For anyone else publishing mobile apps:
Neither Apple nor Google allow bypassing the store's purchase system by linking to external donation pages. No matter the app type, it will result in rejection.
Some examples are purchases that can be used outside the app, eg. cross platform purchases and things like transportation and finance.
> Here are some examples of products not currently supported by Google Play In-app Billing:
> One time-payments, including peer-to-peer payments, online auctions, and donations.
How deep does it have to be before they cut you off? Can you link to a page that is only linking to another page where the donation happens? How much extra text would you need to "pass inspection". I find these kinds of arbitrary rules very unsettling. It's definitely time to break up the tech giants.
It is odd that they remove this though, I use at least two more open source apps that asks for a donation and will send me to their donation page if I click.
And before the "android can sideload" argument, how many normal people are going to do that with all the dark pattern warnings that google displays when you try to enable the feature.
Spamming users with notifications is also against the rules and everybody does it anyways.
Both are lying to you and everyone else. They instead demand their private tax while lying to you about it beforehand.