Two Android adware apps are taken out of the Play Store

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The discovery of these two Android adware apps is a reminder for us to spring clean our Android devices. If you have Sun Pro Beauty Camera and Funny Sweet Beauty Selfie Camera apps, we're telling you to delete these now. If you need to factory reset your phones, do just that. The two apps with around 1.5 million downloads were found to have access to additional unnecessary permissions that could let them do more malicious things than only serve ads. The apps requested permission to record audio and listen to what's being said around the device at any time. Both of them also have a tool that prevents the APK from being unwrapped and analyzed. It doesn't necessarily mean the intent was to use it for malice. But it does remind us that you need to pay attention to what apps ask from you and whether said apps would need access to these features.

Source: Lifehacker Australia

Google Play Store might get dark mode treatment soon

Photo: XDA Developers

Google has been aiming for a system-wide dark mode for Android 10, with its first-party apps getting the option. A couple of apps seem to be particularly time-consuming to adapt to dark mode: Gmail and Google Play Store. We've seen this feature show up on Gmail recently. And now it looks like Google Play Store has followed suit, with some Google Pixel smartphones getting dark mode. But this seems to be limited to Android 10 for now, so if you're using a device running on Android Pie or older, this might not make its way to you yet.

Source: Tech Radar 

Tinder removes Google Play payments for its Android app

Tinder users on Android who want to subscribe to its premium services will no longer have their payments processed through the Play Store. Tinder users will now need to enter their credit card information directly into the app. And according to rumours, this is because Tinder’s owner Match Group isn’t happy with the high percentage Google is taking from its revenue. Google takes as much as 30 percent of the revenue if you use its payment system. Tinder is almost always in the top ten of the money-making apps on the Play Store that aren’t in the gaming category.

And while Tinder pulling out might not affect Google’s overall revenue, it could set a bad precedent and entice other high-earning apps to do the same. One company who’s pulled this move is Epic Games. The company behind smash-hit game Fortnite made headlines when it decided to side-step the Google Play Store entirely for the Android version of the game.

The Google Play Store nudges users to delete unused apps

Some users seem to be getting an alert from the Play Store to start cleaning out their phones—one app at a time. In a move reminiscent of the app manager it released back in 2016, a notification is popping up to remind Android users to delete unused apps. If you get the notification and tap on it, you’ll end up in the Notification section of the Play Store. From there, you can tap again to get the list of apps you haven’t used in a while. It also shows how much space you can save if you take out these apps. As mentioned, this doesn’t seem to be showing up to all users. But if you tend to not fill your phone with apps you don’t use, you might not even get the alert at all.

Source: Android Police