# Google Play 62 Hacker News commenters recommended Google Play and 353 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5 years (5 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for its large app catalog, malware scanning, and sandboxed option. Main caveat: critics say Google's control over Android app distribution and slow reviews hurt developers. ## Why people recommend it - Malware and scam removal (3 comments): "Play Store being a cesspit is indeed a problem! But it still is making a constant effort to drive away scammers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47936716)) "Google invests much more into removing malicous apps from the app store than fdroid does." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46442301)) "The play store scanning apps for malware is an important safety mechanism against this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49835015)) - Sandboxed Play Store recommended for privacy (7 comments): "Our recommendation is to use the sandboxed Play Store for installing apps when using sandboxed Google Play in a profile." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47063077)) "we strongly recommend using the sandboxed Play Store as the primary way of obtaining apps from the Play Store" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49547462)) "the Play Store does not allow installing an app on your device due to device or georestrictive rules" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533943)) - Large app and game selection (2 comments): "the app selection is far better on the App Store (and also Google Play Store)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46757399)) "google play (android) has a lot more games than steam, it's not even close." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46095137)) - Easy cancellation and purchases (2 comments): "Apple and Google do make it pretty easy to cancel though vs the wild west of the web" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48846752)) "You can buy pretty much any show you want to watch, without ad breaks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208956)) ## What people warn about - Control over Android app distribution (4 comments): "a monopolist retains absolute control of what software can run on your devices, and can capriciously deny distribution to developers for whatever reason it likes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49520275)) "But the motivation here isn't just security, it's control. Google doesn't want anyone to have an Android device that is independent of Google services." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49727185)) "Google has anticompetitively bundled what should be several distinct types of products together as one take-it-or-leave-it package." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49858322)) - Slow, opaque app review process (5 comments): "all of the ridiculous red tape around the actual process of getting an app listed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48339785)) "the Play Store requires every app to find 12 users for 14 days of internal testing before submission for review, which is utterly incomprehensible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46188140)) "wait for 24-48 hours to be able to use it, then if you try to automate testing, struggle with having to mock a whole Google Account login process" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46229848)) - Scams and copycat apps in search (2 comments): "The play store is pretty bad. About half the time I search for an app, BY NAME, without any way to confuse it with another app, the top result is a scam or copy cat, or adware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49197730)) "It's quite problematic that someone can currently upload a package name belonging to another organization to the Play Store" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47936750)) - Account bans and poor support (3 comments): "I was paying through Google play, and one day account was banned." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651092)) "I've had way too much trouble with Google flagging an internal app as problematic and then getting no where with Google "support" when we still used Google play." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47450816)) "I tried to create a refund request but its not allowing to create one since the date of the transaction is out of our refund policy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46773362)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [F-Droid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/f-droid.md): 230 recommend - [Apple App Store](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-app-store.md): 75 recommend - [Aurora Store](https://hackerapproved.com/p/aurora-store.md): 61 recommend - [Obtainium](https://hackerapproved.com/p/obtainium.md): 38 recommend - [Droid-ify](https://hackerapproved.com/p/droid-ify.md): 15 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://play.google.com/store/games?device=windows) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Google Play", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-play-store/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).