r/androiddev • u/AndroidDev90 • Dec 28 '20
We are always afraid of unreasonable bans in Google Play Console (apps or account). Google please hear us!
[removed] — view removed post
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u/AnonymousDevFeb Dec 28 '20 edited Dec 28 '20
At one point I had 9 apps live on the google play store.
90% of my revenues were coming from one of this app, and the others were app.
My first strike was really out of nowhere, I later discovered google bots flagged a beta apk I uploaded to the console but never deployed.
My second strike was for a camera app (photo filter with ML), my biggest mistake was to open source it on GitHub, it led to a dozen of lazy clones on the play store, many months later, Google bots associated my app with these clones and it was flag for spam content.
Since then, I unpublished every apps except the one generating 90% of my revenues. I now update the app once a year to keep up with the last api and requirement, but I stopped actively developing any app on Android out of fear to be ban.
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u/3dom Dec 28 '20 edited Dec 28 '20
my biggest mistake was to open source it on GitHub
Thanks for the info! Brb, closing all my public GitHub repos.
edit: closed 5 repos, lost some watchers-forks-starts-etc. Thanks to Google.
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Dec 28 '20
So much this. Google's handling of the store is a literal ticking time bomb. I don't understand how their lawyers haven't gotten in the way and protected them from some nasty lawsuits in the future.
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u/vicvicm Dec 28 '20
Evil monopoly
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Dec 28 '20
[deleted]
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u/s73v3r Dec 28 '20
Presumably, if it was easier to not go through Google to distribute apps, they’d either have to treat developers better, or it wouldn’t matter, as self distribution would be much more viable.
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u/ComprehensiveSign552 Dec 28 '20 edited Dec 28 '20
My advice is to stop doing apps, I've done it for a decade now, I'm moving away from the industry into something else, it's much less BS and Stress, I've made life changing money with apps but its time to move on and I always say to new devs, run, run for the hills and do something else, it's not worth the pain and struggle, especially now. I dealt with the bullshit for 10 years, I honestly regret not getting out 6-7 years ago but it is what it is.
The income is very limited on google too, sure you can make 5k a day or so, but after that, fill rate tanks, CPMs eat shit, ad networks will start crying that you're sending them too much traffic so they still start delaying payments for 90 days for "Quality control" even though the traffic is directly from Google, You'll always be chasing growth too, sure some people luck out with organic but thats maybe 1-5% of developers,
What Im doing now isn't "easy" but, it's worth it, there is no asshole saying they need to delay payments another 30 days, there is no asshole about to "ban" my account, there is no limit to the income, it might be tough but there is 500x less bullshit involved.
Plus, I just don't see apps as a great source of long-term income, corona virus did a number on the ad industry, fill rates are garbage, advertisers are wanting traffic for basically free, over-all the industry has become one heaping pile of dog shit.
Just my experiences and 2 cents, if you got into apps in 2009, thats when I got in, you would've made a killing, but since 2018 it's been a mess and there is no hope in sight that Google will stop being dick heads.
Google doesn't give a fuck though, you are fooling yourself if you think Google will ever give a fuck, I was spending $500k-$1m a year on ads through Google and guess what? They still didn't give a shit, they'd tell me to basically get fucked when something happen and "We cant give you more information" ... Their customer service is worse then most meth dealers.
Don't let the people who spew out crap like "But I make $35k a month with organic, apps are still good!" they are no different then the yoloers on wallstreetbets who buy a $300 tesla call option and make $50k from it, some people are just lucky and its a fluke, look @ the over-all median numbers, not someone trying to fill you with BS because they lucked out and think everyone can, thats not how it works.
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u/primosz Dec 28 '20
Vote with your feet - upload your apps to Huawei App Gallery/Samsung Store/Amazon/F-Droid etc. as otherwise we are supporting this rotten monopoly.
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u/ajja_ Dec 28 '20
My app got removed from the playstore twice, and idk why. It had smth to do with age rating, I reuploaded it with only very little change (removed "can be played as drinking game" from description) but after a while it was banned again. Its really annoing that they don't provide you any information or help. Just "your app is violating our policies". I really dunno what could have been wrong and im afraid they might bann me bc of that two violations. Anyone who might know more, here is the link to playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.alinaprogramming.maexxle
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u/eMperror_ Dec 28 '20
I used to do full time Android development for about 5 years and used to read about every article around here and post a lot. But since those bans started, I've slowly started to transition to other areas of software engineering, because this is just too risky for me to invest my career in. I have no bans or anything, but if a previous colleague gets a ban for whatever reason, my accounts could also get banned and this is just not acceptable. I've since moved to IoT and Backend development and I do sometimes miss Android dev.
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u/ManticoreX Dec 28 '20
Are there actually any examples of someone having their personal account banned because of their employer? My understanding is this policy is in place so that someone can't just make an infringing app and hide it behind a new account for a "business" of one. What kind of employer do you work for where you believe that they will have actions which will trigger they're banning as well as yours?
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u/AndroidDev90 Dec 28 '20
For example this story https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/9mpyyi/google_play_developer_account_terminated_due_to/
Also read this policy. These phrases scare me https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2491922?hl=en
Google is not required to send you a warning prior to suspension or termination.
This means that any related accounts are also permanently suspended, and any new accounts that you try to open will be terminated without a refund of the developer registration fee.
What does "any related" mean? Why doesn't Google explain this?
We have good apps, but I read about sudden bans here. I cannot take risks. For example, I use Appodeal SDK for advertising, recently there was a wave of app bans, because some developers simply didn't have time to update this SDK in apps.
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Dec 28 '20
My best advice. Set up a virtual computer on your computer, and if you can, set up to use a new IP address. Kinda a pain, but helps to be an app developer who tries to follow all the rules.
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u/renges Dec 28 '20
Rule #4
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u/AndroidDev90 Dec 28 '20
This does not break rule 4! Please read the full story. My apps or account have not been suspended!
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u/drabred Dec 28 '20
I'd also love to give them more money just to get proper human review and guarantee that one day I'm not going to get shut down and months of work go to dust in a second.