ReportWire

Tag: Google Play Store

  • Apple dumps dating apps Tea and TeaOnHer from the App Store over privacy and moderation issues

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    Apple has removed dating apps Tea and TeaOnHer from the App Store for violating rules related to content moderation and user privacy. The company told TechCrunch that it pulled the apps as they broke several of its rules, including one mandating that apps can’t share or otherwise use an individual’s personal info without getting their permission first.

    Apple said they also violated a rule concerning user-generated content, which stipulates that apps need to allow for reporting offensive or concerning material, an option to block abusive users and the ability to filter “objectionable material from being posted.” In addition, Apple claimed the apps broke rules related to user reviews. It told TechCrunch they had an “excessive” volume of negative reviews and complaints from users, including ones related to minors’ personal details being shared. The company noted that it raised these issues’ with the apps’ developers, but they were not resolved.

    As it stands, both apps are still available on Android through the Google Play Store. Tea (which is formally called Tea Dating Advice) enables women to post details about men they’ve met or dated. It allows them to post and comment on photos, look up public records on individuals, carry out reverse image searches, share their experiences and rate or review men. Users can, for instance, say whether they’d give a man a “green flag” or a “red flag.”

    TeaOnHer flips that format on its head, with men sharing info about women. Both are pitched as dating safety apps, with Tea telling users they can “ask our anonymous community of women to make sure your date is safe, not a catfish and not in a relationship.”

    Tea first emerged in 2023 and it went viral this year. In July, hackers breached the app and leaked tens of thousands of images, including around 3,000 selfies and photo IDs that users submitted to verify their accounts. The other images included posts, comments and private messages. A second hack exposed more than a million private messages.

    Days after TeaOnHer went live in August (ripping off text from Tea’s App Store description in the process), it emerged that app had its own security issues. It was possible to view photo IDs and selfies that users had submitted for account verification, as well as their email addresses.

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  • Google asks Supreme Court to rescue it from its Epic lawsuit

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    Google is asking the Supreme Court to step in and pause the ruling the company received in its lawsuit with Epic Games, according to a filing the company shared with Engadget. The company is making its request following a major legal loss to Epic Games in October 2024, which required it to open the Google Play Store to third-party app stores for a period of three years.

    Google is asking the justices to intervene by October 17, three days before the injunction Epic won starts to go into effect. The company hopes that after offering a stay, the Court will take up the case for a full review. Asking the Supreme Court for relief wouldn’t have even entered the picture if Google’s appeal hadn’t already been . The company’s filing includes multiple technical reasons why the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling should be overturned. It also offers several examples why the original injunction Epic won is bad for Google, developers and consumers.

    Google believes the injunction “[creates] enormous security and safety risks by enabling stores that stock malicious, deceptive or pirated content to proliferate,” and that it burdens developers with “constantly monitoring dozens or hundreds of stores that might suddenly carry their apps without their knowledge.” The company also notes that the injunction will make it “substantially easier for developers to avoid compensating Google,” for Play Store services that have nothing to do with payments.

    On the losing end of its four-year legal battle with Fortnite developer Epic, Google wasn’t just ordered to open up the Play Store to third-party app stores, it’s also no longer allowed to make deals around pre-installing the Play Store on phones or force developers to use its billing system. In contrast to Epic’s case with Apple, where the developer only won a small, if meaningful concession, Google’s loss gave Epic nearly everything it asked for.

    When both Apple and Google asked the Supreme Court to review their case last year, the court denied their requests without explanation. It’s not clear if Google will get what it wants, but given the much larger changes it’ll be forced to make if the injunction moves forward, it’s possible the court could respond differently.

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    Ian Carlos Campbell

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  • Google Play Store Collections Might Finally End My Doomscrolling Fatigue

    Google Play Store Collections Might Finally End My Doomscrolling Fatigue

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    I have a problem. I keep too many of my apps open on my phone. I do it because I constantly check my feeds and then forget to close them out. Google’s latest Android feature could finally offer a new way to browse my feeds without diving into each app individually. If you’ve been enjoying a few of the new capabilities of the Android 15 beta, this is another one to try out. However, you may need to fiddle with privacy settings to avoid the feature becoming a sludge-filled pit of algorithmic content recommendations.

    Starting Wednesday, Android users just need to hold down on the Play Store app icon on their home screen to add one or more Category widgets to their phones. There are seven different categories, from “Read” books and news apps to “Listen” for all your music or podcast content. You can adjust the size of these from taking up the whole screen to the size of a single icon.

    Google

    How Does Play Store Collections Work?

    These widgets offer a few unique ways to keep on top of your apps. The “Games” category provides a rundown of limited-timed events in your installed mobile titles. The “Food” collection will use Uber Eats or Google Maps to recommend some restaurants based on your location (though not if you disable location tracking). The “Shop category will display if you’ve left any items in your carts.

    You won’t have much control over what apps get added to different Collection categories. The “Watch” collection includes most of your regular streaming apps and YouTube and showcases your TikTok For You feed. The “Social” collection displays other apps like Pinterest, Reddit, and TikTok. 

    Several apps won’t show a feed at all. Apps like Twitter, or (sigh) “X,” along with Meta apps like Instagram, won’t display any recommended content, though you can select the apps from the bottom bar inside the widget. Google says neither app supports the current SDK, which is pretty on-brand for Meta and Elon Musk. At the very least, Collections is an easy way to find all your various apps without scrounging them in your app list or home screen.

    The feed refreshes every day, but its recommendation algorithms are still opaque. For instance, if you recently caught a few minutes of Milf Manor yesterday, Google TV might be in the “Watch” category and suggest several more reality TV shows to help rot your brain. If you sunk some time into Clash of Clans, the “Games” collection will shove a bunch of YouTube videos of tutorials and strategy videos to get you playing even more. 

    At least you can manually turn off which apps bombard you with recommended content. With the latest Play Store, you can navigate to the “Personalization in Play” settings page to manually disable different apps from recommending content. This gets applied across all Categories and inside the Play Store itself.

    Google told Gizmodo that it plans to let users create their own custom collections. That feature might roll out sometime later this year, but as it stands, Categories could be a quick way to check on multiple feeds all at once without having to dive into each app individually.

    An App for Apps

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    Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

    This is Google’s larger effort to make Play Store less of a single shop for apps into its kind of App for apps. Google is also launching a “Comics” curated space inside the Play Store, though it will be restricted to Japan for now. This will display content from various manga apps, including select sample chapters. It’s still algorithmically curated, and you can’t simply browse the full list of sample chapters available through the various manga distributors daily.

    But if the point is to get you to return to the Play Store, then Google will likely need to cool it on algorithmic content generation. The Mountain View tech giant is trying to entice users to spend more money on the Play Store by giving those Play Points members more rewards. Those who have only spent a few bucks on Play Store for Bronze tier status might not get much, but Silver and Gold members can try out a few exclusive events at San Diego Comic-Con. Platinum and Diamond members, or those who are spending a lot more on Play Store, might be able to receive exclusive, physical hardware rewards in compensation for the cash they’re dropping regularly on their apps.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • EA’s Next Soccer Game Is Turn-Based And Looks Like An RPG

    EA’s Next Soccer Game Is Turn-Based And Looks Like An RPG

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    Screenshot: EA

    EA’s next soccer game is going to be a bit different than most of its countless sports releases. That’s because, unlike FIFA or Madden, its upcoming FC Tactical is a turn-based RPG-like soccer game featuring magical-seeming special moves. Weird, but intriguing!

    The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Madden NFL 24

    Announced on October 11, EA Sports’s FC Tactical is a free-to-play soccer game for mobile devices launching in 2024. But to be clear: This new game isn’t replacing FC Mobile 24 Soccer, the pre-existing EA soccer game on phones that plays like the console version. Instead, FC Tactical is something very different, described by EA in a press release as a turn-based game that will contain over 5,000 authentic players across 10 leagues, including Premier and Ligue 1.

    According to EA, matches are “simulated, with turn-based opportunities” where players will choose to defend, attack, pull off “skill moves,” or take shots at scoring a goal. Screenshots reveal an interface that looks a lot like other turn-based strategy games, just instead of tanks or fantasy warriors, there are soccer players in sports arenas.

    A screenshot shows the turn-based RPG-like interface of FC Tactical.

    Screenshot: EA

    EA says FC Tactical will feature a variety of modes including online friend matches, ranked play, leagues, and guilds. Folks will have to “train players” to “master high-skill moves” or unlock specific traits. That sounds a lot like this is some weird soccer RPG, and things only get weirder when you look at some of the screenshots featured on the game’s website and Google Play Store page.

    Some of the images show soccer players pulling off what I would describe as special attacks, complete with magical-looking visual effects like flames and energy pulses. I don’t expect any of these players are going to be summoning massive monsters to help them score a goal, but who knows?

    EA Sport’s FC Tactical launches next year. Players can pre-register via the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Lawsuit against Google over app store competition gets class-action designation

    Lawsuit against Google over app store competition gets class-action designation

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    A U.S. judge in California on Monday allowed litigation against Alphabet Inc’s Google to proceed as a consumer class action of 21 million individuals who accuse the company of violating U.S. anti-competition laws in how it runs its Google Play app store.

    U.S. District Judge James Donato said in a 27-page order that the plaintiffs had established the legal elements of “commonality” and other factors to form a class action that alleges anticompetitive business practices.

    The class members are Google Play Store individual consumers in 12 states, including Ohio, Michigan and Georgia, in addition to American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    The case is among an array of pending antitrust actions against Google, and state prosecutors in more than three dozen other states lodged similar claims against Google last year. The plaintiffs’ lawyers in the newly certified class action are jointly working with those state enforcers.

    Nationwide, plaintiffs have identified aggregate damages of $4.7 billion.

    Google has defended its Play Store business practices, denying the claims in the case before Donato and others.

    A spokesperson for Google said on Monday: “We’re evaluating the ruling, and after that, we’ll assess our options.”

    Lawyers for the company at U.S. law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius on Monday did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

    In arguing against class-action certification, attorneys for Google said the plaintiffs failed to show how they were harmed, an argument that Donato rejected.

    A lead attorney for the class at plaintiffs’ firm Bartlit Beck declined to comment.

    The class attorneys allege among other things that Google prohibited app developers from steering customers to competitors and used “misleading warnings to deter customers from downloading apps outside the Google Play Store.”

    They claimed that “but for Google’s anticompetitive conduct, plaintiffs and class members would have paid lower prices for apps and in-app purchases and would have benefited from expanded choice.”

    A trial is scheduled to begin in June 2023.

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