Eunice Kim, Product Manager for Google Play:
Several months ago, we began reviewing apps before they are published on Google Play to better protect the community and improve the app catalog. This new process involves a team of experts who are responsible for identifying violations of our developer policies earlier in the app lifecycle. We value the rapid innovation and iteration that is unique to Google Play, and will continue to help developers get their products to market within a matter of hours after submission, rather than days or weeks. In fact, there has been no noticeable change for developers during the rollout.
To assist in this effort and provide more transparency to developers, we’ve also rolled out improvements to the way we handle publishing status. Developers now have more insight into why apps are rejected or suspended, and they can easily fix and resubmit their apps for minor policy violations.
This has long been a point of humor of Apple fans, but that aside, I think this is a great move on Google’s part. The iOS App Store has its issues, but I firmly believe that having actual humans reviewing apps before putting them in the store is one one reason there have been so few security problems with iOS apps.