Apple, Google Face Scrutiny as ‘Nudify’ Apps Hit 483M Downloads

Type “nudify” into an app store, and the problem may now be waiting in the search itself.

Apple and Google are facing new claims that their app stores do more than merely host nudify apps — they may also help users find them.

The Tech Transparency Project says the issue has grown since January, when it found dozens of these apps still available across Apple’s and Google’s storefronts. Its newest report says apps surfaced through those systems had amassed hundreds of millions of downloads, adding scale to questions about how the companies may be steering users toward them. 

Hundreds of apps, millions in revenue

January already showed this was not a stray moderation miss. TTP said it found more than 100 apps across Apple’s and Google’s stores that could undress women in photos or place them in sexualized imagery.

The April report makes the same problem harder to shrug off, as a handful of bad listings slipped through the review process. According to TTP, the apps surfaced in its latest searches had been downloaded 483 million times and generated more than $122 million in lifetime revenue, suggesting this is a large and active category rather than a fringe corner of either store.

One search could lead to many more

Users did not have to dig far to run into them.

TTP tested both app stores with terms including “nudify,” “undress,” and “deepnude,” then examined the top results that appeared. In both stores, about 40 percent of those apps could undress women, turning a single query into a repeat encounter with these tools.

One query could quickly multiply. Apple’s store sometimes places nudify ads in the first slot, while Google Play pairs sponsored placements with a “Suggested for You” carousel that contains sexually explicit apps. Autocomplete added to that trail by surfacing related search terms that led users to more results in the same lane.

Instead of cutting off the search, the stores could keep feeding it. One query could turn into a trail of ads, suggested terms, and more app results pointing in the same direction. 

The rules said one thing but the stores showed another

Apple and Google did not lack written rules.

Google bars apps that contain sexual content or degrade or objectify people, including ones that claim to undress someone or see through clothing. Apple says apps should not include material that is offensive, pornographic, or “just plain creepy.” Yet those platforms still surfaced apps that appeared to run against those standards.

That widened the problem beyond a question of what got approved. Some of the apps identified in those searches were even rated suitable for minors.

TTP’s latest findings raised fresh questions about how age ratings, ad approvals, and search features were all functioning on platforms that already say this kind of content should not be there. 

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