Hamed holds a B.A. in English Literature, graduating cum laude. He loves music, tech gadgets, and exploring the latest in the world of LLMs. He also enjoys tinkering with creative software such as Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Photoshop.
A lifelong musician, Hamed plays multiple instruments, including guitar, bass, and oud. He is equally fascinated by smart-home technology and can happily spend hours geeking out over connected lights, speakers, sensors, and automations that make everyday life a little more interesting. When he isn’t covering the latest tech news, he explores more creative topics on his Medium blog, works on his music, or clears his head by riding his motorcycle.
Sign in to your MakeUseOf account
Summary
- Fake Chrome appeared as a sponsored Play Store listing, using Chrome’s icon, screenshots and six-figure downloads.
- Tiny tell: developer name isn’t Google LLC — check App info and Play Store listing after installing.
- If you installed it, uninstall Hizbartech’s app, review permissions, and keep Play Protect on.
A user on Reddit spotted a fake Chrome app above the genuine version as a sponsored search result in Google Play. According to the post on Reddit, the copycat shows up using the same icon, product name, screenshots, and description, with over 100,000 downloads.
As of now, the sponsored result no longer seems to appear, but the app might still be accessible by searching for its developer. If you recently installed Chrome from Google Play, it’s worth checking which version landed on your Android phone.
The most convincing part of the disguise was the six-figure download count
But there’s an easy tell when dealing with these fake apps
Looking at the screenshots included with the Reddit post, almost everything looks identical to the genuine version, except for one tiny (but important) detail: the developer’s name. The publihser behind the fake version was listed as “Hizbartech,” and not Google LLC. As our rule of thumb, checking developer identity is one of the go-to ways to spot a fake Android app.
Apparently, this Chrome impersonator was originally a game called Ball Bounce before being rebranded in late September. The bait-and-switch can explain how it arrived with an existing download count instead of starting from zero. It’s concerning, to say the least, that something as obvious as this slipped from Google Play’s moderators.
Redditors who installed the 42MB app reported that it didn’t even try to imitate a browser. Instead, it opened a chat-style Ul involving Al avatars and bombarded the screen with ads. At that point, it’s quite easy to tell you’ve downloaded a fake version. There’s no evidence that Hizbartech’s fake Chrome app stole passwords or installed malware. That said, if an app does come with malicious code and requires permission to sensitive information, finding out it’s an impostor after the installation process might be too late.
To check your Chrome app, hold the icon and open App info, and then follow the link to its Play Store listing. Next to the logo, you should see Google LLC listed as the developer who published the installed version on your phone. If you find the Hizbartech version, uninstall it immediately and review the permissions you gave it during the installation and setup processes.
This incident shows that even the “Sponsored” badge doesn’t replace the usual steps for checking whether an Android app is safe. For more robust protective measures, though, keep Play Protect enabled and install Android security updates whenever Google drops one. Such essential Android security habits might take a few minutes to go through, but they can avoid facing much larger problems in the long run.
