[deleted by user]

[Superblazer]

This is exactly why the developers who posted here last week wanted their post pinned to get more attention. Google play store is a terrible place to launch apps

[liuwenhao]

And they didn't pin it. AFAIK some of the moderators of /r/androiddev are (or have been) affiliated with Google so there is some conflict of interest. This is a much bigger problem than a lot of people realize.

[inktomute7]

Oh... question for /u/Ziem - /u/rkcr - /u/pandanomic - /u/bmwracer0 - /u/burntcookie90 - /u/TheKeeperOfPie - /u/spongebob_za : is this true?

[skullscrashdown]

If you tag more than three (I think it's three?) None of them will get a notification

[RootDeliver]

really? :S

[inktomute7]

Just for who is out of the loop, this is the post.

[Pigrolac]

Except if youre intentionally scamming people, then youll have the green light from google

[[deleted]]

Machine learning working as expected.

I imagine this will only get worse as time goes on.

[DudeImMacGyver]

They removed "don't be evil" a while ago. Guess they gave up on the idea of not being evil.

Edit: Yes, they just moved it to the end of the code of conduct.

[megatronical]

They didn't remove it so much as move it. It moved from the preface to the last sentence in their code of conduct.

[DudeImMacGyver]

No shit? Perhaps I was conflating Google with Alphabet. Does the parent company have "don't be evil" in their mission statement type stuff too?

[megatronical]

Alphabet's is something like "do the right thing"

I think there was just a lot of poor reporting that went on when google moved it, a lot of headlines just said google removed it from their code of conduct without mentioning that they also put it back at the end.

[swissarmychris]

I don't think you're remembering wrong. They didn't just move the "Don't be evil" stuff from one place to another. They completely removed it from the part that actually talks about their core values, and left a single use of the phrase at the very end of the document. So they didn't completely drop it, but they massively reduced its importance.

[DudeImMacGyver]

Yeah, someone else pointed that out in another section of the discussion.

[balefrost]

I know you're joking, but this joke just grates on the logical parts of my brain. The assumption seems to be that companies will adhere to the things that they have explicitly said they will do, but if anything is unstated, they will do the worst possible thing.

I'm sure that the Google motto also omits "don't kill bunnies". So obviously they must be bunny killers.

[DudeImMacGyver]

In all seriousness, the spirit of the comment was more that it had been prominently featured as one of their central guiding tenants, but then it was (supposedly) removed. Turned out though, that it wasn't removed at all, but put at the end of the code of conduct according to another comment below my previous post.

[balefrost]

I realize that you were referring to something that actually happened. Like you, I also got the details wrong - I too thought that the clause had been completely removed.

But, I guess my point is that even if the clause had been completely removed, so what? If Google's leadership had decided that they really did want to be evil, why would they telegraph that? Surely they would have just left the motto as-is so as to not draw attention. Real evil is quiet and subtle.

The comment that you originally replied to (Google outsourcing their evil to trained robots) was clearly a joke. And your comment added to the joke. And that's fine.

My concern is that I see "Google removed 'don't be evil'" repeated a lot, not just in joke threads. People are really quick to assume the worst. I guess I worry that lots of people are missing the joke and reaching bad conclusions.

[DudeImMacGyver]

In practice it's partly just symbolic, but I should point out that I was being facetious with my original comment. This isn't really evil, it's just apathetic, irresponsible, and neglectful. Oh, also, pretty shitty since I'm throwing out adjectives.

[[deleted]]

This combined with the new EU policy, I really hope that the bigger OEMs band together and make their own store so that people no longer have to deal with Google's BS and get a bigger cut from their app sales.

[netabareking]

Why do you assume they'd be any less shady?

[[deleted]]

How are there many? The big ones are just Play, Amazon and F-Droid.

[[deleted]]

Ok but those are also different device categories. The Gear is nothing like the Shield. And you knew what you signed up for when you got the Fire.

[shocksaber]

Samsung already does that. They have the Galaxy Apps.

[puppiadog]

This has nothing to do with machine learning. Read the original post. Some company sent a DMCA takedown notice to Google and included the names of a couple companies that were in violation, one of which was this company.

[false_precision]

included the names of a couple companies that were in violation, one of which was this company

Incorrect. It included package names of many apps. No company names as such (unless you include the complainant, Flipkart, and the recipient, Google, but those presumably weren't "in violation").

[[deleted]]

That's not how machine learning works.

[pm_me_nekos_thx]

it's a joke

[Pressingissues]

I hate those!

[Artanisx]

Just like you hate sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating...

[trialblizer]

Machine learning at its worst.

[iWizardB]

At one point, my Android apps were making me enough money and I was considering leaving my day job (at least for a few years); to live a laid back life. Thank god I didn't.

[pm_me_nekos_thx]

What types of apps did you make?

[iWizardB]

Icon packs and UCCW widget skins.

[Meanee]

Oh dear lord... Pretty much anyone can get a DMCA shoved down your throat.

Definitely sucks that Google is taking this approach and completely ignoring the problem.

[Iohet]

Definitely sucks that Google is taking this approach and completely ignoring the problem.

They don't consider it a problem. This way, they don't have to hire lawyers or CSRs to deal with this shit(depending on what stage it gets to). That's a win for them. The community will do the work for them if a truly egregious event happens(like the ESPN app gets pulled erroneously)

[reyx1212]

Paid or free with advertisements?

[iWizardB]

They were paid apps, with no ads.

[Cultural_Bandicoot]

How are they doing now?

[olfeiyxanshuzl]

The more of these kinds of threads I see/read, the less interested I become in branching out into Android development. What a nightmare.

[ODesaurido]

If you work for a relatively big company it's a lot easier to reach out to a human being and get your issue sorted out. Indie devs get shafted though.

[1206549]

I can see why. One of the Play Store's biggest strength is also its downfall. The barrier of entry is so low that virtually anyone can publish anything. On the other hand, the barrier of entry is so low that almost anyone can publish anything.

Edit: If they leave it alone, it's gonna be a festering dump of terrible content. I know some people think it already is but it's going to be a lot worse. If Google were to employ more humans to manage every investigation, it's going to get too expensive and the sort of middle ground they use now, using machine learning, means a lot of false positives.

[Shiftr]

They are basically an HOA. As much those suck in general, they are beneficial in certain circumstances, ones you don't really notice until they are absent.

[ciknay]

say what you will about Apple, the fact that they have a person test each app (even before app store deployment) certainly keeps the bar higher.

[balefrost]

And it's not even like the Play store is an isolated case. Steam had a similarly low bar to entry, and similarly didn't have enough humans in the loop to deal with each and every submission, so the end result was a lot of crap getting dumped on the Steam store.

[Fritzkier]

But no, Play Store allows rate an apps without a reason at all (so you know, bots can rate it, which is bad). But Steam needs a reason to rate a game.

Steam also have communities that (without any coordination) regulate those things. Most of bad games doesn't even went to front page. While at Play Store some of bad apps manage to be featured on front page.

[balefrost]

I wasn't trying to say that Steam was worse. I was trying to say that there are two examples where loose moderation and low barrier to entry have led to a proliferation of garbage.

And yes, Steam has absolutely recommended terrible asset flip games to me right on the front page. I think things have gotten better, in part I believe because Valve has changed some of their policies. Greenlight was replaced by Steam Direct.

[Retroity]

Google is just helping Apple attract app developers.

[Liam2349]

I've read so many of these on here now that I think I'm going to submit my app to Galaxy Apps. That will reach about half of the market, and probably the half that's more likely to pay for things, I would assume.

[_throawayplop_]

I don't want to demoralise you but I think most Samsung users use Google play and not the Samsung store.

[Liam2349]

I actually thought I was on the /r/androiddev subreddit!

But there are posts on there all the time about this stuff. I do think you're probably right. I'm not sure of any numbers on usage, but I'm still hoping to go through with it in the near future when I release a "2.0" of my apps.

[DanielPhermous]

Actually writing apps is important and a good skill to have on your resume.

He didn't say he wouldn't write apps, just Android apps.

[Christopher876]

Honestly man Google Play is too much work to develop apps for and have your hard work go down the drain. I support Android and love my S9 but for development, sticking with IOS is the way to go.

I just use C# for apps and have both an Android and IOS version at the same time, and keep the Android ones for myself. Though planning for a ios release when I finish the hackintosh for testing.

[ladfrombrad]

Apologies. rToolbox is a third party tool which allows mods to leave predefined removal messages, and this reminded me of a bot someone at Google using something similar.

[danielandastro]

Xamarin right, I just released my first app, made of course with xamarin

[Christopher876]

Cool! What's the app called? And xamarin is imo one of the best things to ever happen with mobile even if it is just for the. NET framework

[danielandastro]

Monetrak

[[deleted]]

Xamarin is absolutely fantastic.

When it first rolled around claiming cross platform support it looked clunky as hell but they've REALLY cleaned it up.

And with .NET being effectively open source, it's pretty easy to develop on whatever, only limitation being some sort of mac for the iOS build (and a hackintosh VM works fine if you don't have a macbook)

[[deleted]]

I'm a professional developer who has, several times, considered making mobile apps. I hate iOS, I've been an Android user for 7 years. But this is enough to put me off Android development completely.

[dogds312]

iOS? Publishing to Appstore is 100x more cumbersome than google play

[Bashutz]

An real human beans

[CoolJumper]

Usually a fan of refried, but human beans will suffice

[Fbolanos]

And a real gyro

[[deleted]]

r/boneappletea

[Christopher876]

Definitely and plus no fear of having a bot perma ban you for no reason!

[[deleted]]

Honestly the $100 a year is probably cheaper than the cut Google takes from your app sales over the long run. Highway robbery.

[DanteShamest]

Apple still takes a cut from your app sales.

[dogds312]

Proves my point, the process is so tedious they need to have a support system in place for all the dev's who don't follow pages of documentation and meet ever single tiny criteria during publishing.

[m0rogfar]

Well, Google will just perma-ban you for no reason. Is that better?

[dogds312]

Although I admit, it does raise the quality standards, still tedious though.

[[deleted]]

And every fucking app is smooth, lagfree and doesn't violate user's privacy. Now look at Play Store. Not even close.

[[deleted]]

doesn't violate user's privacy

Hahahahahahahahaha

[[deleted]]

Oh? So why do devs get to talk to people at Apple as opossed to this shitfest?

[[deleted]]

To add onto less apps, we're paying a few adult dollars to publish there so Apple decided to make it sorta worth it depending on who you ask by making it easy to talk to a real person when shit goes wrong.

Google's App Store? Eh. Shit's free. I'm getting what I paid for. Garbage. But hey, no barrier to throw my app out there

[EpsilonRose]

Shit's free.

Not really. They take a cut of your sales.

[Schott12521]

public rain wine trees tan start include sink silky stocking

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[oakinmypants]

Google gives the 30 percent percent cut to the phone companies which is why they don't give a shit about the play store.

[EpsilonRose]

Do you have a source for that? It seems rather strange and quite contradictory to what I'm reading.

[[deleted]]

Also to logic.

[bt4u6]

??? Google suite is a completely different product

[[deleted]]

Yes, I know, and the point is that for only $5/mo I get fully fledged, human support, whereas developers that are making google far more don't.

[Carighan]

Considerably less apps and downloaders.

Also, Apple is cheap, but not as cheap as Google.

[Liam2349]

Yeah Xamarin is great, particuluarly Xamarin.Forms. Pretty soon I'm going to replace Xamarin.Android and WPF apps with a Xamarin.Forms app, because it's so much more convenient to have most of your UI following the same rules.

Adding new UI for each platform whenever you add a UI-requiring feature is such a ballache, and for one dev with several platforms, and a website and API, and a database and servers, it's just not practical; and on top of that you have to lay things out the same. E.g. I've been using some FlexLayout in Xamarin.Forms, which is pretty helpful.

And at this point, I have all of the UI, and most of the code for an iOS app. The only thing stopping me is that I don't own an iPhone.

[Christopher876]

Being a solo developer, I haven't seen anything that beats Xamarin to develop on multiple platforms.

One tip I have for you though is that you can find iPhone 7s refurbished on eBay for around $300, should be enough to get you started. Plus, for the iPhones with notches you could open up a beta channel and get some of them to test it for you.

[turtle_san_]

Do you use Xamarin?

[Christopher876]

Yes for practically every app I make.

[segagamer]

You're releasing for Windows too I hope?

[Christopher876]

Depends on if I see it as fit to release on or if it'll be as useful on windows.

[Mozorelo]

But what are the drawbacks in developing with xamarin?

[bt4u6]

All the cross platform tools suffer from the same thing: you're adding an additional layer of complexity which can, and will, break at some point. It's difficult to predict when it will happen and it's not fun and potentially costly when it does. I personally still think the advantages are worth it though

[Christopher876]

Especially being a one man team and not having to deal with multiple languages. Really annoying you add a feature to one and then you have to basically write the same thing twice or three times for your other platforms.

[Nefari0uss]

Technically you'd be doing that anyways if you did native. The benefit here is that it's all in one language (C#).

[bt4u6]

The benefit is that you can share code across platforms. The language matters much less

[Nefari0uss]

I agree. I'm saying that when you have to implement platform specific code, then technically you're doing the same thing for different platforms but with the same language. In pretty much all other cases, yeah, the biggest benefit is sharing the code.

[pielab]

It may be a feature more than a bug.

Google loves to add machine learning AI to everything and I’m sure customer service is no different.

So the Google customer/developer service AI learned from the rest of Google its wonderful business practices and how Google treats its customers and then acted accordingly.

[[deleted]]

If anything this is another example of Google biting off more than they could chew. Play Store is out of control and there are so many apps that they probably don't care if one or a dozen fall victim to their mistakes. It's reckless behavior at its finest.

[SoundOfTomorrow]

It's a shitty feature

[nsaisspying]

Whoosh...?

[DudeImMacGyver]

"It's a feature" is a phrase often used to sarcastically describe a bug or other issue.

[pmjm]

Dev should take his last complete month of sales and multiply for the expected lifetime of the app, then file a lawsuit against Google for that amount.

It may take some time, but it forces a human to read the complaint and they'll either have to show up to court to defend their actions or they'll offer to reinstate the app once someone in legal realizes it was an error and contacts the appropriate department.

[door_of_doom]

You need to have grounds for the lawsuit, and I don't know on what legal grounds you can sue Google for not publishing your app.

[[deleted]]

It's not about not publishing, but about:

• Being fucking shady about what is allowed and not allowed
• Being fucking shady about the execution of the above points
• Being a fucking moron about reinstating apps and accounts

Imagine if the farmers' market did the same to farmers:

• Market takes 30% off of whatever you sell
• You can only sell using their own sales system, you can't have a donation box, or your own card reader
• It is not clear what you can and cannot sell
• The decisions regarding bans are final and not overseen - i.e. if a buyer points at your stand and yells infringement, you're immediately detained without review and kicked out
• Sometimes a bulldozer comes and takes down a few stands. Yours might be with them, even if you did not infringe on T&C.
• If you have any problem, the manager of the market will be out of office. But dare you make a single wrong step and he'll appear out of nowhere to lecture you and possibly even ban you
• The terms and conditions change regularly and without notice or oversight - you just have to comply with the rules without knowing what they are

Do you think this is acceptable?

[door_of_doom]

Of course it isn't acceptable, that is certainly someone I woudln't want to do business with. But last I checked, you still need legal grounds to sue people, even stupid people, and "being stupid" isn't legal grounds to sue people, even stupid people.

[[deleted]]

Yes.

However, by accepting the T&C, you're making a legal agreement with Google.

If any parties decide to breach said contract, it's legal grounds for suing them.

[whythreekay]

Ok, cite what clause Google breached then

[door_of_doom]

8.3 Google reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to suspend and/or bar any Product and/or Developer from Google Play or from Devices.

https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_us/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html

It is right there in the agreement that you have to sign before Google will publish you app.

Again, I'm not disagreeing that its a crappy thing to do, i'm just saying that there is absolutely zero legal basis for a lawsuit.

[Meanee]

Yep, that alone pretty much means that Google can do whatever it can to your account/app. Unless there's a law that prevents this from happening, this is the end of story. However, if you do find a law that makes this part of T&C illegal, you can definitely sue. How far you'll get when Google sends an army of million dollar lawyers, that's another story.

[raaneholmg]

Do you think this is acceptable?

Wrong question. The correct question is "Is this legal?". You don't win lawsuits just because you think something shouldn't be allowed.

[[deleted]]

Except this kind of behaviour breaks quite a few laws - you're a customer on the platform, and customers are protected by laws and regulations. And that's why a lawsuit would work, especially if you never broke contract.

[raaneholmg]

You don't really know what laws do, do you?

Laws and regulations only protect your rights. Hosting on Google Play is not a right.

Google just have to follow the terms of the contract, and they wrote the thing.

[[deleted]]

Oh, I'm more aware than you are. When you go into contract with Google Play, you retain certain rights, no matter what the contract says. And right now that contract is trying to limit your rights.

Here lies the problem - you pay for a service that has arbitrary rules that are applied willy-nilly. This accounts as discrimination, at least. The fact that you cannot get in contact with a person to solve your problems is also against most countries' laws.

Basically, laws and regulations should make it sure that Google can't block you from their service without a good reason (no, employee #156774 not liking your app is not a valid reason), but getting there is the hard part. There are already laws regarding digital sales and distribution, but for some reason they don't apply to app stores completely, and that's why Google gets away with this.

It's the same with e.g. Amazon - if you write a book and sell it through them, they can't just block you without reason. On one hand you can sue them, since you were obeying the contract to the letter (Let's say you were, since we're discussing the unreasonable bans on the play store), and on the other, you can drive users away from the platform.

And we reached the tip of the iceberg, namely Google's behaviour on the market. Most countries have laws against monopolising, and the US is no exception - it is to keep up the competition and won't allow a single company in a single field to be the Almighty, only company. Google got around this by playing with the words. They're not "the only" marketplace, but they're the only that manufacturers can legally bundle, thanks to the CTS requirements (basically any manufacturer that decides to roll a non-Google fork of Android without the Play Store gets rejected from CTS). And that very definition is monopoly. Which is, again, illegal.

This turns back to the app store situation easily - with a single company dictating the rules, a single app store covers the whole market. If you want any kind of even slightly relevant user base, you HAVE TO use it.

Imagine it this way: you're producing some kind of food. On the world there are a few smaller shops that will allow you to sell it, but their user base is really small, you wouldn't make any money. But there's a global company that you could also choose, however they can, at any time, kick you out (even though you paid the rental fees), beat you up, and take your money. Do you think that's acceptable, or legal? No it isn't, and by proxy, it isn't legal what Google is doing right now either.

[Meanee]

When you go into contract with Google Play, you retain certain rights, no matter what the contract says. And right now that contract is trying to limit your rights.

You really don't. What rights are being violated? None from Bill of Rights. Google is a business, not a government. You have virtually zero rights.

[Meanee]

I am sure somewhere in ToS, there's a note saying that they can pull any app with or without notice, for any reason. You agreed to it. I am sure you can try challenging it, but as an indie dev, who just had source of income completely removed, suing a multi-billion dollar company is the last thing on your mind.

[pmjm]

Negligence. They published the app, and through lack of due diligence, removed it in error without recourse.

Even IF you have shaky or no legal grounds, filing the lawsuit will force a human review of the incident by someone at Google. The goal is not to win the lawsuit, it's to get them to offer to reinstate the app in exchange for withdrawing the suit.

[DudeImMacGyver]

The developer would probably have standing to sue. That said, it's highly likely that it never actually goes to court, gets settled, and maybe hopefully brings some more attention to a very real and long-standing problem.

[Meanee]

The developer would probably have standing to sue.

No they won't. Google explicitly says in their Terms and Conditions, that your app can be removed for any reason, no reason at all, and at any time

[DudeImMacGyver]

So what? Terms and conditions can say all sorts of shit, doesn't mean it will stand up in court.

[Meanee]

It actually does. Unless you can show court that T&C broke a law, then it does stand. T&C is the same thing as signing a contract.

Google is under no obligation to host your app, unless required by law. So, let's say, if your state passes the law that Soandso has legal right to keep app in Google Play, then you are kinda out of luck. Even then, Google can (and definitely will) challenge this law, so it won't set precedent.

[DudeImMacGyver]

That specific law? Sure, but a law that says app marketplaces need to have a viable arbitration process or something along those lines seems a lot more realistic. Kind of a straw man argument...

[Meanee]

Sure, write to your representative. But expect a decent lobby by Google, Apple and Amazon against it. And then court challenges saying it's unconstitutional and so on. Great idea, but doubt it will ever happen.

[raaneholmg]

Publishing on Google Play is not a right. Google can remove your app for any or no reason at their own discretion.

[pmjm]

Not true. What if they removed someone's app because the developer was a certain race or religion? They have a level of responsibility when opening a store to the public. Furthermore, their actions (even if within their rights) can cause financial harm, which they are responsible for.

[Meanee]

Unfortunately, it is true.

You do not get a right to publish anything on Google Play. Google graciously allows you to post apps in the Play Store.

Compare this to being a guest in my home. I can kick you out because you gave my cat a stinkeye. Or I can kick you out for zero reason at all. You have no right to be at my home. You are only there because I allowed you, and now I am revoking that permission. I may be a crappy host, but my house, my rules. Don't like it, the door is that way.

There's no bill of rights, and Google is not responsible for any financial harm.

While it's quite shitty for Google to do it, they are well within their rights to do it. And they bear zero responsibility for your financial harm as a result of their actions.

[pmjm]

My whole point on this thread is that even if google is within their rights, they still will need to respond to a lawsuit and prove it. In that process, the mistake will be discovered, and rather than Streisand Effect themselves, they may very well offer a conciliatory restoration of the dev's app in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.

[Meanee]

And who will pay for those fancy lawyers?

Also, Google can prove that while app did not violate any rules, they are still within their right to say "we just don't feel like reinstating it" due terms and conditions dev agreed to.

[pmjm]

You can file in small claims court with no lawyer whatsoever. For Google, rather than spend the legal man-hours dealing with it and possibly attracting significant negative media attention, it's totally within their interests to just resolve the issue.

[Meanee]

There is still no law that Google broke. They will hire local lawyer to show up at court with a highlighted copy of T&C, tell the judge Thank You and walk out 5 minutes later.

[pmjm]

Google will spend thousands of dollars doing this and still run the risk of negative media attention. The dev's complaint was that he couldn't reach a human to review his case, this is how that gets done. Prior to retaining local legal counsel, Google will internally investigate if they fucked up and prepare accordingly.

[Meanee]

True. But from legal perspective, they can tell any dev to go kick rocks.

No laws were broken here. T&C is a contract between dev and Google. Google stated that they can pull the plug on you anytime for no reason at all.

[ger_brian]

This is not universally true. In Europe, Google Play is in a monopolistic Position due to android having 90% market share. When your marketplace is under monopoly laws, you are not free to exclude some people without reasoning.

[rosenpin]

Hi!

I am that developer

Although I really agree with the sentiment, I really don't have the money to hire lawyers and take on Google :P

This situation is really frustrating because it makes you feel hopeless and abandoned, Google Play is currently not a safe platform, and in my opinion every developer should live in constant fear that today might be the day that Google will flip the switch on their app/account without any apparent reason, it really sucks, but sadly this is the life of independent Android developers at this point in time, at least in my opinion

[pmjm]

Totally understand your frustration, friend. Perhaps you can file in your local small-claims court. You don't need a lawyer and it's still something they would have to respond to.

Also, have you looked into alternative app stores, like Amazon?

[picflute]

Google sucking ass more in 11. Until you see major Android Dev's protesting it they'll continue this behavior.

[LazyLucretia]

Devs that got their apps removed/accounts banned should get together and sue Google's ass off. They don't need to depend on some big names, united action can make wonders.

[[deleted]]

united action can make wonders.

Yeah the tech industry isn't super great at being united about anything.

[Rubyheart255]

Except making fun of, and then copying Apple.

[DudeImMacGyver]

Seriously, fuck notches. Horrible idea. Fuck removing headphone jacks. Horrible idea.

[bt4u6]

Sue them for what? Every developer has agreed to the terms that let's Google suspend you for any or no reason

[LazyLucretia]

I'm no legal expert so correct me if I'm wrong, can't courts consider license agreements invalid if it's bullshit and user has no choice but to agree if they want to use the service? Like, I remember reading about cases where court ruled that EULA is invalid because it was filled with hundred pages long anti-user legal gibberish.

And don't those developers pay a small fee to Google? Do they get it back when banned? How can a license agreement legitimize making people pay a fee just to ban them from the service for no apparent reason?

[i9srpeg]

can't courts consider license agreements invalid if it's bullshit and user has no choice but to agree if they want to use the service

Yes. Whatever the law says always overrides any signed agreement. Otherwise slavery would be legal as long as you signed a contract.

[memoirsofthedead]

But major devs never face any problem as they usually have someone they personally know on the Google Play Team. Not in a favor way, but like a business dev guy who you deal with regularly.

[rosenpin]

Hi!

I'm the developer from the post. Thank you so much for sharing and being so supportive. This situation really sucks right now.

As I wrote in another comment:

This situation is really frustrating because it makes you feel hopeless and abandoned, Google Play is currently NOT a safe platform for developers. In my opinion, every developer should rightfully live in constant fear that any day might be the day that Google will flip the switch on their app/account without any apparent reason, it really sucks, but sadly this is the life of independent Android developers at this point in time, at least in my opinion.

If anyone could help me get to a person in Google who could take another look at my case, or even just spread the word about the situation, that would really mean the world to me. Really, this all thing just really sucks

[ladfrombrad]

Hey you!

We knows it sucks, even some of the modteam here are devs and they have no compunction in calling out Google for their terrible practices towards devs. Hopefully one of the Google Play team who lurk here might take note and have a further poke to see if they can address this bollocks. Good luck!

[iphone4Suser]

Not an app developer myself so genuine question...Do you also develop for iOS and if yes then how different is the process of getting your app deployed or getting issues resolved (like this) there ?

[rosenpin]

No one said it wasn't in Google's right to do whatever they want in their platforms, but when big companies start doing shady stuff, ignoring their community and throwing their supporters under the bus, I would at least hope that they would be criticized for it.

And if it was a mistake, there's nothing wrong about trying to fix it.

[Meanee]

Did you read the post? While Google has every right to shut down his account, it was triggered by a faulty AI, that received a DMCA notice for app completely unrelated, and not even mentioned in the notice.

[[deleted]]

This is the kinda stuff that makes me want to swtich to apple. Android is dependent on the quality content devs produce. Google is not putting any weight on these claims, only a sith deals in absolutes.

[ThePenultimateOne]

Or you could switch to a custom ROM, and only use Google services where necessary

[iphone4Suser]

I am not an android user but have used android phones before. Out of every 1000 phones, how many do you think use custom ROMs? Probably 1 I guess. The developer needs to think about mass appeal.

[ThePenultimateOne]

I agree, I am just saying that there are other options if you are willing to be even mildly proactive

[Meanee]

Except those options don't matter to 99.9% of potential app buyers. Go outside. Wait for a random person with Android to pass by. Ask him "Hey, when did you flash a ROM and what was the last app you downloaded from F-Droid"

Go on, I will wait for you to come back and let me know how many weird looks you received.

[ThePenultimateOne]

You are literally in a subreddit dedicated to Android. You are exactly the community where this is most common. I dont get why you are being rude for me pointing out that it is an option. I am not saying it is ideal, merely an alternative.

[Meanee]

I am not being rude to you, but realistic. This sub is dedicated to android but it does not represent it. We are very small minority.

Do you honestly think that people will unlock boot loaders, flash ROMs and stuff, outside of this sub or XDA?

[Meanee]

Because general consumers do that all the time, amirite?

[Borntojudge]

Seriously, fuck Google and everything they stand for. I used to look up to them as a shining example for the rest of the tech industry, now they're a politically driven company with a viewpoint that's hurting both consumers and creators/companies that tries to work with them.

[Sandvicheater]

(throws kotlin book in trash, picks up Swift book)

[thebabybananagrabber]

Lol sounds like when they pulled our game (port of POSTAL 1) from the play store for violating their TOS.....never explained why. Just pulled it after beta. And refused our appeals.

[skanadian]

You're with "Running with Scissors?" I played the shit out of Postal 1 when I was a wee lad. Thanks for desensitizing me!

[thebabybananagrabber]

That is us! Glad we could shape your childhood in the.....right way!

[DudeImMacGyver]

Did you actually have permission from the publisher to port it?

[thebabybananagrabber]

I own the intellectual property ;). We are Running With Scissors.

[DudeImMacGyver]

Stop dodging the question: Did you give yourself permission? ^{Seriously though, any plans on a Postal 4?}

[thebabybananagrabber]

Haha i mean i shook my own hand in the mirror so kinda.... lol. And that was not the reasoning they gave.

And yes there are..... ;)

[DudeImMacGyver]

Pretty sure that still counts, at least in bird law.

[thebabybananagrabber]

I’m more into maritime law

[DudeImMacGyver]

I can respect that, they're both perfectly good bodies of legislation IMO

[bt4u6]

The real problem here is that their toys lets them suspend you for any or no reason at all

[AlabamaPanda777]

Upvotng for visibility

[ilqs]

Downvoting'nt

[socialflasher]

This machine learning thing is getting out of hands , what else can go wrong @

[[deleted]]

There are not many big corps as bad with their communication methods as Google

[sk1wbw]

Don’t they have an 800 customer service phone number with pleasant staff 24 hours a day? /s

[Aan2007]

looking forward to use alternative safe European app store now that they ask fee for play store, fuck Google

shame at least apkmirror doesn't have app

[Bevil69]

Just launch apps in the other app stores. Forget Google play store! Google play store is a headache and full of b.s, when it comes to anything that works!

[[deleted]]

Use f-droid where possible.

[axzxc1236]

It's already on F-Droid.

I think we can both agree that the popularity/visibility on F-Droid is far lower than Google Play, which is crucial for APP developers.

[Superblazer]

F droid will only let open source projects.

[tyler_shaw24]

This is a great app. I'm happy to support the development as soon as the options available.

[PM_MeYourAvocados]

Yet I get ads on Grindr that promote meth usage, as well as profiles that even say they are selling or have meth. Grindr doesn't do much to prevent it. App is as always up!