We monitor 217 Google Play storefronts to answer one question —

Is imo HD - Video Calls and Chats censored by Google?

Yes.

Google does not offer imo HD - Video Calls and Chats in 4 of the 217 Google Play countries it operates: India, mainland China, the United States, and Sri Lanka. 3.18B people cannot install it. It has been unavailable in India since Aug 1, 2025.

205 tests on record·last checked 31 days ago

Why it is unavailable

Five things can put an app out of one Google Play. Each is weighed below against what can be seen from outside — open a card for the reasoning.

  • A government or a court demanded itPossible

    and Google complied. Google publishes a count of these per country each year and never says which apps they were. Google’s Transparency Report

  • A local rule about paying for itPossible

    gambling licences, financial rules, tax — the kind of law that governs a transaction. Google can obey every one of them by refusing the payment, which is why this is the only restriction we would accept and the only one that cannot touch a free app.

  • Google applied a rule, unaskedPossible

    either its own review guidelines, or its own reading of a local law, with nobody having demanded anything. This is the largest category in Google’s own removal figures by a wide margin, and it covers distribution permits as well as content — Google kept a free Bible app out of mainland China in 2021 for want of one. Google’s Transparency Report

  • The developer withheld itPossible

    freely, or under legal advice of their own, or because Google’s guidelines require that kind of app to be limited to certain countries. Switching a country off is easy for a developer to do in Google’s own tools: it needs no new version of the app, and it leaves no public trace other than the app being unavailable.

  • Something brokeUnlikely

    a rejected update, a lapsed certificate, a payment or licensing problem, a mistake nobody has got round to noticing.

    • Gone for 2 years.
How this is weighed, and what it cannot tell you

Weighed from the evidence under each card, not from a model. There is no published figure for how Google’s removals divide up, so these are ordered words rather than percentages. For scale on the same-day counts: across the whole record an app leaves a storefront with fewer than two others, so a dozen at once is not a dozen coincidences.

None of this is certain, and a citation does not make it so: Google naming a Chinese agency tells you what Google said, not everything that happened. What can be said is that the readings alone cannot separate these five — a developer switching off a country and a government ordering it removed arrive at Google’s catalogue looking identical — and that nobody has ever measured how they divide across Google Play. The one careful study of the question was done on Google's store, using an error message Google does not emit.

Google publishes no record of which apps are unavailable in which countries. Its Transparency Report counts the removal requests governments send it, across its products together, and names no app in any of them — so even the part it does disclose cannot be matched to a single thing missing from your store. Where a reason reaches the public at all, it is usually because a developer chose to say so. Google’s Transparency Report

Know of a statement, notice or order we have missed? Tell us →

imo HD - Video Calls and Chats

Developer: imo.im · Released: Sep 3, 2024 · Rating: 3.9★

View in Google Play ↗
56stores where available
4stores where blocked
3.18Bpeople behind the block
60of 217 stores tested
205tests on record

Life of this app

  1. Sep 3, 2024Released on Google Play
  2. Sep 3, 2024Removed in the United States
  3. Sep 3, 2024Removed in mainland China
  4. Dec 29, 2024First tested by GooglePlayCensorship
  5. Dec 29, 2024Removed in Sri Lanka
  6. Aug 1, 2025Removed in India
  7. Aug 28, 2026Most recent test

Testing history

One column per month, every month from the first reading to the last. Height follows how many readings we took that month; red is the share of them that found the app unavailable. An empty month is one nobody tested.

2024-092026-08

Found availableFound unavailable

Availability by storefront

Every storefront we test, current status first. Data is a measurement, not a promise: each row carries its own date.

Test now
China (Mainland)CN↗UnavailableSep 3, 202414 months ago
IndiaIN↗UnavailableAug 1, 202514 months ago
Sri LankaLK↗UnavailableDec 29, 202414 months ago
United StatesUS↗UnavailableSep 3, 202431 days ago
AlgeriaDZ↗Available—14 months ago
AndorraAD↗Available—14 months ago
ArubaAW↗Available—14 months ago
AzerbaijanAZ↗Available—14 months ago
BangladeshBD↗Available—14 months ago
BarbadosBB↗Available—14 months ago
BelizeBZ↗Available—14 months ago
BoliviaBO↗Available—14 months ago
BrazilBR↗Available—31 days ago
British Virgin IslandsVG↗Available—14 months ago
CanadaCA↗Available—14 months ago
Cayman IslandsKY↗Available—14 months ago
Central African RepublicCF↗Available—14 months ago
ChadTD↗Available—14 months ago
CzechiaCZ↗Available—14 months ago
DominicaDM↗Available—14 months ago
EgyptEG↗Available—14 months ago
El SalvadorSV↗Available—14 months ago
Falkland IslandsFK↗Available—14 months ago
GrenadaGD↗Available—14 months ago
GuyanaGY↗Available—14 months ago
HondurasHN↗Available—14 months ago
IcelandIS↗Available—14 months ago
IndonesiaID↗Available—14 months ago
LebanonLB↗Available—14 months ago
LibyaLY↗Available—14 months ago
MacaoMO↗Available—14 months ago
MadagascarMG↗Available—14 months ago
MaldivesMV↗Available—14 months ago
MonacoMC↗Available—14 months ago
Myanmar (Burma)MM↗Available—14 months ago
NepalNP↗Available—14 months ago
NetherlandsNL↗Available—14 months ago
New ZealandNZ↗Available—14 months ago
NorwayNO↗Available—14 months ago
OmanOM↗Available—14 months ago
Papua New GuineaPG↗Available—14 months ago
PeruPE↗Available—14 months ago
PhilippinesPH↗Available—14 months ago
PortugalPT↗Available—14 months ago
RussiaRU↗Available—14 months ago
SamoaWS↗Available—14 months ago
SingaporeSG↗Available—13 months ago
SlovakiaSK↗Available—14 months ago
Solomon IslandsSB↗Available—14 months ago
SomaliaSO↗Available—14 months ago
South AfricaZA↗Available—14 months ago
South KoreaKR↗Available—14 months ago
SudanSD↗Available—14 months ago
TanzaniaTZ↗Available—14 months ago
Turks & Caicos IslandsTC↗Available—14 months ago
UgandaUG↗Available—14 months ago
UkraineUA↗Available—14 months ago
United Arab EmiratesAE↗Available—14 months ago
United KingdomGB↗Available—14 months ago
VietnamVN↗Available—14 months ago
AfghanistanAF↗Not tested——0
AlbaniaAL↗Not tested——0
AngolaAO↗Not tested——0
AnguillaAI↗Not tested——0
Antigua & BarbudaAG↗Not tested——0
ArgentinaAR↗Not tested——0
ArmeniaAM↗Not tested——0
AustraliaAU↗Not tested——0
AustriaAT↗Not tested——0
BahamasBS↗Not tested——0
BahrainBH↗Not tested——0
BelarusBY↗Not tested——0
BelgiumBE↗Not tested——0
BeninBJ↗Not tested——0
BermudaBM↗Not tested——0
BhutanBT↗Not tested——0
Bosnia & HerzegovinaBA↗Not tested——0
BotswanaBW↗Not tested——0
BruneiBN↗Not tested——0
BulgariaBG↗Not tested——0
Burkina FasoBF↗Not tested——0
BurundiBI↗Not tested——0
CambodiaKH↗Not tested——0
CameroonCM↗Not tested——0
Cape VerdeCV↗Not tested——0
Caribbean NetherlandsBQ↗Not tested——0
ChileCL↗Not tested——0
Christmas IslandCX↗Not tested——0
Cocos (Keeling) IslandsCC↗Not tested——0
ColombiaCO↗Not tested——0
ComorosKM↗Not tested——0
Cook IslandsCK↗Not tested——0
Costa RicaCR↗Not tested——0
Côte d’IvoireCI↗Not tested——0
CroatiaHR↗Not tested——0
CubaCU↗Not tested——0
CuraçaoCW↗Not tested——0
CyprusCY↗Not tested——0
DenmarkDK↗Not tested——0
DjiboutiDJ↗Not tested——0
Dominican RepublicDO↗Not tested——0
DR CongoCD↗Not tested——0
EcuadorEC↗Not tested——0
Equatorial GuineaGQ↗Not tested——0
EritreaER↗Not tested——0
EstoniaEE↗Not tested——0
EswatiniSZ↗Not tested——0
EthiopiaET↗Not tested——0
FijiFJ↗Not tested——0
FinlandFI↗Not tested——0
FranceFR↗Not tested——0
GabonGA↗Not tested——0
GambiaGM↗Not tested——0
GeorgiaGE↗Not tested——0
GermanyDE↗Not tested——0
GhanaGH↗Not tested——0
GibraltarGI↗Not tested——0
GreeceGR↗Not tested——0
GuatemalaGT↗Not tested——0
GuernseyGG↗Not tested——0
GuineaGN↗Not tested——0
Guinea-BissauGW↗Not tested——0
HaitiHT↗Not tested——0
Hong KongHK↗Not tested——0
HungaryHU↗Not tested——0
IranIR↗Not tested——0
IraqIQ↗Not tested——0
IrelandIE↗Not tested——0
Isle of ManIM↗Not tested——0
IsraelIL↗Not tested——0
ItalyIT↗Not tested——0
JamaicaJM↗Not tested——0
JapanJP↗Not tested——0
JerseyJE↗Not tested——0
JordanJO↗Not tested——0
KazakhstanKZ↗Not tested——0
KenyaKE↗Not tested——0
KiribatiKI↗Not tested——0
KosovoXK↗Not tested——0
KuwaitKW↗Not tested——0
KyrgyzstanKG↗Not tested——0
LaosLA↗Not tested——0
LatviaLV↗Not tested——0
LesothoLS↗Not tested——0
LiberiaLR↗Not tested——0
LiechtensteinLI↗Not tested——0
LithuaniaLT↗Not tested——0
LuxembourgLU↗Not tested——0
MalawiMW↗Not tested——0
MalaysiaMY↗Not tested——0
MaliML↗Not tested——0
MaltaMT↗Not tested——0
MauritaniaMR↗Not tested——0
MauritiusMU↗Not tested——0
MexicoMX↗Not tested——0
MicronesiaFM↗Not tested——0
MoldovaMD↗Not tested——0
MongoliaMN↗Not tested——0
MontenegroME↗Not tested——0
MontserratMS↗Not tested——0
MoroccoMA↗Not tested——0
MozambiqueMZ↗Not tested——0
NamibiaNA↗Not tested——0
NauruNR↗Not tested——0
NicaraguaNI↗Not tested——0
NigerNE↗Not tested——0
NigeriaNG↗Not tested——0
NiueNU↗Not tested——0
Norfolk IslandNF↗Not tested——0
North MacedoniaMK↗Not tested——0
PakistanPK↗Not tested——0
Palestinian TerritoriesPS↗Not tested——0
PanamaPA↗Not tested——0
ParaguayPY↗Not tested——0
Pitcairn IslandsPN↗Not tested——0
PolandPL↗Not tested——0
QatarQA↗Not tested——0
Republic of the CongoCG↗Not tested——0
RomaniaRO↗Not tested——0
RwandaRW↗Not tested——0
San MarinoSM↗Not tested——0
São Tomé & PríncipeST↗Not tested——0
Saudi ArabiaSA↗Not tested——0
SenegalSN↗Not tested——0
SerbiaRS↗Not tested——0
SeychellesSC↗Not tested——0
Sierra LeoneSL↗Not tested——0
SloveniaSI↗Not tested——0
SpainES↗Not tested——0
St. HelenaSH↗Not tested——0
St. Kitts & NevisKN↗Not tested——0
St. LuciaLC↗Not tested——0
St. Vincent & GrenadinesVC↗Not tested——0
SurinameSR↗Not tested——0
SwedenSE↗Not tested——0
SwitzerlandCH↗Not tested——0
TaiwanTW↗Not tested——0
TajikistanTJ↗Not tested——0
ThailandTH↗Not tested——0
Timor-LesteTL↗Not tested——0
TogoTG↗Not tested——0
TokelauTK↗Not tested——0
TongaTO↗Not tested——0
Trinidad & TobagoTT↗Not tested——0
TunisiaTN↗Not tested——0
TürkiyeTR↗Not tested——0
TurkmenistanTM↗Not tested——0
TuvaluTV↗Not tested——0
UruguayUY↗Not tested——0
UzbekistanUZ↗Not tested——0
VanuatuVU↗Not tested——0
Vatican CityVA↗Not tested——0
VenezuelaVE↗Not tested——0
Western SaharaEH↗Not tested——0
YemenYE↗Not tested——0
ZambiaZM↗Not tested——0
ZimbabweZW↗Not tested——0

Testing asks Google whether it will sell this app in that storefront, right now, by the same method the crawler has used since 2019. Your browser asks Google directly, so the answer describes what Google serves your connection — and if your browser cannot reach Google at all, we ask on your behalf and say so. The result is a link: open it to see Google’s own answer and check ours. Readings are added to the record above; roughly a quarter of the readings taken each day come from people testing.

How we test

Availability is checked against Google’s own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way Google Play app asks. "Unavailable" means Google’s servers say the app cannot be offered in that country — it does not say who asked for the removal. Removals initiated by the developer and removals demanded by governments look the same from outside; the history and context on this page are how we tell them apart.