Google Play Tightens Developer Rules

Google recently updated its developer content policies in order to clean up Google Play – the app and media hub for all Android devices. Google Play has branched out to include music, books, movies, TV shows, and of course apps. However, Google Play’s biggest problem is that there are many rouge apps out there – repeat, copies or spam apps. Google hopes by updating the developer agreement they can begin to clean up Google Play’s app market.

According to Mashable Google sent an email to the developer community explaining that Google Play was in the process of policy changes in order to “crack down on shady behavior in the Android market.” Some of Google Play’s new policies tackle issues such as advertisement, payment for apps and spam. Google indicated that all payment for apps must be done through Google’s own payment system. Another change tries to eliminate duplicated or “copycat” apps. The new policy states, “don’t pretend to be someone else, and don’t represent that your app is authorized by or produced by another company or organization if that is not the case.” The next big change to Google’s policy directly takes on spamming and viruses. Google’s previous policy asked developers to avoid “dangerous products,” but the new policy takes that a step further by defining exactly what they. The new policy reads, “don’t transmit viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses, malware, or any other items that may introduce security vulnerabilities to or harm user devices, applications, or personal data.” This additional step declares in no uncertain terms that Google Play will no longer play host to apps or programs that can harm their users’ devices. Google Play has become clogged with much content that the company does not want to be responsible for. In addition to enforcing these guidelines on new apps, Google will apply the new terms for existing apps in order to clean the clutter that has already formed. If developers have not complied with the new terms within 30 days of receiving their notification from Google, their app will be at risk of deletion. With these additions to Google Play Android users can feel safer downloading apps in the future and Google Play should be easier to navigate through with less clutter and spam.