Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

support.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 259 posts

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#21

Post by robertlagrant »

pk97 wrote: post #12
ncr100 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem like an Anti-Pattern. Presumably (some faction inside) Google wants to warn users about scam apps. However this seems like blatant shaming and ostracization of smaller developers who did not spend $$$$$ on Marketing through Google's Ad Network. Seems Monopolistic of Google to me.

exactly. Imagine the audacity of this company. I have a paid app and they are already charging me a percentage of the revenue. And behind my back they have begun running this banner.

I doubt they're aware of you enough to do it behind your back. They're more wanting to flag this "Bank of 4merica" app you're about to install has 8 other users.

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#23

Post by pk97 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #21
pk97 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly. Imagine the audacity of this company. I have a paid app and they are already charging me a percentage of the revenue. And behind my back they have begun running this banner.

I doubt they're aware of you enough to do it behind your back. They're more wanting to flag this "Bank of 4merica" app you're about to install has 8 other users.

I am obviously a very small player doing things as a hobby, I don't matter to Google. But what I am pointing out is that they already take a cut of whatever few dollars I earn (beyond the initial $25 I paid years ago just to get on the play store). If you see the thread, the OP asked their customer support and they said: "Especially, since the response from customer service seems to suggest that the best way to get it removed is to run Google AdWords (which I am already running, btw)"

If the angle here is running ads and if they are already taking a cut, why are they doing this? If the angle is security, why not test the apps and have them removed! And in either case, why keep the developer in the dark? And why is there no way for small time insignificant devs like me to know how to get rid of the banner!

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#24

Post by frosted-flakes »

poincaredisk wrote: post #14
_fat_santa wrote: post #4

Why does it seem like Google is trying to kill Android, or at least their app ecosystem. - They now require a DUNS number to submit an app - You now need 10-15 people to "QA" your app before submitting - Now this. It just seems that Google wants the "major" apps and nothing else.

>They now require a DUNS number to submit an app Even for non-us residents?

DUNS is used globally.

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#25

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

pk97 wrote: post #2

I noticed this banner on one of my own apps while installing it for my mom on a new phone. The banner said "This app has fewer users than others...", almost as if they are discouraging users from installing it without even informing me. I looked it up online and it seems like many people have begun seeing this. I am linking a thread. If anyone from Google is reading this, such opaque policies are not appreciated!

There's a weird nuance to this just because algorithmically PageRank itself was even somewhat anti-competitive.

"This page has fewer links to it than others, therefore it will be buried in search results"

I think most people appreciated Google's early search algos that prioritized "well-traffic'd" sites and sources over others. Obviously that was a long time ago before SEO (and Google themselves) destroyed everything. Back then there were actually still competitors in the search market so it didn't matter. Not the case now.

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#26

Post by aquir »

Typical Big-tech approach: the solution is a non-solution without giving much thought to it but looks good for the board of investors and/or stock owners and they can say "we are stopping scam apps on our marketplace" on the next slides created by marketing. They just don't give a shit. (Just read the book "Careless People" - read it if you are not convinced. Engagement over everything)

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#27

Post by sometimes_all »

How does something like this ever get into production, especially at a place like Google, unless being hostile to new apps and developers is the plan? Or do they want to push potential developers into Google's double-dipping: pay them money to get on to the Play Store + pay a lot more money to get eyeballs on your app and thus more users.

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#28

Post by MattDaEskimo »

_fat_santa wrote: post #4

Why does it seem like Google is trying to kill Android, or at least their app ecosystem. - They now require a DUNS number to submit an app - You now need 10-15 people to "QA" your app before submitting - Now this. It just seems that Google wants the "major" apps and nothing else.

My leading theory is they're preparing for a increasing onslaught of spam "vibe-coded" shovelware

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#29

Post by mschuster91 »

_fat_santa wrote: post #4

Why does it seem like Google is trying to kill Android, or at least their app ecosystem. - They now require a DUNS number to submit an app - You now need 10-15 people to "QA" your app before submitting - Now this. It just seems that Google wants the "major" apps and nothing else.

> They now require a DUNS number to submit an app

These things are easy to get, the idea is to at least slow down the deluge of scam apps and barely working "vibe coding" apps.

> You now need 10-15 people to "QA" your app before submitting

Again, enforcing at least a baseline of testing isn't bad.

Both Apple's and Google's stores suffer from a massive problem with low quality apps and it's honestly more than time that this gets tackled.

Re: “Fewer Users” Warning Hurting Specialized and New Apps

#30

Post by jjani »

ncr100 wrote: post #10
pk97 wrote: post #2

I noticed this banner on one of my own apps while installing it for my mom on a new phone. The banner said "This app has fewer users than others...", almost as if they are discouraging users from installing it without even informing me. I looked it up online and it seems like many people have begun seeing this. I am linking a thread. If anyone from Google is reading this, such opaque policies are not appreciated!

It does seem like an Anti-Pattern. Presumably (some faction inside) Google wants to warn users about scam apps. However this seems like blatant shaming and ostracization of smaller developers who did not spend $$$$$ on Marketing through Google's Ad Network. Seems Monopolistic of Google to me.

> Presumably (some faction inside) Google wants to warn users about scam apps

Or (the ads faction that effectively runs the company) wants to warn users about apps that don't spend much on AdWords and Play Store ads.

Post reply on HN