6 ms·
I lost my Google Play dev account
- spraveenitpro 2y agoJust open another one. not a big deal.
- Nebasuke 2y agoNot really. Google tries to recognise it when you re-upload the same game using a different dev account, and will actually ban you for this.
- krunck 2y agoYes. OP is human and learned from their mistake. They can start over with a new Google account and try again. If the Google ban hammer falls again then it's time to tell Google to f-off and move to another platform forever.
- osbulbul 2y agoI don't understand why google play really bad about developer relations. indie developers can't memorize everything in 100s pages of policies/rules etc. it's not hard to warn "don't do this" and ban accounts forever if repeatedly doing same thing. you are already using AI for banning accounts, so it shouldn't cause any more resource, just small adjustments.
- buran77 2y ago> I don't understand why google play really bad about developer relations Because these are the lowest effort and cost actions they can take and there are no consequences to doing it like this.
- Ferret7446 2y agoGoogle has always been about automation and cost cutting. They started as a web search engine running on cheap consumer hardware in a garage, with software patching over the reliability/performance problems of such a setup. You need humans for good CS, and humans are both non-automatable and expensive. Google does have some humans in CS (I think), but they try to automate as much of it as possible, hence the prevalence of boilerplate responses from them.
- axus 2y agoWhat's even worse is Google could easily use the exact same automated checks and block the app before it gets onto Google Play, and then NOT ban the developer. What is the up-side of the status quo for Google or its customers?
- protastus 2y ago> indie developers can't memorize everything in 100s pages of policies/rules etc I am certain that if there are any developers that care about policies, it's the indie ones. And there are still too many rules for them to follow, and invisible lines they're unaware they can't cross. The developers at Big Tech don't get banned from Google Play because Google isn't going to de-list Netflix, Spotify or Microsoft.
- EdGrace 2y agoHello, BeefySwain. I'm the owner of the account of the Reddit post. Thank you for putting this for me, I just noticed when I was about to. If you have any news please let me know. Thank you kindly.
- PaulHoule 2y agoHopefully you would get some resolution but I think everyone should ask: “could this game be publishes as a web page?” because if it is at possible to do what an app can do with a web page you can completely avoid app store bullshit. It is exactly “the things an app can do that a web page can’t do” that are (1) frequently user hostile (a reason the user is usually better off using a web site instead of an app if it possible) and (2) heavily regulated to manage but not mitigate this harm.
- inopinatus 2y agoIf such incidents teach us anything, it’s that one is never the owner of the account.
- BeefySwain 2y agoNo problem! I wasn't sure if you had an account on here and wanted to spread the word. Hope this helps get you a resolution!
- teruakohatu 2y agoI wonder why Google has single line API calls you cannot use without implementing a user interface flow, when the penalty is severe. At the very least the compiler should output warnings.
- TheCleric 2y agoWell that's the worst part. Is that the problem? No one knows! So others may not even know to avoid it because you can't even be sure that's what got them dinged.
- nottorp 2y ago> I found a single line of code that could've been the cause of the problem. Note that the OP thinks that was the problem. Google did not tell them a reason for the ban aside from the generic one. Edit: s/Google/Google's "AI".
- andyjohnson0 2y agoTowards the end of the post they wrote: "My guess is that they deleted the account because I broke another rule: uploading a rejected app twice." Its confusing, but this seems a more likely reason for the ban than whatever they did to keep the screen turned on.
- EdGrace 2y agoThe piece of code to keep the screen turned on is my guess of the app's deletion. The re-uploading the app (since they asked me to send a new compliant version of the app) was what I think was the cause of my account's closure.
- andyjohnson0 2y agoThanks. I stand corrected.
- geoelectric 2y agoUnless someone explicitly told you that’s the reason for the original takedown, I’m deeply skeptical you’ve got it right. That’s especially true with the chorus of redditors saying they also use that function. I realize you didn’t find anything else that looked like it crossed stuff up, but I’d bet money the bot was looking at something entirely different. For one, looking at the API docs for SleepTimeout doesn’t suggest it changes the saved OS-level user settings. It’s just a screen keep-awake like many games use without permission. And for another, I’m pretty sure for minor stuff that can be easily remedied they don’t nuke your app listing to the ground so you can’t remedy it. Even the bit where they nuked your entire account on reupload implies a pretty good chance that whatever was offending the scan was still in there. I doubt they insta-ban everyone who uploads a similar app again unless it somehow registers as evasion. That bot was almost certainly identifying your app as a scam—or you as a scammer—for some other reason. It’s possibly not even one that would make sense to you. That’s the problem with bots. But I just really doubt it’s for the reason you’re guessing.
- kkfx 2y agoWell, with the important notice I do not know what's happened, having read only one part, my take is simple: why people develop for walled gardens? If Play Store, App Store etc became EMPTY because the only apps are from big tech they totally loose any customers appeal and fails quickly. Remember the old concept of the union who makes the strength? Personally I do AVOID as best as I can any third party walled garden and even developing on their APIs because I know their are closed hostile ecosystems. We have to accept what freedom demand and simply go a step at a time toward a ban by laws of any closed software, any walled garden and so on. A step at a time means start not working on, so for, them today, explaining why as much as possible and inviting people toward open platforms. If you really want Android there is F-Droid as a middle-ground.
- mystified5016 2y agoBecause that's where the users are. F-Droid is a novelty for an extremely small niche of users. You can't reach most users, and you can't charge them money through the app store. You have to figure out payment processing and licensing yourself. No, F-Droid will not replace google play for most users, nor developers who want to make money.
- kkfx 2y agoAnd most users are there because when Android start devs have accepted Google rules instead of ignoring the platform... Chicken and eggs. Now if most understand this a stop any update, retire their apps from the Play Store for how long Alphabet could possibly keep Android up?
- crote 2y ago> If Play Store, App Store etc became EMPTY because the only apps are from big tech they totally loose any customers appeal and fails quickly. Remember the old concept of the union who makes the strength? The vast majority of consumers aren't even aware that alternative app stores exist - and if they ever become even remotely popular it's pretty much a guarantee that there'll be scare campaigns from BigCorp because they're full with "malware". Heck, who's going to install some random third-party app store just to install a mobile game? Play Store / App Store have essentially become a monopoly. If you don't have an app on the official app stores, your company might as well not exist. Everyone knows this, so everyone tries to get their apps published on the official app stores. Google and Apple are very much aware of this too, and they just don't care about small apps because it's not making them enough money. Unless you're big enough to have your own account manager, you might just as well not exist at all.
- flerchin 2y agoWhat a crock of shit.
- noodlesUK 2y agoThis is such a common occurrence these days with tech platforms. I had a similar situation with PayPal when I opened a business account for the first time. Minutes after opening the account I was perma-banned and I was told there was no appeal. Of course, there’s always a way of appealing if you can speak to someone with the authority to fix things (as I was able to in my situation). Unfortunately companies seem to be getting worse and worse at allowing you to speak to sufficiently empowered people to solve problems. I hope the HN effect helps you out here and someone at Google decides to swoop in and rescue you. If you live in America and you can’t otherwise resolve this, I’ve heard that filing a small claims lawsuit is an excellent method of last resort to get big tech to respond to you.
- PaulHoule 2y agoMy wife forgot her PayPal password and got kicked out after a few failed attempts. To restore her account she had to send a fax. Consequence? She hasn’t bought anything off eBay for 15 years which is eBay’s loss not hers. It might take a few decades but sooner or later these platforms will bleed away all their customers.
- nkrisc 2y agoAs long as customer acquisition outpaces customers lost to Kafka-esque nonsense, they’ll be fine on that front. Future customers are born every day.
- mattigames 2y agoSend them a fax with a QR code of an URL that points to the letter they requested (e.g. on Google docs), two can play those games.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y agoWell... then they don't bother scanning the QR code and might re-request that you send a fax. They'd probably ignore it altogether and you're just out the money/time for the postage with nothing to show. They are able to get away with making it maximally difficult for you to work with them because playing these games is their business.
- ghusto 2y agoWhen your business model calls for scale so large that it's infeasible to have humans involved in important processes (due to costs), this is what happens. The fact that they can _get away_ with this is a failure of government. We have to realise at some point that these are no longer private companies in the traditional sense, and start regulating.
- trhway 2y agoYep, imagine if Bell could ban you for life back then just for any reason they felt like it.
- badpun 2y agoIt's not a matter of scale. The whole business premise is that it can be almost fully automated via computers. The terrible customer service is baked in, no matter if Google has 1 million or 1 billion users.
- narrator 2y agoAlso, as we've seen with the simswapping crisis, humans are susceptible to social engineering.
- miohtama 2y agoIn the EU, the new DSA directive requires that you can get a human involved. After that you have an option to sue or arbitrage.
- glzone1 2y agoIf I'm reading these, he got his notice from Google (changing device settings without user consent). They don't have time to go around with folks - you get I think one human look at things (maybe). If they've removed an app (rather than rejecting it or suspending it) then you absolutely need to figure out why and fix things before appealing or republishing? They are explicit about that. Do not republish an app with a policy violation I think. I think if folks slowed down the appeals and actually fixed things first they'd have better outcomes.
- YawningAngel 2y agoThey are bad at telling people what the problem is and the behaviour they complain about is very reasonable. Google's own YouTube app, for example, does exactly this - it prevents the screen from timing out and sleeping.
- EdGrace 2y agoI couldn't fix anything because, even though their mail said "send a new compliant version for revision", I was not allowed to send any new version because the app got deleted. So I thought what they meant is to send a new version in a new app, since the current app was not available anymore.
- glzone1 2y agoWhen you appealed had you figured out what caused the issue? Many folks appeal too quickly without first making sure google really did make a mistake. Given most of these enforcement steps are automated - it's usually worth checking what is going on.
- Hizonner 2y ago> They don't have time to go around with folks Then I guess they'll just have to find the time. I do believe they just lost an antitrust suit in the US, and the EU is on the warpath. This kind of stupid behavior is why that stuff happens.
- 2y ago
- readyplayernull 2y agoYou really need to put on your mercenary helmet when dealing with these platforms. I got my first Google Play account banned due to dubiously "breaking" their deception rules, and was literally told in an email: don't create a Google Play account never again. Well, I created 4 more accounts that still exist. We are dealing with automated banning systems here, so keep pushing. You can re-publish the game under different email, account, id and name. If that doesn't work, a game made with Unity can be converted to other platforms like Steam. I even have APKs uploaded to Itch.io . And if you need a revenue stream you can lean on Patreon and others.
- JohnMakin 2y ago> But in their initial mail they stated that, if I sent a new version compliant with their terms, they could re-enable the app. But I couldn't send any new revisions since my app got completely deleted, my Google Play Console's panel was totally inaccesible. This seems like a very common pattern amongst google "support" - "Hey just access the thing we just completely locked you out of and we'll fix your problem." It can't be an accident.
- b112 2y agoIt can't be an accident. Most people handling support have zero tech background, and are trying to match your questions to an internal search engine with answers. They literally know nothing, have no experience with the platform, and have to pick an answer after searching and getting 20 to choose from.
- JohnMakin 2y agothis is all automated though
- x0x0 2y agoFrom personal experience, the people handling paid support for Pixel owners who pay for Google One are both (1) human; and (2) too fucking stupid to have object permanence. In my case, backups weren't working, and in an attempt to avoid doing anything, they attempted to convince me a 10 year sms/mms history backup fit in 200kb.
- bitbasher 2y agoI was in a similar situation with Google. I have a Chrome extension with 10,000+ users. At one point Google flagged my extension as malware and automatically uninstalled from all of my (paid!) users. Of course, they didn't tell me why. Nothing had changed in my extension in _years_. What could it possibly have been? This happened right after some well known extensions got busted on the webstore after being sold to shady people and the webstore got bad press for it. Google came out and said they were improving their security measures. I assumed Google was doing some kind of automated scanning and with that in mind I took a wild guess... I wrote my own JavaScript minifier/obfuscation build tool and figured it was probably triggering the automated system (likely due to compressed strings). I stopped using my build tool and compiled the extension with no minification or compression at all. However, I couldn't upload it (me being banned). I created a second account, paid the developer fee and uploaded under a different category and I was... approved. It's still up there today.
- miohtama 2y agoIs it possible someone hijacked your developer account and used it to spread malware?
- bitbasher 2y agoUnlikely? The release that was live was the same one I released years prior. There was no suspicious login activity, logs, etc.
- readyplayernull 2y agoMaybe the obfuscator coincidentally generated a string that was flagged. That's why I made a WASM obfuscator.
- efilife 2y agoWhy obfuscate an extension?
- 2y ago
- zuluonezero 2y agoOn the positive side you just got another happy player. Thanks for making it available and accessible.
- grishka 2y agoFYI there are two ways to keep the screen on at the native API level: a window flag (screen doesn't turn off while your window is active) or a WakeLock (screen doesn't turn off while your app is running, even in background). Neither of them affects any settings. Changing device settings actually requires a permission that you declare in the manifest that the user then has to manually grant. I'm pretty sure the developer did absolutely nothing wrong. Google's AI is just full of shit like it's always been. This stuff happens all the time and the best way to resolve it is to know one of their developer relations people. Yes, they actually have employees whose only job is to talk to developers.
- CatWChainsaw 2y agoSpeaking more to the comments than to the specific analogy on reddit, but a company that possesses both a frightening degree of control over your life, and absolutely no incentive to care on a granular level, will never end well.
- 404mm 2y agoAI generated TL;DR Ed, the developer of IdleTale, shares his journey of creating an idle RPG game out of passion for the genre. Initially launched on Google Play, the game gained support but was removed due to "Malware or Deceptive Behavior." The issue stemmed from a code function keeping the phone screen on without user consent, violating Google Play's policies. Despite appealing and offering to fix the problem, Ed’s developer account was permanently closed, preventing future app submissions. He reflects on the unfortunate situation and the significant impact of a small mistake, expressing frustration and disappointment over losing his project and the opportunity to share his game with others.
- justinclift 2y agoThis story, and it's variations have occurred many thousands of times. Yet some still wonder why people don't have positive feelings towards Google and other similarly behaving "Big Tech" companies. I wonder what it will actually take for these companies to stop treating people like shit?
- Etherlord87 2y agoIn short: it must stop being profitable.