Google Suspends 'Remove China Apps' From Play Store, But People Want It Back

After a record-breaking two weeks, where 'Remove China Apps' got over 10 lakh downloads on Android, Google has now removed the app from its Play Store, citing it for a policy violation.

Where the Boycott China movement has been trending online for a few days now, Indian users were obviously furious at Google's suspension of the 'Remove China Apps' app.

Google Play Store

Developed by OneTouch AppLabs (this is the first and only app developed by them as of now), the Remove China Apps app -- when installed on your Android phone -- would show only third-party apps installed on the app, not the pre-installed apps by Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, etc.

The app developer also tweeted about the removal of 'Remove China Apps' app from Google's Play Store.

In their tweet, they didn't offer any reason as to why their app was being suspended by Google, which is definitely something to take note.

Twitter

The makers of 'Remove China Apps' thanked everyone for "all your support in past 2 weeks", hinting at the amazing response to the app, and also offered a tip on how to find the origin of any app by a simple Google search.

By typing any app's name "origin country" in Google's search box, you can find the origin country of any app on Google Play Store, according to the makers of 'Remove China Apps'.

Online response to app removal

As expected, quite a few people on Twitter expressed their disapproval for the suspension of 'Remove China Apps' from Google's Play Store.

Twitter

Twitter

From people commenting about how Google Play Store is succumbing to Chinese pressure, to how it's a communist act, there were a wide range of disapproving thoughts of Google's suspension of Remove China Apps.

Twitter

Some other disgruntled users called out Google Play Store for doing a wrong, mentioning how it may be time to find an alternative to Google Play if the Remove China Apps was not restored to the Google Play Store.

Twitter

But the overwhelming response on Twitter was just this -- people asking Google to restore the Remove China Apps on to the Play Store.

Why Google Play Store suspended the app

A report in TechCrunch claimed the Remove China Apps was suspended because it violated Google Play Store¡¯s Deceptive Behaviour Policy, where an app is forbidden from making changes to user's device settings -- which is what Remove China Apps was doing, essentially, by encouraging users to delete or disable third-party apps.

After installing Remove China Apps, it looked for all the apps that are installed on the device, then from that, it populated a list of apps that are made by Chinese developers (looking through its own database of apps).

After populating the list, if users wished to uninstall a particular app, they could simply uninstall it from the app by hitting the delete button to the right. This behaviour was not in accordance with Google Play Store policy.

Another app called Mitron, hailed as a 'local' TikTok rival app was suspended from the Google Play Store recently as well, on the grounds of violating its ¡®spam and minimum functionality¡¯ policy.