A new App "Remove China Apps" which was released on May 17 has gained popularity in India which has crossed over 50 lakh downloads within weeks of launch.
This App guidance users to remove Chinese apps like TikTok, UC Browser and other apps that are purportedly Chinese in origin.
The app allowed users to find out China apps on their smartphones and then provided an option to instantly delete them. Remove China Apps was free to download and was free of advertisements.
It has gained 1.89 lakh reviews and holds a 4.9 star rating on the Google Play Store.
But now, the App that has gained popularity in India in recent weeks has been pulled from the Play Store for violating Google Play Store's Deceptive Behavior Policy.
According to Google Play Stores Policy
We don’t allow apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible. Apps must provide an accurate disclosure, description, and images/video of their functionality in all parts of the metadata and should perform as reasonably expected by the user. Apps must not attempt to mimic functionality or warnings from the operating system or other apps. Any changes to device settings must be made with the user’s knowledge and consent and be easily reversible by the user.
According to the Play Store rules, no app on Play store can encourage users to remove a third-party app which was the key idea behind the Remove China Apps.
The Remove China Apps developed by Jaipur based startup OneTouchAppLabs took to Twitter to confirm the removal of the app from Google Play Store. The app developer noted that the Remove China Apps doesn’t in any way “promote or force people to uninstall any of the application” and is developed only “for educational purposes only.”
Before Remove China Apps, the Mitron app also was taken down from Google Play Store. The app was taken down by Google for violating its spam and minimum functionality policy.