YouTube Vanced Is Receiving a Google Play Protect Warning

The Vanced Manager app is now discouraged by Play Protect.

Vanced is one of the most popular third-party YouTube apps out there. It offers a variety of features not available on Google's popular YouTube app.

With that, it was Vanced's user base that made it known to the industry. Unfortunately, just this month, Vanced made a sudden announcement.

Vanced posted on its Twitter account saying "Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links on the website will be taken down. We know this is not something you wanted to hear but it's something we need to do. Thank you all for supporting us over the years."

Google took action against the developers of Vanced and gave the creators a Cease & Desist Order for using YouTube's branding and logo.

Google recently cracked down on Vanced, one of the most popular YouTube app alternatives for Android, and sent its developers a cease and desist order.

Given the fact that current versions of Vanced are still functional, some users may still have the app installed on their devices. In addition to the main Vanced application, users have the companion Vanced Manager application installed on their phones.

Vanced Manager App Tagged as Harmful

Vanced users have now complained that version 2.6.0 of the Vanced Manager app is tagged by Google Play Protect as malicious.

According to XDA, Vanced users on Reddit and Twitter have recently reported that the Vanced Manager app has been flagged as "harmful" by Google Play Protect, prompting them to uninstall it. This has led some to question the legitimacy of the Play Protect warning, given that the service had previously failed to identify the Vanced Manager application.

When users attempt to install Vanced Manager, or when users perform a device scan while the app is installed, users will be informed that the app attempts to circumvent Android's security protections.

According to Android Police, "A loose argument could be made that Vanced Manager treads on this line, since the app can use root to install apps, and the Play Protect warning is supposed to show up for apps abusing root and elevated privileges."

Numerous users were suspicious of the sudden tight rules applied to users who still have the app installed on their phones. The Play Protect feature is intended to protect users' phones from actual malware, and if it is being used to enforce Google's legal issues with Vanced, it may cause users to lose confidence in the feature.

Google Cease and Desist Order to Vanced

Vanced received a cease and desist order from Google that prompted the developers to pull back in any projects they were working on. Vanced confirmed that the contributing factor to its sudden suspension is that the company received a cease and desist order from Google for the unauthorized use of YouTube.

With the cease and desist order they received, Vanced discontinued all dissemination of links to the Vanced app and ceased all further distribution of its app.

Vanced was infringing on the trademarks and branding of the original YouTube application.

There is little doubt that the logo Vanced created and the original YouTube logo are quite similar. Another legal reason why they were in violation was that they used the YouTube logo without first obtaining permission from Google, the business that legally owns the site.