google: How Google plans to ‘protect’ Android users from outdated apps – Times of India

There are apps that haven’t been updated for a while and users still end up downloading them. At times, these apps have certain bugs which can be ‘harmful’ to smartphones. Google wants to put an end to this and introduce new measures for this. According to a report by 9to5Google, Google is expanding Play Store’s Target Level API requirements. What this means is that new apps and updates already have to “target an Android API level within one year of the latest major Android OS version release,” or they cannot be published.
In a blog post on its Developer Community page, Google further explained, “Starting on November 1, 2022, existing apps that don’t target an API level within two years of the latest major Android release version will not be available for discovery or installation for new users with devices running Android OS versions higher than apps’ target API level.”

Why is Google doing this to ‘outdated’ apps?

Google explains that the reason is quite simple. There are users who use the latest devices or those who are fully caught up on Android updates expect to realise the full potential of all the privacy and security protections Android has to offer. “Expanding our target level API requirements will protect users from installing older apps that may not have these protections in place,” said Google in the blog post.
What’s interesting here is that Google has made it clear that the change will be applicable to new app users — ones who never downloaded the app. Those users will not see any outdated version of apps if and when they search for them on the Play Store. Google in the blog post further added, “Current users of older apps who have previously installed the app from Google Play will continue to be able to discover, re-install, and use the app on any device running any Android OS version that the app supports.”