash, it makes sense Google wouldn’t blast these alerts whenever people access the app’s page. Instead, it’s a helpful warning for potential users to keep an eye out before taking the plunge on an app—useful for avoiding wasted time, but also critical for avoiding wasted money, if the app charges a fee.

This wouldn’t be Google’s first app detection feature

None of this is currently live—Android Authority discovered these messages within the code of this version of the Play Store, not within the actual Play Store pages themselves. It’s possible Google might never actually take off with this feature, although there’s precedent to think they might: The company recently rolled out live threat detection for Google Play Protect, a feature that looks for potentially malicious apps on your phone. If detected, the system pings you about the suspected app, so you can evaluate whether or not it actually seems like a threat.

Whether it’s for identifying malware, or to simply save you from a useless app, I’m all for Google investing resources into these types of warnings for users. Let’s hope other players in big tech follow suit.