Google Highlights Huge AI‑Driven Crackdown On Android Malware And Fraud Apps

Google is flexing its AI muscle in an effort to make its Android ecosystem safer and more secure. Malicious actors are constantly evolving the ways attacks are deployed, including leveraging AI themselves. Google says it was able to use the “investments in AI and real-time defenses over the last year to maintain the upper hand and stop these threats before they reach users.”

The sheer number of apps that have been blocked in 2025 were staggering. Google claims that it stopped 1.75 million malicious apps from being published in the Play Store. Additionally, over 80,000 developer accounts that were attempting to publish these malicious apps have been shut down permanently.

It isn’t just malicious apps that were under scrutiny, though. There were 255,000 apps that were blocked from obtaining “excessive access to sensitive user data.” The company is committed to further strengthening its policies to ensure ...