Google to crack down on fraudulent app installs in Play Store

Google has enhanced its systems for identifying and stopping fraudulent app installs meant to affect app rankings in the mobile app store. “If an install is conducted with the intention to manipulate an app’s placement on Google Play, our systems will detect and filter it,” Google Search Quality Analyst Kazushi Nagayama and Google Product Manager Andrew Ahn wrote in a blog post. “Furthermore, developers who continue to exhibit such behaviors could have their apps taken down from Google Play.” Aside from this, Nagayama and Ahn remind developers that if they promote their apps, these must be done through legitimate means.