Following the growing call against Chinese products, an app introduced to help make your phones free of Chinese apps is now removed by Google. The app gained huge popularity within days of its inception but the app is removed from Google’s playstore. Global mistrust in Chinese products grew since the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic.
‘Remove China Apps’ launched in the middle of last month became viral and soon topped the list of free apps. Introduced on May 17 this year, it gained more than 5 million downloads within two weeks. However, the playstore owned by Google removed the app from their platform alleging that it violated their policy.
“Remove China Apps made its debut on the Google Play store on May 17 and was downloaded over 50 lakh times before getting pulled, as per data from Google Play. It was not available on Apple App Store for iPhone users. Android is the prevalent mobile operating system in the country and as per StatCounter, it is used by 95 percent of mobile phone users in the country.” report NDTV’s Gadget 360.
According to the report, the app built for “educational purposes,” was capitalising on the anti-China sentiment prevalent across the country right now. Anti-China sentiment in India has been sparked by the novel coronavirus pandemic, India-China border dispute, and more. A survey recently indicated that 67 percent of Indians hold China responsible for the spread of COVID-19.
‘Remove China Apps’ helped users identify and remove apps that were of Chinese origin on their smartphones. While it was able to identify popular apps, including the likes of TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, and CamScanner, from Chinese developers, it didn’t detect apps that come pre-installed on phones from Chinese manufacturers, added the report. Remove China Apps was free and fairly easy to use, and didn’t include any advertisements.
India’s genius personality, Sonam Wangchuk, who was the inspiration behind Aamir Khan’s character in 3 Idiots movie began a campaign to tackle China with India’s wallet. His viral campaign urges Indians across the world to stop using Chinese products whether it is software or hardware. Many celebrities openly heeded to the call and joined the campaign.
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