So, you’re looking to download a popular and powerful app. You download it and open it up, but you see that it looks completely different from what you thought it’d look. Guess what, you just downloaded an imposter app. Imposter apps have a title and icon similar to another app to trick people into downloading them. It could be an app named “Instantgram” and use an approximation of the Instagram icon. To make things worse, the developer would take out an ad on the app to put it at the top of the results. This is a really annoying trend on the Google Play Store because you never have any idea of what’s on the imposter app. Often, you’ll be presented with an ad before you get to the sign-in screen. If a million people download the app, then that’s a million people to view the ad; ill-gotten gain for the developer.
Google is combatting imposter apps on the Play Store
Imposter apps pull several tricks to get you to download. Aside from a misleading title, they can also imply a connection to an established company that doesn’t exist. You could see an app called “Twitter+”. This implies that it’s an official Twitter app, but that’s not the case. The developer could also have a name that implies a connection. That “Twitter+” app could be made by a developer called “Twitter Official” or “Twitter Co.” to fool you into trusting it. However, the official Twitter company’s name on the Play Store is “Twitter, Inc.“. Last, but not least, developers would use company logos and alter them to make them seem like they’re legitimate. That “Twitter+” app could just take the Twitter app icon and add a “+” next to the bird.
But the company is cracking down
Google is updating its Impersonation Policy to crack down on developers doing this. The company will crack down on companies that post apps with titles that are too similar to others. The company will also look at app icons to make sure that they don’t use pre-existing icons. Apps that violate these new guidelines will risk being taken down.
