There are many apps in the Google Play Store with various categories. According to data from Statista, the Android app store has hosted around 3.5 million apps. Of the millions of applications, there are some applications that are considered outdated or obsolete by Google.
Although the application is not harmful to the user's mobile phone or tablet device, but in some cases Google seems to want to make things more secure for Android users.
Thus starting November 2022 Google will hide outdated applications from new users as reported by us from Android Central, Thursday (7/4/2022).
For now, if the user uses the old application, there is no need to worry because they will still be able to use it. This application can also still be seen in the Play Store and can even be reinstalled if it has been deleted or can be reinstalled on a new device.
But for the record, if the user has never used an application that is considered by Google to be outdated, then the application will not appear in the Play Store even though it is searched for in a search.
In particular, this will apply to Android apps that don't target Android API versions within two years of the current version.
In other words, apps that today target Android 10 or earlier will be blocked from new users. As new versions of Android roll out, the two-year window will move forward accordingly.
"Users with the latest devices or those who are fully up to date with Android updates are expected to realize the full potential of all the privacy and security protections Android has to offer." wrote Google.
"Extending our target-level API requirements will protect users from installing legacy apps that may not have this protection." he continued.
To keep up with this policy change is entirely on the shoulders of the app developer. Most of the developers update their apps frequently, so this shouldn't be a problem for most of the apps and games on the Play Store.
Even developers who have very old apps still jump every year to update them to target the latest Android version.