Adblock Plus for Android removed from Google Play store · 2013-03-14 09:37 by Wladimir Palant

In a rather surprising move, Google removed Adblock Plus and other ad blocking apps from the Google Play store due to “interference with another service or product in an unauthorized manner.” This looks like a course change at Google, until recently the main distinction between Android and iPhone was that Android allowed you to install any app as long as it wasn’t malicious (meaning that it’s obvious what the app does). Google Play still allows apps stating “for rooted phones only” but I wonder whether these are next on the list to be removed – each of them performs “unauthorized actions”.

Update (2013-03-16): The Electronic Frontier Foundation did a great job explaining why this move is sadly disappointing, way better than I did.

What does that mean for existing users?

Users who already have Adblock Plus installed will be able to continue using it. However, they will no longer get updates which means that they should install our next release from our website once it is out.

How will people install Adblock Plus now?

Installing Adblock Plus from our website will still be possible. We will also add Adblock Plus to all alternative app stores to make sure it’s easier to find. The next release will also have automatic updates that are independent from the Google Play store (not quite as comfortable unfortunately) so updating manually will no longer be necessary.

When will that next release be available?

We need to finalize some changes we were working on (in particular, improving manual proxy configuration) and enable automatic updates (previously these were only necessary for development builds). We are also in the process of getting translations for our Android app. The release should be ready on Tuesday, March 19th. If you aren’t that patient you can also try our development builds.

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