Google is planning to prevent users from installing “outdated” apps from its Play Store that may not have the latest privacy and security features. “Starting on November 1, 2022, existing apps that don’t target an API level within two years of the latest major Android release version will not be available for discovery or installation for new users with devices running Android OS versions higher than apps’ target API level,” the company announced in a blog post.
The upgrades are intended to make sure that Play Store-available apps use Android’s most recent privacy and security capabilities. The company wants smartphone users to maximize all the privacy and security precautions Android has to offer. The new target level API standards protect consumers from older apps that lack these protections.
Google currently requires new Android apps and upgrades to target an API level within one year of the most recent major Android OS release. Thus this should not be a substantial change for any active Android developers since the upgrade would only affect apps that have been completely abandoned or those that are still being used but the developer no longer keeps up with the Android API changes.
The apps won’t be completely removed from Google Play. As explained by Google, older apps will still be able to be found, installed, and used on any Android OS version that the app can run on. This is in contrast to what Apple did in years past when it eliminated a large number of obsolete and abandoned apps. In some ways, this is more consumer-friendly than Apple’s removal of apps from the app store.
If you already have a lot of apps that work well on Google Play, you won’t be affected by the new policy. For other apps, this notification lets good developers have time to make the changes they need to.
Google has made it easier for developers to move their apps to the new API levels by publishing a technical guide and Help Center documentation that lists the exact dates when the API levels will change. Even if you need a six-month extension to move your game to the Play Console later this year, you can request it through a form that will be available on the console later this year.
Google has been working to make its app store more secure in the last few days as regulations get closer to the world of mobile apps. Also this month, Google Play changed how it charges users for purchases. The company said back in 2020 that apps that sell digital goods and services would have to use Google Play’s own payment system. This means that developers would have to follow Google’s rules. Unless they get an extension, app developers won’t be able to submit new app updates until they meet the rules by April 1, 2022, unless there are major security issues. Until June 1, 2022, Google Play won’t let apps that don’t meet rules.
The Play Store is going to lose a lot of apps in the next few months because of this “semi-purge” initiative.
