
The hidden danger when developing for Android - coolsank
https://medium.com/p/c62f2404f66
======
dm2
You've made it clear that you were just dumb and they will probably forgive
you, just get in contact with a human or email a few people with your story
and you should be fine.

[https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-
policy.html](https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html)

"Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing
products, or to apps supplied with the device (such as Camera, Gallery or
Messaging)." Seems pretty strait-forward, correct? You passed the initial
screening because the developer has to go through extra steps to release to
the public rather than just alpha/beta users. You skipped these steps on
several apps and Google banned you, which they should have. They should also
have a review process though in-case the user was just dumb, which happens a
lot, I've been dumb thousands of times, it's just human nature.

Submitting an app to an App Store is not a simple process. I'm not sure why
the author thought he could release 10 questionable apps to the public through
a companies App Store without either using the Play stores Alpha/Beta features
or ensuring that the app was polished and not misleading to the user.

What if anyone could release a malicious/misleading/fraudulent app to the
public Play store with any companies icons and say, "We are just testing.",
even with that phrase, the user doesn't know that you are not the company you
are impersonating. Now imagine a new developer releasing 10 apps that had the
same icons and functionality as other apps, that simply can't be allowed.

The author writes that he thought 30 malicious or misleading apps could be
submitted before Google would take the extreme action of permanently banning
his account, then he got mad when they banned him after only PUBLICLY
RELEASING 3 apps that had likely been flagged and manually reviewed.

TL,DR: Either use the alpha/beta features in Google Play Developers area or
make 100% sure that your app meets ALL of the guidelines and policies that
they require. With over a million apps in the Google play store Google has to
follow strict rules or it puts the user at risk, if they didn't then there
would be over a million more junk/malicious/misleading apps on the App Stores,
would that really be a good thing?

~~~
tieTYT
> just get in contact with a human or email a few people

I don't know about android development, but when it comes to adsense, I
haven't found a way to do that. I even know more than one person who works at
google. They told me it's just an algorithm, not a person who decides.

------
aneeskA
I am interested to know if similar is the situation with Apple store too.

------
ShaneOG
> Destroy my family

Hyperbole much?

------
sgehrman
Developers must demand freedom!

