Genuine question: why not distribute them yourself (e.g. on GitHub)? If more and more developers do this, it will be like pc software. We don't have to accept a storefront (on Android at least).
Disclaimer: I'm not an app developer, but works in PR and marketing.
Months in, a new update and Google banned the app forever with no recourse.
You can distribute it but not as you. T&C violation.
We had to create a new app and remove the download.
With this as the explanation: Potentially malicious external APKs within the App.
The App had a link to our website on it's dashboard, our website had a download for all installers (we're cross-platform) and it was the same APK but because of potential for it being malicious, they suspended the app with no recourse. (We did remove the APK download, but couldn't update the App to remove the link to the website)
This was in 2018 and we had been in the store for about a year at that point. It was a patch update that triggered it.
> user engagement and revenue stream
Well, if you're making an app for the sole purpose of making charts go up...
>Well, if you're making an app for the sole purpose of making charts go up...
Unless the app is a hobby project, most people would put maximizing their potential revenue stream and marketability of their product as a high priority.
Discussions about the old Internet made me go back to developing and using the web like its 1999. It's quite liberating.
If the tool is good it doesn't need the crap stores to hoist it up. I could care less about the tech unsavy.
There are benefits to both.
API churn seems to kill both, but if you can support your app properly having lots of users will certainly alert you to issues more quickly.
On iOS, that's not even an option. On Android, that's hidden behind some scary checkboxes that state they're only for developers.
Side-loading apps like this is advertised as "insecure" and "dangerous" so as to discourage people form doing so.