How Google Play works

Users are in control of their data and permissions.

We’re dedicated to helping people understand and make informed decisions about the data that apps and games seek to access on their devices. As part of that commitment, we require developers to disclose how they collect and use personal data in their Google Play app listings.

Developers are only able to ask for sensitive user data – including SMS messages, contact lists, device location and more – when it is appropriate for the primary use of the app. For example, a messaging app might want to access a user’s contact information to be most useful. Developers need to comprehensively disclose the use of these permissions before their app is published to Google Play, and are then reviewed during the app review process. Developers cannot sell personal or sensitive data.

If the developer has an acceptable use case, they still need to ask users for permission before use. Users are always given the option of declining permission with a single click. For access to location, users have even more control with the ability to limit access to a singular instance, rather than on an ongoing basis.

Visit the Developer Policy Centre for more information on these and other policies.

Keeping Android devices protected, automatically.

Powerful security protections are built into every Android device. These aren’t tools that users have to find and enable on their own; they’re automatic and working from day one.

One example is Google Play Protect, the built-in malware protection for Android devices with Google Mobile Services enabled. Google Play Protect and our systems scan and analyse billions of apps to keep our ecosystem safe for users and developers.

Since launching Google Play Protect, we’ve made significant improvements in our ability to detect abuse, from impersonation and fraud to inappropriate content and malware. New machine learning models and techniques enable us to identify and reject 99% of apps with abusive or malicious content before anyone can use them.

Google Play Protect is only one of many layers of Android security. Find out more about the many different ways in which Android keeps users safe.

Helping parents find enriching content for children.

We are committed to providing a safer and more positive environment for children and families. We help parents find enriching and entertaining content with our Children's tab on Google Play filled with Expert-Approved apps and games (currently available in the US and some other countries and launching globally in 2021). We also empower parents to set healthy digital ground rules with Family Link parental controls.

Our Google Play policies also provide additional protections for children and families. These policies require that apps and games targeted to children have appropriate content, show ads suitable for children and meet other requirements, including ones related to personally identifiable information.

Our policies protect both users and developers from bad actors.

Our Google Play developer policies are designed to ensure that we, in partnership with our global developer community, continue to deliver the world’s most innovative and trusted apps to our users.

Key policies include restricted content, user privacy, malware and mobile unwanted software. Our policies are generally updated quarterly and all developers are notified via email of any changes. Developers have at least 30 days to make any necessary updates to their apps, and longer if the updates are likely to be significant.

After the grace period, if a developer violates any of our Google Play policies, their app is removed or suspended from the Google Play store. The developer is notified by email about the specific reasons for this action, provided with instructions on how to republish their app, and provided with instructions on how to appeal the action taken against their app.

Repeated or serious violations of these policies (such as malware, fraud and apps that may cause user or device harm) or of the Developer Distribution Agreement may result in the termination of the developer’s accounts. See more information on our enforcement process here.

Every app is thoroughly reviewed before it goes live on Google Play.

With over a thousand human reviewers and automated protections, we have significantly increased our ability to detect and remove malicious apps. Before any app is listed or after it's been updated on Google Play, it undergoes an extensive review to check for compliance with privacy policies, sensitive permissions declarations and more. Learn more about how developers can prepare their app for approval.

App reviews are typically completed within 7 days, but may take longer. If the review passes, the app is available to publish. If it doesn’t pass, the developer is contacted with the reason, and can resubmit the app at any time with the appropriate updates.

An equitable Google Play starts with policies committed to fairness and extends to how we promote apps to the tools that we make available to developers.

We believe that all developers should be given the opportunity to succeed. We work to provide a level playing field for everyone, large or small, third-party or first-party Google apps.

Our developer policies apply equally to all apps distributed on Google Play, including Google’s own apps.

We use the same principles to decide which apps to promote on Google Play, whether they're third-party apps or our own apps. In fact, we regularly promote apps by Google’s competitors in our Editors' Choice picks when they provide a great user experience. Similarly, our algorithms rank third-party apps and games using the same criteria as for ranking Google's own apps.

Google Play Console is a powerful tool for bringing apps to market, and we make it accessible to everyone, along with many other developer tools and services. However, there is data or specific features that are only made available to some developers.