Google Play Removes App for Flagging Chinese Software

Google Play has removed an Android app dubbed Remove China Apps, which identifies Chinese-origin apps to help people delete them.

According to data analytics company Sensor Tower, the app had around 5 million installations before its removal.

The app, developed by the Indian firm One Touch AppLabs, had ranked No. 1 for two days in India's Android store.

India has disputes with China over a border in the Himalayas.

While most of the app's installs were in India, analytics data from Appa Annie revealed that it had been gaining popularity in Australia

The Remove China Apps flags TikTok, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, and Zoom, founded by a US citizen born in China.

Fans have suggested alternative apps to the ones highlighted by the app.

The other apps that it flags are ShareIt, which is for transferring files, CamScanner, which scan images and turn them into PDF documents, and UC browser, a web browser owned by Alibaba.

However, apps that were pre-installed on Chinese-made smartphones cannot be detected.

The service has been criticized for stoking anti-China sentiment, already on the rise due to the novel coronavirus.

An online community for China's app exporters, Beluga Whale, has called on to report Remove China Apps to Google for being a "form of market disruption".