Hm. Maybe rename some variables or make some other change that would show the region that has the report code in a diff, increment the version number, and upload the new app. Not something anyone should have to do, but maybe a hacky workaround.
Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
221–230 of 340 posts
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#222As a scientist, I often have to deal with similar BS of a reviewer misunderstanding a submitted journal article, literally insisting we do something we already did, and explained in the paper. I try to just own the fact that I didn't make my explanation clear and visible enough, so I just submit an updated version along with a comment like "We thank the reviewer for pointing out that we didn't clearly articulate our…
> Getting angry and adversarial They didn't get angry and adversarial, they just explained and asked for clarification. Of course, kafkaesque bureaucracies don't like that, so making a random trivial change and obsequiously resubmitting is still probably the approach to use if you want to stay in business. Google these days is like something out of Brazil .
I have a google pay support thread open. 49 exchanges. The features they keep telling me to use literally do not exist. They just keep posting the same canned response and then ignoring my response that the feature hasn’t been implemented. Then it gets passed to a new person who ignores previous happenings on the thread and repeats. It’s the most kafkaesque thing I’ve ever experienced. I’m going to print it out and bring it to court with me (I’m going to have to sue them to get my money back)
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But there's much less $$$ in targeting users outside of the walled garden. That's due entirely to Google's aggressive anti-competitive business practices. Legislation that "allows third party stores" would also need to include rules preventing Google from, for example, blocking non-Google app installations unless users flip a switch buried in the settings app (which looks different on every phone), and then plaster…
My Samsung phone comes with Samsung App store, ready to use. No need to flip a switch or accept scary warnings.
Did you choose the Samsung App Store, or was it preloaded on the device by the phone manufacturer?
Consumer choice is restricted by those anti-competitive business practices I mentioned. Whatever deal Samsung has with Google for preloaded software is irrelevant. If you wanted to install the Epic Games Store, you'd have to go flip that switch[*]
[*] actually, Samsung allows Epic to distribute their store through the Galaxy store app. So that's a bad example lol, but EGS is the only major Android app store I could think of. If anything though, the fact that Samsung allows this is evidence that increased competition benefits consumers. Samsung doesn't have the market position Google does, so they need to make different decisions to compete. Making it easy to install a third-party store without Google's security theater bullshit is good for consumers.
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#224In my opinion, compared to dealing with Apple's frequently frustrating reviewers, dealing with Google is a cakewalk
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#225Just this past week, our app got the boot too. The reason was that the app was in violation of "user privacy". May be it was strings.xml that angered the Algorithm , may be it was the user reviews, may be it was something on our website... Then, magically, the app came back up. It turned out that as we were migrating our domain name to a new DNS Nameserver, the cached DNS entries probably pointed to an IP address tha…
How are you able to sign your own APKs? Are you grandfathered in before the change to require Google Play app signing?
You can provide your own key when setting up Play App Signing. There are three or four options for setting it up; only the default option has Google generate the key, the rest you supply the key.
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#226As a little side project I wrote an Android app and went through similar turmoil—guess I can’t feel too bad for myself when the cofounder and lead developer of “~100” apps runs into similar issues. In this vein, I too wrote a similar story and it’s at https://medium.com/@mtc.dev/my-first-android-app-story-331c9... .
We have ~500 applications in the Play Store and we have experienced the same thing from Google multiple times. Literally the exact same thing – we already have robust reporting mechanisms and Google are seemingly blind to them for a proportion of our applications.
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#227No post body was provided.
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
A union for customers of monolithic tech companies who provide negligent support could be cool.
That is a completely ridiculous solution to a very simple problem. How do we give bargaining power to developers? We break up the app store monopolies. That's it. Google/Apple giving you shit? Give them the finger and put your app on another store. There's no stronger bargaining chip than the free market.
Which other store? The only stores that matter as far as mobile goes are Google and Apple's.
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#229At Chatango we just gave up on our Android app. We don't have a report button because we don't want users to gang up and falsely report profiles. We are counting unwanted incoming conversation blocks and take action based on that, and have hierarchical moderation in each chat. That was way beyond what we could explain to the play store policing bots so about $500k in development was trashed by Google, we went website…
What would happen if it looked like users could report, but you actually did nothing on the backend? Like how it works on Youtube?
Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
#230You seem to have missed a detail in their replies "We confirm that your app has options to report and block abusive users but your app does not contain functionality to report objectionable content." You complain that they haven't answered the specifics of your emails yet you've actually failed to address theirs. Unpopular opinion but it seems like their response was reasonable tbf.
I agree, the author is conflating the ability to report and block a user due to their content and the ability to report specific content of that user.
All they had to do is add a link to report the specific contentId that user created.
The author was blinded by frustration and didn’t read.