5 ms·

Google’s play store approval process really is a nightmare. Apple’s reviewers might be slow and not always the most competent, but at least they’re real humans

Google’s play store approval process really is a nightmare. Apple’s reviewers might be slow and not always the most competent, but at least they’re real humans you can talk to and reason with. Google as usual is just an automated process that often gives you little to no actionable feedback.

dessant 4y ago
Luckily all of this will be illegal in the EU thanks to the Digital Services Act, developers will have the right to know the exact reason for a rejection, and Google will need to provide real human support.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- therealmarv 4y ago
  oh, I was not aware the Digital Markets Act will change that too. That is a win.
  - dessant 4y ago
    It's actually the Digital Services Act, I have corrected my comment.
- grogenaut 4y ago
  there are many completely valid and completely unactionable reasons for rejecting people. Yes this might make it a bit better but it's very hard to make someone who doesn't care about helping you help you. Even regulation can just make them do the minimum.
- professoretc 4y ago
  Someone will need to start an EU-based business where US developers can submit their rejections, and have the EU side get a proper explanation.
  - RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u 4y ago
    App [submission] as a service, or AasS. I guess that'll be my YC pitch for '23. Wanna be my co-founder? /s
- noasaservice 4y ago
  What I'm hearing is there's a hell of a European market to cater to USA and other regions to host apps, and then play hardball in getting real answers.
- ranger_danger 4y ago
  Google will stop servicing Europe entirely before they offer competent human support.
  - georgebarnett 4y ago
    This is a ridiculous assertion. Google won’t do anything like that. They’ll comply with the law, because they want European money.
    - dvngnt_ 4y ago
      they'll create sentient machines before then
- klooney 4y ago
  I'm sure they'll manage the process so that it so that it's a powerless human reading an AI's decision back to you. There's no way to legislate wanting to do a good job.
  - janalsncm 4y ago
    If the AI gave actionable advice, fine. If not, it’s a violation of the law.
kyle-rb 4y ago
It's been a couple years since I did mobile dev, but in my experience you don't get to reason much with Apple's reviewers either, but you can change something minor, re-submit, and hope you get a different, better reviewer.
- djbusby 4y ago
  With Apple, I got to actually talk to a human, on the phone and have a 10 minute conversation to clear things up.
- mrbombastic 4y ago
  You can reply to app review in app store connect and ask for clarification, in my experience apple is much better at this than google.
- carstenhag 4y ago
  We currently have an app store issue with one of the 8 apps that we provide (same codebase, mostly same Features, different brands etc). On one of them, we got a very picky reviewer that doesn't like our Account Deletion feature. This & the other apps had it live for months, the others are still fine, just this one app now can't get updates. And we simply can't make it better (due to legalities) - still no cooperation from Apple.
saltymimir 4y ago
Our experience with this has been the complete opposite. Apple's reliance on real human reviewers was precisely the issue for us. Your mileage may vary by a lot depending on the region you operate in. Google's process, while not perfect, made it at least transparent that the process is going to take a while. And at least in our case, the process involved some real people at the end to point out the specific concerns that actually lead to actionables. Apple's process is slow, and seems to be worse in my region; it's clear that they're severely understaffed here. We spent a good 30 days trying to fix a crash, and they were all spent for either submitting a new app version to Apple, waiting for the review to finish, getting it rejected for some very vague reasons, and waiting for a response from them to elaborate their reasons for the rejection.

dessant 4y ago

Luckily all of this will be illegal in the EU thanks to the Digital Services Act, developers will have the right to know the exact reason for a rejection, and Google will need to provide real human support.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
therealmarv 4y ago
oh, I was not aware the Digital Markets Act will change that too. That is a win.
- dessant 4y ago
  It's actually the Digital Services Act, I have corrected my comment.
grogenaut 4y ago
there are many completely valid and completely unactionable reasons for rejecting people. Yes this might make it a bit better but it's very hard to make someone who doesn't care about helping you help you. Even regulation can just make them do the minimum.
professoretc 4y ago
Someone will need to start an EU-based business where US developers can submit their rejections, and have the EU side get a proper explanation.
- RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u 4y ago
  App [submission] as a service, or AasS. I guess that'll be my YC pitch for '23. Wanna be my co-founder? /s
noasaservice 4y ago
What I'm hearing is there's a hell of a European market to cater to USA and other regions to host apps, and then play hardball in getting real answers.
ranger_danger 4y ago
Google will stop servicing Europe entirely before they offer competent human support.
- georgebarnett 4y ago
  This is a ridiculous assertion. Google won’t do anything like that. They’ll comply with the law, because they want European money.
  - dvngnt_ 4y ago
    they'll create sentient machines before then
klooney 4y ago
I'm sure they'll manage the process so that it so that it's a powerless human reading an AI's decision back to you. There's no way to legislate wanting to do a good job.
- janalsncm 4y ago
  If the AI gave actionable advice, fine. If not, it’s a violation of the law.

kyle-rb 4y ago

It's been a couple years since I did mobile dev, but in my experience you don't get to reason much with Apple's reviewers either, but you can change something minor, re-submit, and hope you get a different, better reviewer.

djbusby 4y ago
With Apple, I got to actually talk to a human, on the phone and have a 10 minute conversation to clear things up.
mrbombastic 4y ago
You can reply to app review in app store connect and ask for clarification, in my experience apple is much better at this than google.
carstenhag 4y ago
We currently have an app store issue with one of the 8 apps that we provide (same codebase, mostly same Features, different brands etc). On one of them, we got a very picky reviewer that doesn't like our Account Deletion feature. This & the other apps had it live for months, the others are still fine, just this one app now can't get updates. And we simply can't make it better (due to legalities) - still no cooperation from Apple.

saltymimir 4y ago

Our experience with this has been the complete opposite. Apple's reliance on real human reviewers was precisely the issue for us. Your mileage may vary by a lot depending on the region you operate in. Google's process, while not perfect, made it at least transparent that the process is going to take a while. And at least in our case, the process involved some real people at the end to point out the specific concerns that actually lead to actionables. Apple's process is slow, and seems to be worse in my region; it's clear that they're severely understaffed here. We spent a good 30 days trying to fix a crash, and they were all spent for either submitting a new app version to Apple, waiting for the review to finish, getting it rejected for some very vague reasons, and waiting for a response from them to elaborate their reasons for the rejection.