Google Play hostile Downloaders policy: fixes and checks
By The Draftbit team · Updated
Sources checked
This guide is for Apps that download or distribute other software.
Your app can be classified as a hostile downloader even if its own code isn’t directly harmful. Google checks whether it distributes potentially harmful apps or mobile unwanted software.
What to check
Review download catalogs, redirects, installer integrations, advertising destinations, and remotely supplied URLs. Check what users actually receive, including files that changed after your original review.
The official policy includes both evidence-of-purpose and observed-download criteria. Being below a numerical threshold isn’t a safe harbor for distributing harmful software.
How to address the rejection
Remove harmful downloads and the paths that promote or install them. Investigate how those files entered your catalog and verify replacement destinations before restoring access.
Major browsers and file-sharing apps have a qualified exception when downloads aren’t driven without interaction and users initiate the relevant downloads with consent. That doesn’t automatically apply to a download portal designed to spread unwanted apps.
Provide the affected URLs or packages and the change that prevents distribution. Test redirects and advertisements, not just the first link displayed in your UI.
Messages this guide can help with
Hostile Downloaders; Hostile Downloaders policy violation; Hostile Downloaders rejection; Hostile Downloaders denied
Official sources
We checked these instructions against the sources below. The console layout may change, and your review decision may call for different steps.
- Google Play: Hostile Downloaders Checked 22 September 2026