App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
So, uh, goodbye one of the few things that made developing for Google better than developing for Apple. Really don't know how they could possibly be bragging about this.
Oh and if you get caught, just resubmit. It took Netflix at least 3 times of back-n-forth with MS before they started permabanning fake Netflix. Other software devs have told me that MS refuses to do anything to help them, even when a 12 yr old could see this hurts users, the brand, and ecosystem.
I think its one of those things when Microsoft gets around to focus on it they'll "fix it" but for now, crappola.
they were right, i didn't accurately follow their terms, but if they reviewed my app once submitted a year ago, that could've been avoided.
it was a bitter experience for me, and i decided to port my app to iOS. i heard iOS provides warnings atleast.
Couldn't they say that to you about reading the terms a year ago?
Their terms weren't secret a year ago. At no point have they said "None of these apply if you make us money".
You were also using the standard AOSP gallery icon as your icon. It seems unlikely but they could say you were impersonating a system app.
Unless you are making apple SERIOUS revenue (think high6 to 7 figures) they will shut you down without even a response.
The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place.
"Unless you are making apple SERIOUS revenue (think high6 to 7 figures) they will shut you down without even a response."
Apple tells you before your app goes live.
In reality many times the first review is cursory and approved. They actually bucket you as a low-risk and wait for you to succeed before you might flag serious concerns and be removed.
Look at the situation with PCalc and Transmit. Both apps which offered a killer feature, got approved by review and even featured by the editorial team, then pulled after having been on the front page of the App Store.
http://www.panic.com/blog/transmit-ios-1-1-1/
Neither of the apps got pulled. They got a warning. Whether the guidelines they were supposedly breaking were fair (or even existed) is a different thing.
If you are spending any significant time/resources developing apps, then you should invest a bit of time in networking. Go to conferences, and meet these people. They aren't that hard to find.
And if you had followed their terms, it could have been avoided as well.
Not necessarily. If you blatantly disregards their terms, then your app will be rejected for sure. Now, if the issue is more nuanced, then it could take some time.
Source: I developed an app that, among other things, could let people know about DIU checkpoints (not in the US, mind you). It survived for more than a year in the store, only getting an email from Apple when we changed it from free (with ads) to a paid app, returning more revenue in a month than the past months put together (which nevertheless was enough to pay the monthly office rent).
Instead of engaging Apple, we decided to pull the app ourselves from the store.
We did get an email from an actual person, instead of getting the app pulled from the store with no explanation. I also guess that, had we decided to discuss things with Apple, that we could have reached some sort of agreement. We'll never know, but that's what I inferred from the tone of the email (surprisingly friendly, mind you).
That's understating it. Long review times are the norm, not just known to happen. I've never had a submission take under 72 hours. Typical is 4-7 days. (And I've done it dozens of times.)
It's incredibly frustrating when you have users (or clients) complaining about a bug you fixed days ago. I don't understand why they're still have such a deep approval queue after almost seven years. I guess they don't consider it a problem. The perks of having a huge market share, I suppose.
In other words, "you had ONE job, app stores, ONE JOB."
That cut pays for the payments infrastructure, bandwidth to deliver the app files, etc. that you don't have to provide.
And we blew it. The store filled up with shitty apps, scams, and blatant copies of popular apps. And people complained, so now Google is responding to those complaints by policing their app store, because apparently we can't be trusted with open marketplaces.
I really hope this won't open the door to censorship on Android, one of the reasons why I make mobile games is exactly to circunvent ClassInd (as the article calls it).
Here in Brazil, to release any entertainment product (even live Circus Shows are included on this), you must first ask the Ministry of Justice to give you a rating, the process, specially for things that aren't a Circus Show, is very long, slow and cumbersome (example: you need to do it again every time you make an official update of your software, and the process involves writing lots of paperwork, sending the physical papers to the Ministry, and waiting AT LEAST 30 days).
Although officially they claim it is NOT censorship, the process is mandatory for all entertainment, even if free, the law allow them to punish (with 2 years in prison and fines) anyone that are distributing, storing, selling, buying or creating things without ratings, and they can deny rating you (meaning that even if you ask, if they deny the rating, you are de-facto censored).
This does have an obvious effect here:
People here create fake US accounts to buy stuff on Xbox Live and PSN, because the local versions of XBL and PSN follow the law, and has much less content.
Steam don't have official Brazillian offices, although recently they stated to charge in BRL, and have portuguese translations, the charging part is handled by Brazillian companies and credit card processors, in a way that if Brazil government go ater Steam, Steam can just cut-off Brazil (and let the CC processors take the blame and the lawsuit).
Apple for a while, got in conflict with the government here, the Ministry of Justice threatened to sue Apple for 2000 BRL for each unrated app, back then 300.000 unrated apps already existed, Apple in response just set entire categories to be hidden from iTunes users with Brazillian IPs or accounts (leading to lots of fake accounts, sometimes using stolen CCs, and iTunes access using proxies).
Eventually, some merciful judge ruled that since Apple don't have offices here, they don't have to follow our law, opening access again.
Also, like I said, I make mobile apps to avoid that law, what I do is that I have a Brazil company, a Swiss company, and then I make the Swiss company, hire the Brazil company to create software for hire, then the Swiss company that "create" the completed entertainment software, and sells it (including to Brazillian users, that frequently pay with international CC, of course this leads to lots of inefficiency, since I have to pay taxes on exchanging CHF to BRL, after users already paid taxes on exchanging BRL to CHF, beside the exchange fees, the sale tax from Brazil to Switzerland, and the income taxes on both Brazil and Switzerland).
Why do it in Switzerland, instead of say, US Delaware?
2) Some of the non-investing co-founders lived in Switzerland before, or would not mind living there in the future.
3) Switzerland, as bizarrely my phrase might sound, is more free than US, with laws regarding corporations easier to understand, and less crazy problems, for example no extremely stupid patent and copyright laws like US have.
So, in case US corporations get sue-happy against us (like they always do against each other), the best they can do is sue us in Switzerland, and there the law will be usually in our side (instead of siding with copyright/patent/whatever trolls)
Also we did check how much would cost us, including hiring the appropriate lawyers and accountants, to setup our stuff in Delaware vs Switzerland, and Switzerland was cheaper.
Copying Apples mistakes are not the way to go.
I didn't see any word on judging 'content'.