Google Purges 60,000 Apps from Play Store to Help Keep Things Clean

In its continuing effort to keep its Play Store clean, Google purged a staggering 60,000 “low-quality” apps this past February. If you’re an Android user, you can probably understand why this is a very good move, although quite frankly, I have doubts that Google will ever go the distance I’d like it to. The fact is, the Play Store is littered with a ton of apps that serve little purpose, and simply look spammy. Even the sheer number of apps that act as simple URL launchers is quite high (based on what I’ve personally found).

Still – to give credit where it’s due, it is nice to see Google making an effort to keep its store clean, and not going the hardcore route like Apple and deleting an app just because it does something better than it does. Of the apps, though, the majority of them seem to be ringtone/MP3 related – apps that rarely instill much confidence from a security / spam standpoint.

With this purging, it’s clear that Google doesn’t care too much about catching up to Apple in app-count for the sake of bragging. 60K apps is 8.5% of Google’s entire Play Store catalog, so to call it a sliver would be a gross understatement. Currently, the Play Store houses 700,000 apps, whereas Apple sits comfortably (somewhat) in first with 800,000.