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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

#81

Post by hnick »

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.

Mobile apps can be a value-add rather than the core of the business.

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

#82

Post by supermatt »

ggggtez wrote: post #63

> 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.

its "a local app resource" - i.e. its not downloaded "from a source other than google play."

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

#83

Post by baroffoos »

rkagerer wrote: post #48

Google is starting to look like a case study in how not to do customer service.

I had an issue with some google phones at work where no one knew the password to them or whos phones at the company they belonged to so I performed a factory reset on them which I then discovered had caused them to go in to a theft protection mode which essentially bricks the device until the original users password is entered. I attempted to contact google but found that there is no way to do that unless the device was purchased within one year even though I had the original boxes and proof of purchase to show the devices are not stolen.

The whole reset protection thing is a horrible system as well, I understand trying to stop theft but why didn't they make it so that when you reset it the device locks for a few days and keeps pinging back to the servers and if the original owner hasn't marked the device as lost/stolen within that time then it just unlocks.

Since this event I had a family member call me up asking how to get their phone out of reset protection mode because they forgot their account password. I had to tell them their device is essentially a useless brick now.

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

#84

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

dmitrybrant wrote: post #65

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…

Given how amazingly good Google is at filtering or identifying content when it benefits them to do so (e.g. Content ID, and I have never seen anything pornographic break through YouTube's filters), I must believe that it would be extremely easy for them to implement the fix you desire.

Edit: Hmmm, assuming the app that you are talking about is freakin' Wikipedia, I'm assuming that if the Wikimedia can't get anyone from Google to pay attention that there is no hope for the rest of us.

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

#85

Post by HenryBemis »

_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?

Some people wrote below but I didn't see the key words that came to my mind. You are not Google's customer. You are Google's product. The customers are the ad/tracking networks.

Unless you pay Google for some services, you are their product. Products don't complain. They sit in the super market waiting for a customer we to pick them up. We have discussed plenty that "if _it_ is free then you are the product", I am afraid in majority of Google's end users, this is true.

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

#86

Post by ggg3 »

dmitrybrant wrote: post #65

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…

perverse incentives.

if you have good SEO you do not have to pay google. Ironically.

so by allowing the copy cats, they kill the value of your good SEO and force your hand to pay for premium placement, generating revenue that wouldn't exist to them without the malicious clones.

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

#87

Post by ggg3 »

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.

Yes.

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

#88

Post by kart23 »

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…

Jesus, what the hell, why would google take them down? I've used the app a few times, it's a great idea and works fairly well. Definitely better than 99% of apps on the play store.

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

#89

Post by lern_too_spel »

HenryBemis wrote: post #85
_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?

Some people wrote below but I didn't see the key words that came to my mind. You are not Google's customer. You are Google's product. The customers are the ad/tracking networks. Unless you pay Google for some services, you are their product. Products don't complain. They sit in the super market waiting for a customer we to pick them up. We have discussed plenty that "if _it_ is free then you are the product", I am af…

This is incorrect. I have rented a movie from Google. I am their customer in every sense of the word. I cannot get customer service for my rental. Whether something is free or not has almost nothing to do with the service you get unless your account is in the tens of millions of dollars.

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

#90

Post by ethbro »

njsubedi wrote: post #76
dmitrybrant wrote: post #65

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…

+1 to this. I also have several apps in the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, the knock-off apps are all around our apps, sometimes ranking higher in popular keywords. Some even post a screenshot of our apps! Heck, some apps are so bad that they ruin the reputation of the entire niche (for example, a document scanner app). If the first few apps that a user downloads does not scan documents, he's naturally assuming th…

It's almost like the lack of a competitive market for app marketplaces results in suboptimal outcomes for consumers. But that'd be crazy talk...
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