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

TechCrunch · Feb 19, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Fewer bad actors are targeting Google Play with malicious apps, the company says, a shift that the tech giant credits with its increased investments in proactive security systems and AI technology. In its latest Android app ecosystem safety report released on Thursday, Google said it prevented 1.75 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play in 2025, down from 2.36 million in 2024 and 2.28 million in 2023. The annual report offers a look at how Google is keeping Android users safe by reviewing and monitoring apps to protect against malware, financial fraud, privacy invasions, sneaky subscriptions, and other threats. For instance, Google says it banned more than 80,000 developer accounts in 2025 that had tried to publish these types of bad apps. That figure is also down year-over-year from 158,000 in 2024, and 333,000 in 2023. Google touted how its investments in AI and other real-time defenses have helped fight these sorts of threats, but also how they served as a deterrent. “Initiatives like developer verification, mandatory pre-review checks, and testing requirements have raised the bar for the Google Play ecosystem, significantly reducing the paths for bad actors to enter,” the company’s blog post explained, adding that its “AI-powered, multi-layer protections” have been “discouraging bad actors from publishing malicious apps.” Google noted it now runs over 10,000 safety checks on every app it publishes and continues to recheck apps after publication. The company has also integrated its latest generative AI models into the app review process, which has helped human reviewers find more complex malicious patterns faster. Google said it plans to increase its AI investments in 2026 to stay ahead of emerging threats. In addition, Google said it prevented more than 255,000 apps from gaining excessive access to sensitive user data, a figure that’s down from 1.3 million in 2024. The company also blocked 160 million spam ratings and reviews last year, and prevented an average 0.5-star rating drop for apps targeted by review bombing. Meanwhile, Android’s defense system, known as Google Play Protect, identified more than 27 million new malicious apps, and warned users or blocked the app from running. That’s an increase from the 13 million non-Play Store apps identified in 2024 and five million seen in 2023. These increases seem to suggest that bad actors are now more often avoiding the Play Store when targeting users with their malicious apps. Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sarahp@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal. View Bio