Jayesh Shinde

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Posted on 27-06-2011

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Google is stringently policing its Android Market app store, if recent events are anything to go by. Yesterday it pulled down a popular app for remote torrent management, Transdroid, without any explanation. Available for two years now, Transdroid boasted of 400,000 Android users before Google booted it from the Android Market.

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Transdroid allows Android users to remotely control their BitTorrent clients from their smartphones or tablet devices. Through Transdroid, one could look up torrent files, start, stop and queue up download files remotely on a computer.

According to a blog post by the developer, Google claimed a violation of Android Market's Developer Content Policy as the reason to pull down Transdroid.

"This is a notification that the application, Transdroid Torrent Manager with package ID org.transdroid has been removed from Android Market due to a violation of the Developer Content Policy. Please review the Content Policies and Business and Program Policies before you create or upload additional applications."

Earlier in late May, Engadget reported the disappearance of game emulators from Android Market. Emulators like Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid were pulled down without warning and without any explanation, according to the developer yongzh. This points to a trend that Google is cracking the whip mercilessly on policy violators on the Android Market.

As is usually the case, apps booted from the Android Market find a host on alternative app stores or on developer sites. Transdroid is still available for download on http://www.transdroid.org/, and the Android game emulators are available at http://slideme.org.

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