Play Store will hide apps that haven’t been updated for two years

Google is going to hide apps in the Play Store that have not had an update for two years. Apps must be at least aimed at Android 11 or newer from November 1, otherwise they will no longer appear in search results.

The move aims to improve security for users, says Google. Older apps often don’t support newer security measures, which makes them less able to function securely on users’ devices. The apps will remain in the Play Store, but because they no longer appear in search results, few users will find or install them.

The move is in line with previous measures. New apps may not be more than one Android version behind. As soon as Android 13 is released later this year, new apps should therefore target Android 12 or later.

The new measure means that when it is introduced on November 1, existing apps must support Android 11 or newer in order to continue to be found. Google measures this by the ‘api level’, which an app targets. That API level goes up with each Android upgrade and Android 11 is API level 30. It is still unknown how many apps Google will hit with this measure.