The Google Play Store will soon prevent you from downloading outdated apps

Google Play will soon hide old apps for new users to encourage developers to support the latest Android features and improve security on smartphones.

Of the millions of Android apps on the Google Play Store, most work great on newer phones and tablets, even if they were developed for older Android versions. However, some of them have not been updated for a long time, which could potentially pose security issues. These outdated apps could also not comply with the latest Google requirements in terms of confidentiality.

To protect its users against its applications which are potentially full of security vulnerabilities, Google plans to hide all these applications in plain sight. As Apple already does on iOS by eliminating applications that do not meet the latest standards, Google has announced that it will take similar measures on its Play Store.

Also read: Play Store – 300,000 Android smartphones have installed apps infected with malware

Apps that haven’t been updated for a long time will be hidden

Google announced in a blog post that starting November 1, 2022, existing applications that are not targeting an API level within the previous two years the latest major version of Android will not be able to be found or installed by new users of devices running Android OS versions higher than the API level targeted by the applications.

Google also clarifies that as new versions of Android OS are released in the future, the requirement window will be adapted accordingly. Each new level of the API corresponds to a new update from Googlefor example, there was API level 30 for Android 11, and level 29 for Android 10. The latest versions Android 12.1 (L) and Android 12 have API numbers 32 and 31, respectively.

In other words, if an application has not been updated to a version of Android that is less than 2 years old compared to that of your device, the app might disappear from the Google Play Store and thus users would not be able to download it. In an effort to increase security on Android, Google also recently announced that it will automatically remove permissions from apps that you haven’t used in a while.