Google announced that it will use AI to block 1.75 million apps that violate its policies in 2025, down from 2.36 million apps in 2024. This year’s numbers are low because the company’s “layered AI-powered protection” prevents even attempts to publish malicious apps.
Google said it currently conducts more than 10,000 safety checks on all apps and continues to recheck them even after they are released. It added that by using the latest generative AI models, human reviewers will be able to spot malicious patterns faster. The company also blocked 160 million spam ratings and prevented the average 0.5-star rating of the reviewed apps from dropping. Finally, Google stopped 255,000 apps from gaining excessive access to sensitive user data in 2025, down from 1.3 million the year before.
Meanwhile, Google Play Protect, the company’s Android defense system, sniffed out more than 27 million new malicious apps and either warned users or prevented them from running. The company added that Play Protect’s enhanced fraud prevention features now cover 2.8 billion Android devices in 185 markets and have blocked 266 million risky “sideloading” installation attempts.
“Efforts such as developer verification, mandatory up-front review checks, and testing requirements have raised the bar for the Google Play ecosystem and significantly reduced the number of paths for bad actors to gain entry,” the company said in a blog post. “This year, we continue to invest in AI-driven defenses to stay ahead of emerging threats and give Android developers the tools they need to safely build apps.”
Google has been adamant in justifying its relatively high fees for app purchases and subscriptions by touting its investments in app security. However, the company’s Play Store has come under pressure from regulators in Europe and other regions who say it constitutes a monopoly. Last year, the company changed its fee structure for developers who use alternative payment channels, but EU regulators recently claimed that the company was still out of compliance with Digital Markets Act regulations.
