Google today announced a change to the terms of use policy of its virtual store, the Play Store, to frame and punish fraudulent apps that include misleading information in their descriptions. The changes should affect how these applications describe themselves, what they promise and how they advertise themselves.

In the announcement of the development blog Google, the company listed that the modification will occur in two ways. The first changes the description metadata of the applications, which normally use these fields to promote themselves. In the second way, the virtual store will apply stricter guidelines on the previews of the apps, evaluating how accurate they really are.

No trickery

With the metadata change, the Play Store will no longer allow descriptions that encourage users to download or imply that they are dealing with a “premium app” – a very common tactic in fraudulent apps. Google’s online store will also limit program titles to 30 characters, and will not allow special punctuation or emojis, either in the title or in the company. Designs with award-winning seals and icons, as well as terms such as “best” and “free” will also be discarded.

As for app previews, the store will check whether the sequences of images presented in the app's profile correspond to the program's functions. Previews must also be free of buzzwords and other potentially misleading terms.

The new rules against fraudulent apps on the Play Store will go live in the second half of this year and should provide more details about the changes by then. Google has announced that apps that do not follow the new guidelines will not appear in the online store's promotion and recommended fields, and are subject to being banned.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Android Central

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