Google says malicious apps on Play Store decline, thanks to AI

Google claims fewer bad actors are targeting the Play Store, pointing to a drop in policy-violating apps and banned developer accounts in 2025. The company credits tougher verification rules and expanded AI-driven review systems, even as threats increasingly shift outside the official app marketplace.

Policy-violating apps fall year over year

In its latest Android app ecosystem safety report, Google said it prevented 1.75 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play in 2025. That is down from 2.36 million in 2024 and 2.28 million in 2023.

The company also banned more than 80,000 developer accounts last year for attempting to publish malicious or non-compliant apps. That figure represents a steady decline from 158,000 in 2024 and 333,000 in 2023.

Google attributes the downward trend to stricter onboarding measures, including developer verification, mandatory pre-review checks and enhanced testing requirements. According to the company, it now runs more than 10,000 safety checks on every app before publication and continues to monitor apps after they go live.

The report highlights expanded use of AI within the review pipeline. Google says its latest generative AI models help human reviewers detect more complex malicious patterns faster, while multi-layered protections serve as a deterrent to bad actors attempting to enter the ecosystem.

Threats increasingly shift beyond Play Store

While fewer malicious apps appear to be slipping into the Play Store, activity outside the platform is rising. Google’s built-in defence system, Google Play Protect, identified more than 27 million new malicious apps in 2025 and warned users or blocked them from running. That is up from 13 million non-Play Store apps detected in 2024 and five million in 2023.

The figures suggest that some attackers may be bypassing the official store altogether in favour of sideloaded apps and third-party distribution channels.

Elsewhere in the report, Google said it prevented more than 255,000 apps from gaining excessive access to sensitive user data, down sharply from 1.3 million in 2024. It also blocked 160 million spam ratings and reviews and mitigated review-bombing attempts, preventing an average 0.5-star rating drop for affected apps.

Source : https://www.moneycontrol.com/technology/google-says-malicious-apps-on-play-store-decline-thanks-to-ai-article-13836667.html