Google has removed all coronavirus apps from the Play Store in an attempt to help out the situation in general. The company is trying to avoid spreading misinformation and general panic by doing this.
Using the term ‘coronavirus’ will yield zero results in the Google Play Store, all apps have been removed
If you try searching ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’ in the Play Store, you’ll get zero results, as those terms have been banned, basically.
Coronavirus has done quite a bit of damage around the world thus far. Even though the situation is serious, things have been pushed to the extreme by a ton of false information that has been circulating the web.
Coronavirus has managed to take some lives in the US as well, thus far, even though China, South Korea, and Italy are still the main incubators of the virus.
This new virus is the reason why MWC 2020 in Barcelona got canceled this year. Many of the companies that should have hosted press conferences in Barcelona decided to do online-only presentations because of the whole situation.
Google has even canceled its physical Google I/O conference, in other words, the developer’s conference. The company will host an online-only event instead.
The bottom line is, coronavirus has not only taken quite a few lives thus far, but it also disrupted the industry and everything around it. That is not as important, of course, but it is worth mentioning.
Is this the right call by Google?
Many people would argue that Google did the right thing by trying to avoid spreading misinformation and malware. One has to wonder, though, why did all apps got banned? And the search term in general?
There were sure at least a couple of coronavirus apps that were actually useful, or maybe there would be in the future? Maybe the company should have taken a different approach this time around.
Coronavirus has been a hot topic for quite some time now, and unfortunately, and the end is not in sight. A vaccine for the virus will hopefully become a reality in the near future. We can only hope that this will not become a pandemic, even though it’s near that stage.
Some good coronavirus apps could help people get properly informed about the virus. It could help them avoid places where the virus has been spotted, and thus help them stay safe.
Google probably won’t change its mind regarding this, but we’ll see what will happen. For the time being, though, you will not find any coronavirus apps in the Google Play Store.