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Comment by postsantum | Hacker News Reader

That's a bannable offense according to Google's policies

Could you cite that, please? Signal provides both a Google Play install and an APK directly downloadable from its website. And of course loads of apps are on both Google Play and F-Droid. So, I’m assuming that Google’s policies forbid providing directly download of APKs that are inextricably based on Google Play Services, but it would be nice to see the actual text.

Mostly from personal experience, also saw a few similar cases on Reddit. The banned app had a link to the app's website which, in turn, had a link to xda forum where the very same apk was hosted. Here is the rule quoted in the suspension email:

"Apps or third party code (e.g., SDKs) that download executable code, such as dex files or native code, from a source other than Google Play."

If someone thinks it's an overreach, read about cases when apps were banned due to a link to another Google Play app from the same developer [1]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/atsju7/linking_...

Yes, so this is apparently banning linking to third-party sources of executable code from within apps, not simply making an APK available from multiple sources.

Sure, if you frame it like this. But it's not what a developer would think of when linking to online tutorials from within the app

Is that why Signal's apk is so hard to find on their site? So they don't get banned for linking their site in the app?

Signal’s APK is hard to find because the developers really don’t want people using it. They believe that it is best for security if all users get the app from the same place with automatic signed updates, i.e. the Google Play Store. The direct-download APK is only grudgingly provided because they know that some signal users are using Android versions without the Play Store.

In fact there are many apps that are available in Google Play and externally (as APKs, and via other app stores).

I don’t think so. WhatsApp does that and it is a pretty known app.

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