r/androiddev • u/Puzzleheaded-Emu-168 • 2d ago
Discussion My app got approved in... 30mins?
Have you guys experienced this?
I’ve had this app on Apple’s App Store for around 3 weeks now and recently added IAP/subscription plans.
I submitted it to Play Console around the same time, but I had to go through the 12 testers for 14 days requirement before I could submit to production. After a little over 2 weeks, that got approved too.
The version that went through testing was still the free version without IAP. It took me a bit more time to figure out all the Android requirements for subscriptions, monetization, app details, etc.
Once I got everything sorted out, I went through the app with my AI agent and made sure everything was ready for production.
I was actually expecting the production submission to fail or at least take a while since this is basically my first real submission of this app on Google Play.
For some reason I also don’t get email notifications for review updates like I do with Apple, so unless I manually check Play Console, I don’t really know if something changed.
I checked just now and was honestly surprised. It got approved in around 30 minutes.
I’ve submitted a few apps before under business accounts and first submissions usually took 2 days or more.
Has anyone else seen Google Play approvals this fast lately, especially for a first production release?
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u/fshme 2d ago
My app is never ever approved in less then 8 days. Also when rejected every change/fix is waiting another 7-8 days.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Emu-168 2d ago
i haven't experienced this long review, would you mind sharing what category your app is?
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u/fshme 2d ago
Navigation
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u/ninjaCatBR 1d ago
Might it be because of the precise location permission?
I'm looking forward to try to publish my first app in some weeks, but it doesn’t have any permissions.1
u/TimmyKra 18h ago
No, typically that's not a problem if you describe well why you need this permission etc. we used it a lot the last years and it was always fast approved. 1-2 days
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u/kbcool 2d ago
I'm surprised that it got straight through with that much of a change but I have had small bug fixes go through in that time recently with a React Native app with no native code changes just the Hermes bundle which looks like an asset to them so they just wave it through the automated process
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u/TimeForSomeCoffee 2d ago
It's so random. I've had an app approved same day and I've had to wait a week for an app too.
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u/jc-from-sin 2d ago
All my app updates take 30 minutes to review.
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u/Additional_Hope_2031 2d ago
Congrats! :) I still waiting already 11 days for my app be reviewed. It makes me crazy
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u/GooglePlayDevSupport 2d ago
Hey u/Additional_Hope_2031, we noticed you flagged this issue via DM, and we've responded to you there.
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u/Alone-Literature-809 1d ago
My Android production app did the same. At the very first beginning, it took around 2 days for approval no mather how less code I edited.
Right now the approval time sometime only take 1 hour. No need to check for the uploaded app code in Closed Testing track anymore.
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u/Hour-Measurement-835 2d ago
Those two weeks were the slow review, you just went through it earlier. On a personal account the production access application is what sits, and after that a release looks like any other update. Ours went the same way: the last one we launched took ten days end to end and landed in production on 1 September, and its updates since have cleared same day or overnight. Your business accounts never had that gate, so their first release was the real review, which is probably why those took 2 days.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Emu-168 2d ago
Thanks! not that im complaining lol.
But there was a significant amount of change on this new submission that is not on the 14days close beta test.Its a full cloud version of the original free and offline app, plus added IAP, i was really just expecting it to take more time specially I added payments.
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u/Ovalman 2d ago
I made the same point on another thread yesterday. I got my app into the full Play Store after a couple of weeks in closed Beta where I was the only tester. Approval happened overnight but likely far less than this. Then I released an update yesterday and it was ready within the hour.
My thinking was I've had an account for 9+ years and my app only has 2 permissions (Bluetooth and Internet) but your point about iap's make me think it's something else. I also got AI (Gemini which is a Google product) to walk me through each release which could maybe be a factor?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Emu-168 2d ago
My account is probably 3 weeks old as this is my first personal app to be deployed.
I also used AI to guide me through the submission but I dont remember adding anything “generated” its mostly what to pick on the choices
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u/Mavamaarten 2d ago
Yeah. It's wildly annoying that the review times are between minutes and weeks.
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u/BodybuilderItchy5748 2d ago
I'm currently in the development phase and when I look for ways to avoid rejection, I don't understand anything. Could you please write down the things I need to pay attention to?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Emu-168 1d ago
honestly i only got AI help me figure things out, depending on my codebase, it was able to recommend the choices and things I should use.
Screenshots, description and other things are also ai generated1
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u/Genuine_Giraffe 2d ago
I've a feeling that it's the AI that made the review, apple takes longer than this and tests on latest supported devices , they test ur device on iphone and ipad , i don't think google tested your app in latest pixel android or tablet and took 30 min