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Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

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Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#61

Post by pmontra »

aikah wrote: post #45
tylermenezes wrote: post #30

Guidebook, a 70+ person company, also appears to have just had their account banned as of yesterday morning. It's an app that tells you what's happening at conventions. Hard to see the bad faith there, but I bet the conventions they've signed contracts with this week will be very unhappy. The co-founder has taken to tweeting at his network to try to find a contact. Crazy to think a rogue algorithm might put 70 people…

It's the danger of building your entire business on someone else's platform. Now Android is a bit more open than Apple's App store since on can install third party apps outside Google Play, but I personally always got an answer from Apple, even if it took 3/4 weeks, every-time there was an issue with a deployed application. Google? Unless you know somebody there or you are a big shot it's impossible to contact them,…

Yep, but it's also the danger of building a business on algorithms. If developers start not to trust Google anymore then Google is going to lose quite a bit of its edge. Algorithms shouldn't have the last word about people. They can advise but not judge and people accepting wrong advices from algorithms should not get their bonuses.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#63

Post by ggggtez »

> dynamic bytecode loading from a local app resource

I'll bet you 5 bucks it's this. Your "anti-piracy" is their "evading our malware analyzers".

From the Terms of Service: "The following are explicitly prohibited: Apps or SDKs that download executable code, such as dex files or native code, from a source other than Google Play."

Can't tell obviously if that's the violation, but at least it's a good bet.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#64

Post by ggggtez »

torben-friis wrote: post #11
ziggity wrote: post #8

Without knowing more about the "sophisticated anti-piracy system" employed by the app author, it's hard to determine if Google's claim of malicious behaviour is valid. This could be something as simple as bytecode obfuscation, or something as complex as scraping every bit of personal information available through possibly-questionable means and sending to an insecure server. Copy protection schemes are notoriously us…

Regardless of the reason, the fact that you can have your livelihood taken away without an explanation or human contact is pretty worrying.

What if the reason is they were scraping all your private data against the Terms of Service, and hiding it in obfuscated dynamic bytecode loading... if that was the case, you think it's still bad that they can be kicked off the app store?

I mean, we only have the developer's word that they weren't shipping malware in these bytecode files, unless someone reverse engineers it (unlikely), or Google publicly explains the reason for the banning (which they never do).

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#65

Post by dmitrybrant »

I'm the developer of a relatively popular app (50M+ on the Play Store) and have had very disappointing experiences with the Play Store, but in a rather opposite way from the OP:

Once an app reaches a certain level of popularity, you begin to see "knock-off" apps, which are apps with a curiously similar name and icon (and screenshots and description), but which in fact don't do anything except blast the user with full-screen ads at every turn. It's literally just ads; they don't perform any actual function; they just exploit the SEO boost to serve ads to unsuspecting users.

I have tried "reporting" these apps numerous times (there are dozens of them), but Google has done nothing at all to remove these apps or suspend the accounts of these bottom-feeding "developers". The only conclusion is that the ad revenue benefits Google as well as the bottom-feeders, so Google drags its feet in taking any action. I would bet that if these apps were doing something malicious without a financial incentive for Google, then Google would take them down in a heartbeat.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#66

Post by manigandham »

jbarham wrote: post #60
_nickwhite wrote: post #20

Google is what, a 3/4 TRILLION dollar company, based on market cap! It's absolutely unfathomable that they have such a prolific reputation of non-customer service and inability to contact them. Any other company would suffer massive consequences with customer service that poor. What will it take for them to turn this around? Maybe they believe they are too big for this to matter?

If you're a Google Ads buyer, Google is easy to contact. If you're a mere Google products user, good luck getting help via their crowdsourced message boards...

Even with Google ads, there are plenty of 7-figure spenders who have trouble reaching customer service.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#67

Post by x0x0 »

tptacek wrote: post #41
brokenmachine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, I think this is likely the real reason.

Because that sounds right, or because you have particularized knowledge to back that claim up?

At least on ios, both uber [1] and facebook have clearly engaged in behavior that would get anyone else booted from the platform.

I would bet a week's salary that google play is the same.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ceo-tim-cook-threatene...

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#68

Post by [deleted] »

chx wrote: post #55
aikah wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the danger of building your entire business on someone else's platform. Now Android is a bit more open than Apple's App store since on can install third party apps outside Google Play, but I personally always got an answer from Apple, even if it took 3/4 weeks, every-time there was an issue with a deployed application. Google? Unless you know somebody there or you are a big shot it's impossible to contact them,…

> It's the danger of building your entire business on someone else's platform. This is so often repeated but by this logic noone should write mobile apps.

[deleted]

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#69

Post by lern_too_spel »

pdonis wrote: post #27
_nickwhite wrote: post #20

Google is what, a 3/4 TRILLION dollar company, based on market cap! It's absolutely unfathomable that they have such a prolific reputation of non-customer service and inability to contact them. Any other company would suffer massive consequences with customer service that poor. What will it take for them to turn this around? Maybe they believe they are too big for this to matter?

> they have such a prolific reputation of non-customer service No, they don't, because Android developers and users are not Google's customers. Google gets no direct revenue from them so it has no incentive to provide the kind of customer service that would be expected for a paying customer. The only incentive they have is to provide whatever services will get them more revenue from their actual customers: ad purchas…

I once made the mistake of renting a movie from Google Play Movies. I am a customer. The "my purchases" page just shows an error, so I can't find the titles I own or have rented. There is no place to report this except in a user to user forum.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#70

Post by tylermenezes »

Craighead wrote: post #50
tylermenezes wrote: post #30

Guidebook, a 70+ person company, also appears to have just had their account banned as of yesterday morning. It's an app that tells you what's happening at conventions. Hard to see the bad faith there, but I bet the conventions they've signed contracts with this week will be very unhappy. The co-founder has taken to tweeting at his network to try to find a contact. Crazy to think a rogue algorithm might put 70 people…

Can you link to your claim?

Guidebook app is down: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.guidebook....

Tweet from Guidebook (they removed the official statement): https://twitter.com/guidebook/status/1162764546487939072

Tweet from co-founder: https://twitter.com/pklada/status/1162815530874445824

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