Google’s new Play Store rules target annoying ads and copycat crypto apps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Bad behavior in the Play Store and unskippable ads are some of the things that are being cut down on by the company. The company announced wide-ranging policy changes on Wednesday that update rules across several categories to be more specific.

One change that will affect your phone usage the most is ads. The updated guidelines will come into effect on September 30th. The new policy tells developers that they can't show full-screen ads that won't allow you to close them after 15 seconds. If you choose to watch an ad to get reward points, or if they pop up during a break in the action, those rules won't necessarily apply.

The 15-second benchmark is new and the current policy states that ads must be easily dismissible without penalty. It makes it so that you won't have to sit through a two-minute long ad where the "x" only appears after 70 seconds, right in the middle of a game or while trying

Gif: Google

Right after you load a level or article, ads shouldn't be "unexpected", according to the new rules. The current rules say that surprise disruptive ads aren't allowed, but the new rules give more examples of violations.

The ad policies for children's apps are more strict. Some changes to the tools that developers use to deliver those ads will be made by November.

Changes are being made to how apps can use the built-in Virtual Private Network tools. Unless the user gives explicit permission, apps won't be allowed to use their own VPNs to collect user data, or to help users circumvent ads from other apps. This could help curb ad fraud where users pretend to be clicking on ads from one country while actually being in another, but it could also affect things like DuckDuckGo's privacy focused app tracking protection.

Several other changes are also included in the new rules from the internet giant. Developers will be required to link to an easy-to-use, online method if they want to cancel subscriptions in their app. A section that says apps can't contain misleading information about vaccines, treatments, or other harmful health practices has been added to the site.

The update made some changes to the language around monitoring apps, saying that any app made to track people has to use a specific flag telling Google what it is doing and that apps have to say that they can monitor or track you in their play store description. Even if the user claims the person being tracked is aware of it, these types of apps are not allowed to be used to track someone else.

In addition to other companies, developers, and organizations, the new rules say that developers can't trick people into thinking that their app is associated with an "entity" This means that an app with iconography could trick users into thinking it is related to a government project. It was already in the guidelines that you can't call your app "Justin Bieber Official" unless you have his permission.

Image: Google

It looks like this example is perfect timing for the company. The policy won't go into effect until the end of August, but the company announced it just a day before Sen. Brown sent it a letter.