Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR Google says it’s been increasingly relying on AI to counter AI-powered malware, strengthening Android defenses before threats reach users.
Over 1.75 million harmful apps were blocked from the Play Store in 2025, alongside 80,000 malicious developer accounts.
Privacy protections tightened, with 255,000 apps blocked from requesting unnecessary sensitive data like location or photos.
Artificial intelligence is helping hackers find new ways to sneak malware onto your phone, so Google is fighting fire with fire. The Android world has always been a back-and-forth battle, but in 2025, Google cranked up its machine-learning defenses to catch scammers before they reach the Play Store.
A new report from Vijaya Kaza, Google’s vice president of App & Ecosystem Trust, says Google stopped over 1.75 million policy-breaking apps from reaching the Play Store last year. It also removed more than 80,000 developer accounts trying to publish harmful apps.
How is Google making this happen? The answer is AI. The company says it has added AI models directly into the app review process. Human reviewers are still involved, but the AI helps find complex malicious patterns much faster than a person could by manually reviewing code.
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You also get more privacy protection automatically. Last year, Google blocked over 255,000 apps from asking for too much sensitive data, like location requests from apps that don’t need it or photo access for a calculator. Developers also get help from tools like Play Policy Insights in Android Studio, which point out possible issues while they are still writing code.
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