AnTuTu apps removed from Google Play Store over Cheetah Mobile ties

Apps get kicked out of the Google Play Store regularly for this or that policy violation. While some do end up being erroneous, most are valid cases of misbehaving or downright malicious apps. Few of those have had the audacity to return and repeat their offenses as much as Chinese app developer Cheetah Mobile, forcing Google to purge the store off any and all apps associated with the company. Unfortunately, that seems to have included one of the most popular benchmarking tools, whether or not it's actually warranted.

Cheetah Mobile has dozens if not hundreds of apps to its name, some of which have actually gained favorable reviews in the beginning. Over time, however, the company's methods have become less agreeable or downright illegal, putting adware and even malware into those apps. Naturally, they have been given the boot but they always manage to return to the Google Play Store, much to Google's and users' dismay.

Google finally had enough and started to kick out Cheetah Mobile's apps en masse. Since the modus of such wayward developers has been to publish apps under different names, the Android maker has also yanked out any and all apps associated with the company. It turns out, one of those is AnTuTu, makers of popular benchmark tools for mobile devices.

In a statement to Android Police, AnTuTu strongly refutes this association with Cheetah Mobile even as it admits to the latter being an investor. It claims that, aside from using its legal services and being a shareholder, Cheetah Mobile and its CEO Fu Sheng has had no direct involvement in AnTuTu, its apps, or its operations. Any link between AnTuTu and Cheetah Mobile is simply customary to meet the requirements of Chinese laws and practices.

It is still unknown whether that explanation will fly with Google. It is even more unknown whether AnTuTu itself is free from any of Cheetah Mobile's malicious software and plugins at all. Right now, the only way to get AnTuTu on Android is to install an APK from the developer's website, doubling the risks.