Updated at November 15, 2017:
Finally, we have an official response from UC Browser team regarding the temporary ban on its app from Google Play store. “We were informed by Google Play about temporary removal of UC Browser from the Play Store for 7 days, beginning 13 Nov 2017, under the reason that a certain setting of UC Browser is not in line with Google’s policy. We have conducted an urgent internal investigation and fixed the problem. The new version has been uploaded on Google Play’s Developer Console and is awaiting evaluation. We will actively cooperate with Google Play for any concern caused by this unintentional error,” the company said in a statement.
“In the meantime, users can still download UC Browser Mini from the Play Store, an alternative version of UC Browser. We thank Google Play for their understanding and support extended to us. UC Browser new product package will be back on Google Play next week and, in the interim, users and partners can download the product from our website,” it further added.
Updated at November 22, 2017:
UC Browser’s new product package is now available on Google Playstore. The app was delisted from Playstore last week for violating Google’s policy
“The exact reason for UC Browser’s unavailability on Google Play is because of a certain setting of UC Browser that was not in line with Google’s policy. The reason for the removal has nothing to do with alleged data security breach or malicious promotion,” a UCWeb spokesperson said.
“We would like to state that we have no records of anyone named ‘Mike Ross’ claiming to be working for UC Browser, as mentioned in some reports. The person claiming to be working for UC Browser is in no way associated with the firm nor represents the views of the company,” the spokesperson added.
Our original story from Tuesday, February 6, 2018, follows:
The infamous UC Browser was pulled off from Google Plays Store which created confusion among the user community. This happened within few weeks of the app reaching 500 million downloads. Following these several theories were made by netizens, relating to the recent security issues created by the app.
Squirrel Is Missing
The UC Browser team or Google didn’t respond to questions raised regarding this on social media. Later when Android Authority tweeted about the missing app, a user introducing himself as a UC employee responded.
The user said that Google temporarily removed UC Browser from play store for 30 days. As per Google, UC team used “Misleading” and “Unhealthy” methods to promote app install. We did mention about one such giveaway promotion by this app in our previous article. No wonder the app hit 500 million downloads in Play Store while there are other better mobile browsers.
UC Union has been warning its affiliates to stop using misleading/malicious advertising method(s) to procure new users when promoting UC Browser campaigns. The UC Union also paused the app install campaign several times owing to the same reason. Even then many affiliates reverted to these cheap tricks and Google got annoyed.
UC browser in the early days did prove to be a good app, especially with faster browsing and download speeds. But recently, the app has been injecting lots of ‘not safe for work’ advertisements and leaking user statistics. When questioned about the security of the browser, their team replied – “We will not breach the trust of our users”. The app has been receiving plenty of negative reviews in play store owing to these intrusive ads.
The app is no more available in Play Store, however, the lighter variant UC Browser mini is still up. If you are still looking for the browser, head over to ucweb.com to grab the latest apk. Hope you enjoyed the article, Peace!