Top 10 controversial and banned apps and games from 2020

The app world is a monstrous place. There are a huge number of apps and games between the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It’s nothing unexpected that some of them fall into trouble now and then. The year 2020 was a pretty big one for controversies.

Some traversed nearly the entire 2020, while others are as yet continuous at the time of writing. The coronavirus pandemic surely didn’t help things, and even the FTC got in with the mix a small bit. We should investigate the most controversial applications and games from 2020.

10 Banned and Controversial Apps and Games

1. India boycotts a lot of Chinese apps, including TikTok and PUBG Mobile

India and China are having some political contrasts right now. Part of the fallout was a mass restricting of numerous Chinese apps from the Google Play Store in India. The list incorporated some enormous hitters like most UC apps, WeChat, TikTok, ES File Explorer, most DU apps, and, unexpectedly, Clean Master by Cheetah Mobile before it was removed all over. There was even an app (no longer accessible now) that disclosed to you which apps were Chinese so you could dispose of them.

India would ultimately add another 117 apps, including PUBG Mobile, to the list. Another version of PUBG specifically proposed for the Indian market is being developed, yet with no last release date. This one is progressing so you may well observe more about it in our controversial apps list of 2021.

2. Google Photos eliminates unlimited backups

For years, Google Photos represented the best deal in mobile history. It let you upload and store your phone’s photographs and videos at a marginally lower quality for free. Pixel gadgets were permitted to upload full-resolution photographs and videos free of charge as well, as one of the advantages of owning Google gadgets.

Notwithstanding, Google stopped free uploads in 2020. It’s as yet accessible for now, yet support stops June 1, 2021. Truly, that incorporates Pixel phones also. From that point forward, uploading photographs will take up Google Drive space.

You can generally purchase more Google Drive storage and keep it, however, the free and unlimited advantage was magnificent. Individuals were understandably upset. There are alternatives, yet none of them are as simple or as accessible as Google Photos.

3. Google retires Google Play Music for YouTube Music

We realized Google was replacing Google Play Music for YouTube Music a year ago. The saga didn’t officially unfold until this year, in any case. It occurred on two fronts.

On the one side, YouTube Music steadily picked up a lot of features from Google Play Music while the latter was being nightfall. The transfer of power became official on December 4th when Google Play Music started genuinely closing down for everybody.

Many Play Music clients hated the move. The entire process took so long that tempers had a lot of time to boil over during the change. YouTube Music is improving, however, it’s as yet a long way behind its predecessor as far as features.

Furthermore, the list of viable options is somewhat short and requires various apps for anybody hoping to supplant each feature. Many individuals will miss Google Play Music, including me.

4. The United States government versus TikTok

The US is entangled in a trade war with China. A year ago, the big deal was the US ban on Huawei, and it was discussed ad nauseum. This year, the focus has moved to the world’s fastest-growing social media network ever, TikTok. Everything began with some privacy concerns. The US government was stressed that TikTok’s parent organization would give delicate client information to the Chinese government.

In the interim, the app was restricted in a few nations because of “immoral content” and different concerns. Eventually, the US government decided to boycott the app (alongside WeChat), yet it was stopped at last second at the behest of an federal judge.

To avoid the boycott, TikTok needed to offer to another organization. Microsoft was in talks for the longest time, yet it ultimately partnered with Oracle so it could keep on working in the US.

In any case, the US government wanted to investigate the code to ensure it was secure before it would affirm the deal. The vast majority of the controversy is over, for now, however many individuals actually don’t confide in TikTok.

5. Epic Games (and co.) versus Google and Apple

Welcome to a controversy that may well delay for a few years. Fortnite initially launched on iOS in the App Store and as an independent app on Android. It ultimately moved to Google Play in mid-2020.

After a short time, Epic Games attempted to squeak in a payment strategy that bypassed the 30% cut Apple and Google take from designers. Thus, Apple showed Fortnite out of the App Store followed quickly by Google Play. At that point, crap hit the fan.

Epic Games quickly filed a lawsuit against Google referring to anti-competitive practices. It additionally blamed Google for crushing deals with LG and OnePlus to pre-load gadgets with Fortnite. Gracious, and the organization additionally sued Apple for fundamentally something very similar.

Apple made an expected $360 million from Fortnite before the expulsion. It additionally contrasted Epic Games with shoplifters in one of the most unusual lawsuit reactions we’ve ever observed. Then, Google fixed its policies on in-app buys to just using Google’s system, effective in mid-2021.

Epic Games isn’t standing alone here. A group of Indian startups concurs that the 30% cut is excessively high for designers in India. Furthermore, Microsoft joined Epic Games in the battle since Epic Games likewise builds up the Unreal Engine.

Epic Games and Spotify joined with Tile, Match Group (Tinder, PlentyOfFish, OkCupid, Match.com), Deezer, Qobuz, and a huge load of others to make the Coalition for App Fairness.

Epic Games has been battling the 30% tax for two years now, and keeping in mind that Apple rolled out certain improvements to its policies to drop the cut to 15% for more modest designers, the war is a long way from being done.

6. ToTok is supposedly spying on individuals

ToTok, a popular chat app (not be confused with TikTok), was prohibited from the Google Play Store in January after The New York Times composed an article introducing solid proof that it was a covert agent app for the United Arab Emirates government. A great deal of the app’s prosperity came from the UAB government obstructing comparable highlights in other apps.

Huawei advanced the app too. It ultimately advanced back to the Play Store toward the beginning of January however was removed again in February. It stays gone from both Google and Apple’s app stores at the time of composing.

7. Google boycotts 600 apps, farewell Cheetah Mobile

Apps and games get prohibited all the time. Google Play Protect alone prevents well over a billion installs of malware every year. Nonetheless, there was something special about this batch. These 600 apps were restricted for giving virtually no advantage to end-virtually and for existing just to serve as whatever number of advertisements as could be allowed.

Among those 600 was fundamentally every Cheetah Mobile app on the Play Store. It’s sort of an open secret that Cheetah Mobile’s apps are generally fake relief. Google’s banhammer at long last demonstrated it to everybody. Good riddance, Cheetah Mobile.

8. The COVID-19 exposure notification API

Coronavirus hit the world with a crushing weight, and everyone is prepared for 2020 to be over as a result of it. The CDC suggested we as a whole wash our hands, remain six feet separated, and wear masks.

In the interim, Google and Apple attempted to make a system to follow who has COVID-19 and who was uncovered. The contact tracing API was met with criticism and wariness since it was fit for tracking individuals and telling other people who you came into contact with.

Google and Apple pretty much squashed those concerns by presenting a rulebook of sorts. In any case, the most exceedingly terrible part is how long it’s taken governments to turn out apps that use the API to follow the COVID-19 spread.

Numerous states in the US don’t have it, and numerous regions around the world never got an app either. Indeed, even in places where the apps exist, relatively few individuals use them. For example, the Virginia version of the app just has 100,000 installs contrasted with its populace of 8.5 million.

Most versions of the app have poor reviews referring to the failure to record positive outcomes, slow exposure updates, and not getting notifications when individuals realize they were uncovered by a friend or family member and the loved one revealed it.

It’s December 2020 and the quantity of cases is spiking around the world. This effort was somewhat late since a vaccine is just around the corner. Nonetheless, it’s incorporated into iOS and Android, so perhaps it’ll turn out better for the next pandemic.

9. FTC wants to know how apps use your information

The FTC once ordered a lot of online services to uncover how they use client information. The services being referred to incorporate YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Reddit, and a few others. It’s veritable who’s who of tech giants. Moreover, the FTC wants to realize how each organization uses that information to serve ads, how they study user engagement, and how their algorithms work.

The inquiry could be serious since every one of these organizations rival one another. Nonetheless, privacy is a tremendous worry for individuals nowadays so we’ll perceive how it ends up. This occurred in December 2020 it’s as yet ongoing at the time of writing.

10. The entire Zoom thing

At the point when the world went into lockdown, video conferencing became a gigantic deal. Zoom ostensibly won out. Huge loads of companies, schools, and different associations used it instead of face-to-face contact.

Shockingly, Zoom wasn’t prepared for that much publicity. Zoombombing became a thing. Individuals would join Zoom meetings without invites and do awful things. The video conferences weren’t encrypted and there were a host of other security issues.

Zoom at last encrypted everything, except it took an exceptionally long time to get to that point. It at last fixed a ton of its security burdens and even locked individuals out if they didn’t update. There were efforts made to prevent Zoombombing too, yet not before a serious child endangerment issue.

The organization likewise had 500,000 accounts compromised and there was a lawsuit at a certain point. In any case, Zoom managed to hit 300 million daily active clients only a few months back. It handily had quite possibly the most ridiculous years we’ve seen an organization experienced in a long time.