The iOS and Android app stores are full of ‘overlooked’ apps

This is clear from a study carried out by the analysis firm Pixalate. The latter seems to react in this way to an announcement made by Apple, which will soon withdraw applications that their developers have not updated for a few months. In fact, these applications could constitute a potential security risk for users. This decision sparked resentment especially with smaller development studios, which warned of thousands of apps potentially not found on the App Store.

And this fear, therefore, is not unfounded, according to the study. Of the five million apps analyzed across the two stores, Pixalate found around 1.5 million that hadn’t been updated for two years or more. On the contrary, there are about 1.3 million that have been updated in the last six months.

games and teaching

The study also shows that it is not always the small forgotten applications that become obsolete. 16 percent of apps with between 1 and 10 million downloads appeared to be degraded, and even 6 percent of apps that had been downloaded more than 100 million times hadn’t been updated for two years.

These are the games that made up by far the sector with the most outdated apps, although we should point out right away that perhaps not everyone is expecting constant updates for an offline puzzle game, for example. Additionally, school and reference apps were also updated more slowly. On the other hand, the sectors that reacted very quickly were shopping, financial and health applications, which are not coincidentally types of applications for which fast changes and security are important.

Cleaning in store

Developers of outdated apps would do well to get back to work quickly. In any case, Apple will send a warning to app creators who haven’t updated for three years. They will have ninety days to adapt their applications. However, these applications will remain on the smartphone of the users who downloaded them.

Google is also preparing a similar procedure, whereby it will remove or block outdated apps from its store from the end of this year. The tech giant will build on the version of Android and will not allow users to download apps for a version older than the one they are running.

This is clear from a study carried out by the analysis firm Pixalate. The latter seems to react in this way to an announcement made by Apple, which will soon withdraw applications that their developers have not updated for a few months. In fact, these applications could constitute a potential security risk for users. This decision has sparked resentment especially with smaller development studios, which have warned of thousands of apps potentially missing from the App Store, so this fear is not unfounded, according to the study. Of the five million apps analyzed across the two stores, Pixalate found around 1.5 million that hadn’t been updated for two years or more. On the contrary, there are about 1.3 million that have been updated in the last six months. The study also shows that it is not always the small forgotten applications that become obsolete. 16 percent of apps characterized by 1 to 10 million downloads did indeed appear degraded, and even 6 percent of apps that had been downloaded more than 100 million times hadn’t been updated for two years. we should point out right away that perhaps not everyone expects constant updates for an offline puzzle game, for example. Additionally, school and reference apps were also updated more slowly. On the other hand, the sectors that reacted very quickly were shopping, financial and health applications, which are not coincidentally types of applications for which fast changes and security are important. Work fast. In any case, Apple will send a warning to app creators who haven’t updated for three years. They will have ninety days to adapt their applications. However, these applications will remain on the smartphone of the users who have downloaded them. Google is also preparing a similar procedure, whereby it will remove or block outdated apps from its store from the end of this year. The tech giant will build on the version of Android and will not allow users to download apps for a version older than the one they are running.