Google Removes Apps Showing Distracting Ads from Play Store

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Tech giant Google recently removed around 600 apps from the Play Store due to disruptive ads. According to Google, these apps violated the company’s ads policy, which forbids developers from displaying ads when their app is not in use. Google explained that an ad is disruptive if it interferes with the functionality and usability of a phone, like a full-screen ad that pops up when making a phone call or when navigating other apps. These troublesome ads are often difficult to dismiss, resulting in poor user experience and unintentional ad clicks that cause wasted money for advertisers. Last year, Google developed new technology to help trace the apps that host disruptive ads. After doing so, the company issued a warning to the app developers and gave them time to fix their apps. Developers who refused to fix their apps were dealt with using drastic measures. One particular developer got more than 40 of its apps removed from the Play Store. Google found that most of the removed apps targeted English-speaking users and that many of them were games and utility apps. In a statement, Google admitted that app developers have become more proficient in evading detection. The company added that the offenders had all used similar techniques to bypass discovery, but it was unclear if their strategies were coordinated. For its next actions, Google assured users that it will continue to invest in tools to detect and ban more apps that show disruptive ads. Google is also set to refund brands whose ads were shown in disruptive ways.