Do you have these apps banned from iPhones and Android phones? Delete them now

A huge number of iPhone as well as Android phone apps have been banned as they have not been updated for two years or even more. These 'outdated' apps pose a significant security risk as they are more susceptible to hacking. A new report claims that around one third of the apps from smartphone systems by Apple and Google are two years or older. In numbers, it translates to a whopping 1.5 million apps in total on iOS and Android. These apps are not any run-of-the-mill kind and in fact, many of them are popular with kids. Apple and Google have become stricter now and have launched a crackdown against these ageing apps and are taking action against them. Also Read: Your favourite iPhone app may just have been deleted by Apple from App Store

To ensure full security to users, Apple has announced it will remove these outdated apps from the App Store. Apple said that this includes "developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold — meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period." Apple keeps track of such apps as the process to ensure that the apps work for the vast majority of users and support the latest innovations in security and privacy.

On the other hand, the Google Play store has the most, around 869,000 apps which do not meet the recent updates. Not just that, recently, Google announced its new Google Play Store policy which took strict actions against the third-party apps for recording calls on Android devices. Call recording is not allowed in many of the places. Hence, this policy will prevent the third-party apps from recording the call audio stream. The main concerns are these apps could breach privacy and security. Hence, Google decided to remove such third party apps for good. Also Read: Google ban! No more call recording apps on Google Play Store

Though, one thing is worth noting that neither Apple nor Google can delete the apps from the users' devices if they have already downloaded them. All they can do is to remove these apps from the Play Store and App Store. Hence, it is important to check your apps which have not seen the updates since long, as these can pose security concerns. Well, the good part of the call recording issue is that the in-built feature of your smartphone will be far from the radar of Google. That means the pre-installed or system apps that already have permission to tap on the Accessibility API and have recording feature, won't be affected by this new policy.