Live data from Hacker News

App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

techcrunch.com

41–50 of 60 posts

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#41
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I've builds apps for years and many times a short discussion with Google allowed me to re-post an app with some modifications." The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place. "Unless you are making apple SERIOUS revenue (think high6 to 7 figures) they will shut you down without even a response." Apple tells you before your app goes liv…

> The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place. If you are spending any significant time/resources developing apps, then you should invest a bit of time in networking. Go to conferences, and meet these people. They aren't that hard to find.

Does anyone know why Google is so bad at this?

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#42
post #30
post #16

As an Android and iOS user, I think this is a step in the right direction. As a player I'd rather have a curated games store that allows me to discover new games easily.

Wouldn't the Humble Bundle store fall in that category?

Yeah, I didn't even think of that. But Humble Bundle is only known to a core audience and if Google did something like HB, I think they could leverage Android as a serious gaming platform (Apple too, but I don't think this will ever happen. They just don't "get" games).

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#43

Wasn't the point of creating walled-garden app stores the notion that it created checks and balances to prevent malware and bad user experiences from getting on people's devices? Wasn't that the entire reason we were supposed to be fine with the notion that we'd be giving up a portion of revenue to be able to get onto users devices in pretty much the only way the vast majority of our users understood how to do? In ot…

It was hardly the only job, especially considering Google's store didn't have the review process until just now.

That cut pays for the payments infrastructure, bandwidth to deliver the app files, etc. that you don't have to provide.

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place. If you are spending any significant time/resources developing apps, then you should invest a bit of time in networking. Go to conferences, and meet these people. They aren't that hard to find.

Does anyone know why Google is so bad at this?

This is not what they want to be good at, because human-to-human interaction doesn't scale.

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#45
post #38

Ironic given how the rhetoric suggested the "walled garden" was an evil to be avoided. Over time Apple is being proven right.

I can still sideload apps onto my android device, no? I don't view a monitored app store as a "walled garden", I consider it a convenience. I view limiting what I can install as a "walled garden" and Apple definitely falls into that category.

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#46
I've already been getting kind of ridiculous suspensions due to this. A dice puzzle game where all you ever earned was points for making the right patterns was banned for encouraging gambling.

So, uh, goodbye one of the few things that made developing for Google better than developing for Apple. Really don't know how they could possibly be bragging about this.

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#47
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I've builds apps for years and many times a short discussion with Google allowed me to re-post an app with some modifications." The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place. "Unless you are making apple SERIOUS revenue (think high6 to 7 figures) they will shut you down without even a response." Apple tells you before your app goes liv…

> The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place. If you are spending any significant time/resources developing apps, then you should invest a bit of time in networking. Go to conferences, and meet these people. They aren't that hard to find.

That kinda ignores all the people developing in countries for whom going to these conferences hardly qualifies as a "bit of time in networking".

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place. If you are spending any significant time/resources developing apps, then you should invest a bit of time in networking. Go to conferences, and meet these people. They aren't that hard to find.

Does anyone know why Google is so bad at this?

Because they're aiming to have things automated. They don't want to pay people to do these things when they feel that they should be able to automate it.

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#49

Nice. I just hope they won't be as annoying as Apple.

Well if you've been submitting apps in the last month or so then you used this system. They say even with adding humans apps are approved in hours not days/weeks as has been known to happen with Apple. Also they use a lot of automation to reduce the number of apps and the amount of work each reviewer has to review.

> days/weeks as has been known to happen with Apple.

That's understating it. Long review times are the norm, not just known to happen. I've never had a submission take under 72 hours. Typical is 4-7 days. (And I've done it dozens of times.)

It's incredibly frustrating when you have users (or clients) complaining about a bug you fixed days ago. I don't understand why they're still have such a deep approval queue after almost seven years. I guess they don't consider it a problem. The perks of having a huge market share, I suppose.

Re: App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Include Age-Based Ratings

#50
post #46

I've already been getting kind of ridiculous suspensions due to this. A dice puzzle game where all you ever earned was points for making the right patterns was banned for encouraging gambling. So, uh, goodbye one of the few things that made developing for Google better than developing for Apple. Really don't know how they could possibly be bragging about this.

Hey, there's still the Windows Store. While ostensibly reviewed, they really let everything in. I've found fake Windows Updates. Fake Dropbox, Facebook (second result, even shows up in the start menu if you type in Facebook!), and more. Some even show "Microsoft" as the publisher. And in every case, tech support tells you to piss off. When reporting a fake Dropbox app, the CSR told me it seems to work and recommended installing it again. So if MS is willing to help phish users, they'll probably let a dice game slide by.

Oh and if you get caught, just resubmit. It took Netflix at least 3 times of back-n-forth with MS before they started permabanning fake Netflix. Other software devs have told me that MS refuses to do anything to help them, even when a 12 yr old could see this hurts users, the brand, and ecosystem.

Post reply on HN