Google is trying to cut down on annoying, unskippable ads in Android apps and overall bad behavior in the Play Store (via TechCrunch). The company announced wide-ranging policy changes on Wednesday that update rules across several categories to be more specific, clamping down on loopholes developers may have used to skirt existing rules.

One of the changes that will impact your everyday phone usage the most is for ads. Google says its updated guidelines, which will go into effect on September 30th, help ensure “high quality experiences for users when they are using Google Play apps.” The new policy tells developers that apps can’t pop up a full-screen ad that won’t let you close it after 15 seconds. There are some exceptions — if you voluntarily choose to watch an ad to get some sort of reward points, or if they pop up during a break in the action, those rules won’t necessarily apply.

Google’s current policy says ads “must be easily dismissible without penalty” and that you have to be able to close out of full-screen ads, but the 15-second benchmark is new. While that’s still a bit of a wait, it does make it so that you won’t have to sit through a two-minute long ad where the (tiny, hard to see) “x” only appears after 70 seconds, right in the middle of a game or while trying to do something else.

One of Google’s examples of a rule-breaking ad.

Gif: Google

The new rules also specify that ads shouldn’t be “unexpected,” popping up right after you load a level or article. Again, the current rules already say that surprise disruptive ads aren’t allowed, but the new rules give additional concrete examples of violations.

It’s worth noting that the ad policies for apps made for children are stricter. While Google’s not changing a ton about what types of ads developers can show to kids, it will be making some changes to the tools that developers use to deliver those ads, starting in November.

Google’s also making changes to how apps can implement and use Android’s built-in VPN (or virtual private network) tools. Apps won’t be allowed to implement their own VPNs to collect user data unless they get explicit permission from the user, nor will they be able to use VPNs to help users bypass or change ads from other apps. Mishaal Rahman, a technical editor for Esper, pointed out on Twitter that this could help clamp down on ad fraud where users pretend to be clicking on ads from one country while actually being in another but says that it could also affect things like DuckDuckGo’s privacy-focused app tracking protection.

Google is trying to cut down on annoying, unskippable ads in Android apps and overall bad behavior in the Play Store (via TechCrunch). The company announced wide-ranging policy changes on Wednesday that update rules across several categories to be more specific, clamping down on loopholes developers may have used to skirt existing rules.

One of the changes that will impact your everyday phone usage the most is for ads. Google says its updated guidelines, which will go into effect on September 30th, help ensure “high quality experiences for users when they are using Google Play apps.” The new policy tells developers that apps can’t pop up a full-screen ad that won’t let you close it after 15 seconds. There are some exceptions — if you voluntarily choose to watch an ad to get some sort of reward points, or if they pop up during a break in the action, those rules won’t necessarily apply.

Google’s current policy says ads “must be easily dismissible without penalty” and that you have to be able to close out of full-screen ads, but the 15-second benchmark is new. While that’s still a bit of a wait, it does make it so that you won’t have to sit through a two-minute long ad where the (tiny, hard to see) “x” only appears after 70 seconds, right in the middle of a game or while trying to do something else.

One of Google’s examples of a rule-breaking ad.

Gif: Google

The new rules also specify that ads shouldn’t be “unexpected,” popping up right after you load a level or article. Again, the current rules already say that surprise disruptive ads aren’t allowed, but the new rules give additional concrete examples of violations.

It’s worth noting that the ad policies for apps made for children are stricter. While Google’s not changing a ton about what types of ads developers can show to kids, it will be making some changes to the tools that developers use to deliver those ads, starting in November.

Google’s also making changes to how apps can implement and use Android’s built-in VPN (or virtual private network) tools. Apps won’t be allowed to implement their own VPNs to collect user data unless they get explicit permission from the user, nor will they be able to use VPNs to help users bypass or change ads from other apps. Mishaal Rahman, a technical editor for Esper, pointed out on Twitter that this could help clamp down on ad fraud where users pretend to be clicking on ads from one country while actually being in another but says that it could also affect things like DuckDuckGo’s privacy-focused app tracking protection.