Google recently announced it banned over 600 apps from the Play Store for using aggressive advertising practices. Buzzfeed reports that many were published by relatively popular developers like Cheetah Mobile, which had 45 apps available on the Play Store—some with billions of downloads—before being banned.
While Google hasn’t published a list of the offending apps, you can at least get started by removing anything from Cheetah Mobile from your device. And if there are a few apps you frequent that are a bit obnoxious about their advertising, check to see if they still exist in the Google Play Store. If not, it’s time to remove them from your device and find an alternative. (Barring that, trying out an app like AdGuard might help.)
The more open nature of Android apps and the Google Play Store compared to Apple’s platform gives developers more flexibility for features than iOS apps. However, Google’s looser restrictions also make it easier for bad actors to sneak apps with malware or onto the Play Store.
Google has been better about quickly banning dangerous and exploitative apps in recent years, but as long as the Android platform and Play Store remain more open, Android users need to be extra cautious about what they’re downloading (though to be fair, Apple users aren’t off the hook either).
In any case, if an app is pushing full-screen ads even when you’re not using it, or is pushing so many that your phone is unusable, report it to Google immediately and leave a review alerting other users to the problem.
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