Google says its AI systems helped deter Play Store malware in 2025

Fewer atrocious actors are targeting Google Play with malicious apps, the institution says, a displacement that the tech elephantine credits with its accrued investments successful proactive information systems and AI technology.

In its latest Android app ecosystem information report released connected Thursday, Google said it prevented 1.75 cardinal policy-violating apps from being published connected Google Play successful 2025, down from 2.36 cardinal successful 2024 and 2.28 cardinal successful 2023.

The yearly study offers a look astatine however Google is keeping Android users harmless by reviewing and monitoring apps to support against malware, fiscal fraud, privateness invasions, sneaky subscriptions, and different threats.

For instance, Google says it banned much than 80,000 developer accounts successful 2025 that had tried to people these types of atrocious apps. That fig is besides down year-over-year from 158,000 successful 2024, and 333,000 successful 2023.

Google touted however its investments successful AI and different real-time defenses person helped combat these sorts of threats, but besides however they served arsenic a deterrent.

“Initiatives similar developer verification, mandatory pre-review checks, and investigating requirements person raised the barroom for the Google Play ecosystem, importantly reducing the paths for atrocious actors to enter,” the company’s blog station explained, adding that its “AI-powered, multi-layer protections” person been “discouraging atrocious actors from publishing malicious apps.”

Google noted it present runs implicit 10,000 information checks connected each app it publishes and continues to recheck apps aft publication. The institution has besides integrated its latest generative AI models into the app reappraisal process, which has helped quality reviewers find much analyzable malicious patterns faster. Google said it plans to summation its AI investments successful 2026 to enactment up of emerging threats.

In addition, Google said it prevented much than 255,000 apps from gaining excessive entree to delicate idiosyncratic data, a fig that’s down from 1.3 cardinal successful 2024. The institution besides blocked 160 cardinal spam ratings and reviews past year, and prevented an mean 0.5-star standing driblet for apps targeted by review bombing.

Meanwhile, Android’s defence system, known arsenic Google Play Protect, identified much than 27 cardinal caller malicious apps, and warned users oregon blocked the app from running. That’s an summation from the 13 cardinal non-Play Store apps identified successful 2024 and 5 cardinal seen successful 2023. These increases look to suggest that atrocious actors are present much often avoiding the Play Store erstwhile targeting users with their malicious apps.