11–19 of 19 posts
Just block users from third world countries. They are too often more trouble than they are worth.
The app has been unlisted from the problematic countries. The installs are not coming from the Play Store but rather somehow the APK is being installed directly to the phones. I don't know of a way to block this from occurring.
In what ways could your competition screw you?
One theory we came up with is that our competition could be trying to get our app marked as spam or malware, and thus booted from the Play Store. If they have some sort of exploit that allows them to install arbitrary .apks on hundreds of thousands of Android devices, which seems probable if this is a malicious attack, it's unclear to me what we could do to prevent them from spamming our .apk to these users.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The app has been unlisted from the problematic countries. The installs are not coming from the Play Store but rather somehow the APK is being installed directly to the phones. I don't know of a way to block this from occurring.
Block them from the backend of your app, ie, your server, using IP geolocation techniques.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One theory we came up with is that our competition could be trying to get our app marked as spam or malware, and thus booted from the Play Store. If they have some sort of exploit that allows them to install arbitrary .apks on hundreds of thousands of Android devices, which seems probable if this is a malicious attack, it's unclear to me what we could do to prevent them from spamming our .apk to these users.
Probably someone with your app installed copied their android image across a bunch of cheap phones at once.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Block them from the backend of your app, ie, your server, using IP geolocation techniques.
We're prepared to do this if necessary, but most of these users aren't actually using the app. So the only apparent damage is them getting upset that the app keeps reappearing on their phone.
They were the lowest converting segment, this was related to the demographic (rural & lower income). People were installing without understanding what the app did, subsequently uninstalling again as memory is scarce. Its hard to understand, but sometimes people just browse and download things out of boredom, curiosity or because they misunderstand what the app is for.
We also had complaints like yours "I didn't install this app" but when we contacted them direct (googled name, sent email/FB message) we often found that a spouse / kid had done so. Shared phones are common.
Im not sure if this could be related to your circumstances, it depends on the type of app you have. Also if its something that a kid may download, recent events may contribute. With covid there are lots of kids using their parents devices at home, with low cost / free data plans in place to support online schooling.
Third party app stores are common here in Indonesia, while working on a previous app we found ~20-30% of users installed APKs via them. They were the lowest converting segment, this was related to the demographic (rural & lower income). People were installing without understanding what the app did, subsequently uninstalling again as memory is scarce. Its hard to understand, but sometimes people just browse and downlo…
The utility of the app only exists in specific habitats.
Indonesia was, I believe, in the top 5 countries as far as install count. Knowing that 3rd party app stores are common gives us another avenue to explore. A buggy or exploitive 3rd app store could explain at least the attack vector, if not the actual objective behind this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably someone with your app installed copied their android image across a bunch of cheap phones at once.
Interesting.. I don't think this would explain the users who claim the app keeps coming back after they've removed it? Is installing Android from another user's image a popular thing?