Although it is not usually that frequent, sometimes we can find some other app on Google Play that makes us suspicious, that is, that we believe that it may not only violate the rules of the American firm’s store, but that it may be malicious for Android users.
Luckily, we will have at our disposal different ways to be able to report any type of application , be it a game, a music app, for audio, etc. Although, no matter how much we carry out this process, nothing will ensure that they finally remove it forever from the Google store. Therefore, once said complaint is filed, it will remain in the hands of the team that is in charge of this precisely within the company’s store. But, if you want to learn how it can be done from any Android mobile, take note.
Report them on Google Play
Security on Android has greatly improved in recent years. Basically, because now we are more capable than ever of letting Google know that an app is malicious in its app store. Therefore, there are fewer and fewer malicious applications that we can find in the Play Store.
Although, from time to time, there are still some applications of dubious origin that escape the control of the manufacturer. Therefore, if at any time you come across malicious software or software that has dubious content, you can always report it by following the explanation that we are going to give you now below.
And it is that, if you do not take action on the matter, nothing will be able to alert the Android store to act against that malicious application. However, the company itself advises us to make sure that it complies with the following content policies and local legislation, which we will find on this Google website . In the event that these rules are not followed, we will be able to act if you consider it so. Therefore, you must follow these methods depending on whether they are game, music, book or movie apps, which are the categories of tools that we find in the Play Store.
games and music
The way in which we can report applications on Google Play has been changing over time, so now it is much more intuitive and easy for Android users. More than anything, because it allows us in a few seconds to record that there is something suspicious or that the store policy is skipped in a certain application.
Also, when we report an app to the store, the store will check to see if there really is anything out of the ordinary with it. That is why it will not do any good to file false complaints against an app. And it is that there must be many complaints towards a certain app for the firm to take action as soon as possible. To achieve this, we must follow these steps on our Android phone:
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- Go to the details page of an app or game.
- Tap on the three vertical dots that will appear at the top right.
- Click on the Mark as inappropriate option.
- Select a reason.
- Finally, click on Send.
The reasons that the Android app store will offer us within ‘ Mark as inappropriate ‘ are the following:
- sexual content.
- Explicit violence.
- Hateful or harassing content.
- Incorrect classification.
- Illegal drugs/other drugs.
- Imitation or impersonation of identity.
- Another objection: when selecting this option and clicking send, we must expressly write the reason for the objection that we want to make to the store.
books and movies
In this case, as much as for music and game apps, among many others, we do find the previous option to report software that we consider dangerous, the truth is that for books and movies that we can download on Google Play, there is no option as such. The only asset that we will have within the store as such, in this case, will be to write a review and assess said content within the application store of the United States company. That is, we will not be able to mark a movie or book as inappropriate content.
However, we can fill out this form made only for the books section of the Play Store and the Google Play Books app. In the case of movies, we can choose to download the Google TV app (formerly known as Play Movies). From within this software, we find the same options as the Android store. Therefore, to report a series or movie we must do the following:
- Enter the application.
- Click on the movie or series you want.
- Tap on the three vertical dots that appear at the top right.
- Click Submit Feedback .
- Finally, write the reason why you are reporting the movie or series > Submit.
Report apps from the web
Not only will we be able to file a complaint against a Google Play app from the store itself, but we can also do it through a specific page. In this way, we can report any app in which we believe that there is some type of infringement due to the use of a brand, car rights… To do this, we only have to enter this request from our Android phone and follow these steps:
- Once inside, we will have to fill in a series of questions. All this will be necessary to inform Google in the most precise way about the misuse that is being made of a certain application.
- Then, we will have to fill in the different questions that they ask us.
- In our case, we will have to choose ‘ Google Play: Applications ‘ in the first question.
Once we select the option that we have mentioned, we can choose between the following alternatives:
- Report a violation of the Terms of Service or the Developer Distribution Agreement.
- Report a review or comment that does not comply with the comment posting policy.
- A problem with payments (need a refund, problem with in-app purchases, etc.).
- Intellectual property issue: report copyright infringement, circumvention, etc.
- Other legal issue: Report content for another legal reason not listed.
Depending on the option we choose, we will go on to answer another series of questions. Therefore, once we complete this form, a final Create request option will appear, with which the request will be sent to the Google team.
Report inappropriate comments
For comments or reviews that we believe do not comply with the US company’s policy for Google Play, we will have to act directly from the developer’s app store. So before we move on to making a report, we’d better take a look at that posting policy . Although, in general, this will be inappropriate:
- Spam and fake reviews.
- Advertising
- Conflict of interests.
- Content protected by copyright.
- Personal and confidential information.
- Explicit sexual content.
- Hate speech.
- Reviews with offensive content.
Therefore, once said policy has been reviewed, if we believe that said comment continues to be harmful to the Android user community , we will have to carry out the following steps:
- Open Google Play > find the review you want to report.
- Click on the three vertical dots.
- Choose Mark as inappropriate or Mark as Spam .
Then, a member of Google will review the report that we have filed. Finally, if this specialist determines that the review violates the Comment Posting Policy, the review will be removed. Instead, if it’s found not to be in violation of their policy, we’ll see a notification on the review telling us that the request to remove it has been denied.
