by Martin Brinkmann on October 13, 2018 in Companies, Google – 8 comments
A search for Google products on the official Microsoft Store returns only a few hits. There is Google, a search app for mobile devices or YouTube for Xbox One but the apps have not been updated in quite a while.
Google ignores the Microsoft Store for the most part which is why users won’t find official company applications for Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, and other company services and products on the Store.
It is surprising therefore when an application like Album by Google Photos lands in the Microsoft Store especially if the producer is listed as Google LLC.
The application looks legit on first sight: it uses the official description and has Google LLC as the publisher. The privacy policy link on the Store page leads to Google’s official privacy policy page on the Internet as well; but is the app legitimate?
There are indicators that this may not be the case. Google’s official Microsoft Store account is Google Inc. and not Google LLC. If you check the few apps that Google released over the years, you will notice that it always used the Google Inc. account and not Google LLC.
A quick check reveals that Album by Google Photos is the only application produced by Google LLC. It is certainly possible that Google created a second account for the Store
Google itself has not announced the application on any official channel. The Twitter account GooglePhotos makes no mention of it, and there is no indication on any company blog that Google released Google Photos for the Microsoft Store and Windows 10.
It seems likely that the app is not official; this would mean that a third-party developer managed to sneak in an application as Google LLC.
We contacted Microsoft and Google about the application but have not heard back yet. We will update the article with information as soon as they become available.
Microsoft had to prune fake apps from Windows Store in the past and had to clean house multiple times to remove fake, deceiving or low quality applications from Store to improve quality. (via Geek Latest)
Now You: What is your take on this? Legitimate app or not?