Beware of Discontinued apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store
According to a new study by Pixalate, more than 1.6 million applications listed in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store have not been updated for more than two years. These are called discontinued applications.
Outdated or discontinued, those applications that are not updated by programmers can pose a risk. Security vulnerabilities that affect them are no longer patched, and this exposes users to potential attacks.
Compared to the first quarter of the year, Pixalate finds that the number of abandoned apps for the App Store decreased by 29%, from 724,000 to 515,000. On Google Play, the trend is not the same.
From the more than 967,000 apps abandoned in the first quarter, Google Play grew to more than 1.1 million apps abandoned in the second quarter, that is, with an estimated increase of 16%. Apps registered in Russia and China will likely be dropped from the Google Play Store.
In the last six months, Pixalate also points out that there have been more applications abandoned than applications updated. A discovery that applies to both the App Store and the Play Store.
The report also mentions super abandoned apps that haven’t been updated for more than five years. They are more than 306,000, while 840,000 applications have not received an update for more than three years.
Super abandoned apps represent 8% of abandoned apps on the App Store, and here the Google Play Store does better, as it only has 5%.
Specialist in protection against advertising fraud, Pixalate places its study in particular in the context of advertisers who must take into account the frequency of application updates before deciding to invest.
Remember that Apple and Google have implemented measures to delete or, failing that, hide old applications, however, they may still be present on devices.
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