App news round-up: 15th February 

Google scraps two of its best known apps

Google will scrap two of its best known apps in the next couple of months, with one sent to be killed off next month and one in April. The search engine has announced that its Google + app will be shuttered alongside the email app, Inbox.

Google announced in October last year that it planned to close down its social network, citing lack of use and security issues. With the planned 10-month phased shutdown nearing the end, the Google + app will stop being available for use as of April.

For Inbox, the story is a little different. The mail app has become somewhat surplus to requirements with much of its functionality now incorporated into the Gmail app. This will happen in March. Next year, the Hangout messaging app and Duo will both also cease to exist, though Google says that it will launch a number of other messaging apps by that time.

Instagram bug costs users followers

If you logged on to your Instagram app in the last few days and noticed that your follower numbers have taken a massive nose dive, you’re not alone. The social network is investigating after a bug caused lots of users to lose chunks of followers. The problem has also affected celebrities – those with larger accounts have reported seeing their follower count fall by as much as 500,000.

Kylie Jenner, who is one of the most popular account holders, was through to have lost around 2.5 million followers with singer Katy Perry also seeing her follower count fall by around 900,000.

It was first thought that the drops were part of Instagram’s fight against fake accounts but the social network has since said that it is investigating the problem, confirming that the issue was unexpected.

Thousands of Android apps still said to be tracking users

Thousand of Android apps are being called out after reportedly continuing to track users even after being told to forget past use. A number of outlets are reporting that around 17,000 Android apps still collect identifying information that is then permanently stored. The breach was discovered by the International Computer Science Institute – it says that the data appears to be being used for advertising targeting purposes, which goes against Google’s terms of use. The leader of the research says that privacy disappears for users as a result of this practise.