On Thursday, in a blog post, Google indicated about the comeback of Mitron on Play Store but Remove China Apps may not come back. Recently, both the apps were removed from the Play Store for violating Google policies. The Mitron app was suspended from the Google Play Store for violating its spam and minimum functionality policy and Remove China Apps was pulled for breaking its deceptive behaviour policy.
Sameer Samat, Vice President, Android, and Google Play in a blog post stated, “Earlier this week, we removed a video app for a number of technical policy violations. We have an established process of working with developers to help them fix issues and resubmit their apps.
We’ve given this developer some guidance and once they’ve addressed the issue the app can go back up on Play.”
Samat did not take the name of the app but the hint was distinctly towards Mitron app. “We don’t allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services,” Google had earlier stated.
Shivank Agarwal of IIT Roorkee bought the source code of Mitron App from Pakistani coding company Qboxus.
Indicating towards the reason behind the suspension of Remove China Apps from the Play Store, Samat stated that it was against Google’s policy to remove apps that exhorted the removal or disability of third-party apps. “We don’t allow an app that encourages or incentivizes users into removing or disabling third-party apps or modifying device settings or features unless it is part of a verifiable security service”.
“This is a longstanding rule designed to ensure a healthy, competitive environment where developers can succeed based upon design and innovation. When apps are allowed to specifically target other apps, it can lead to behaviour that we believe is not in the best interest of our community of developers and consumers. We’ve enforced this policy against other apps in many countries consistently in the past just as we did here,” Samat added.
The Jaipur-based OneTouch AppLabs developed Remove China Apps in the backdrop of anti-Chinese sentiment among Indian users. Howbeit, the developers had claimed that the app has been developed for “educational purposes only”.
Earlier this month, Google removed TikTok’s 1-star ratings on the Play Store which picked up its ratings on the app.
