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Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#51

Post by simmons »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #27

What services offer long term phone numbers without be having to create new "lines" on my cellular plan? I currently use an app called "Hushed" but it is extremely expensive, especially compared to how much raw providers like Twilio charge. There seem to be plenty of "disposable" phone number apps but I just want cheap extra numbers, without having to write code.

Any VoIP provider, I suppose. I have a few phone numbers at voip.ms, have a VoIP phone on my desk, and selectively forward the numbers to my cell phone. Outbound calls from a cellphone using such a number is a bit more awkward, requiring either a SIP app or calling into the system before punching in the number to dial. (Maybe there are apps to simplify this by now?) SMS is even more awkward, though there are some APIs.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#52

Post by bdw5204 »

nicolas_17 wrote: post #39
flakiness wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the article, there is a screenshot listing the phone number in the "App support" section.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... Individuals: "Google will display your legal name, your country (as per your legal address), and developer email address on Google Play. If you decide to monetize on Google Play then Google will display your full address." Organizations: "To help improve transparency and user safety on Google Play, Google will display your legal name, legal address, deve…

Displaying full home address is especially dangerous. There's a reason why people pay for WHOIS privacy services to keep that private. Crazy people will use that information to show up at your home and harass you or even commit violence against you.

Presumably you could use a PO box but like paying for a second phone number that's another cost to keep small developers out of the Play Store. I imagine most parents won't want their teenager who made an app publishing their phone number and home address on the internet.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#53

Post by ineedasername »

emestifs wrote: post #12
Mindless2112 wrote: post #5

What phone number will Google be listing for their own apps, I wonder.

A number to a text-to-speech system with Bard on the other end of course

Bard might be a step up from their historic methods that appear little better than an auto responder hooked up to a traditional classifier that occasionally throws a low confidence match over to a human. One who will spend at most 60 seconds reviewing before they choose the canned response.

Bard, given a little leeway, might at least sound human.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#54

Post by skybrian »

When I signed up for Substack, I saw that there was a setting for "mailing address," which is pre-populated with Substack's mailing address.

Why? Because apparently there's a law that at the bottom of commercial email, you need to have a mailing address and unsubscribe link.

(So I guess if they got any mail for you, they'd let you know somehow?)

Similarly for getting a domain name. Technically, you are required to provide your mailing address, email address, and phone number. However, most registrars will let you keep them private and use theirs instead.

Perhaps something similar will happen for Android developers? There could be a relatively lightweight and user-friendly company that handles Play Store listings for indy developers.

Do such companies exist already? It would be interesting to hear from developers who use them.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#55

Post by Dalewyn »

bdw5204 wrote: post #52
nicolas_17 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... Individuals: "Google will display your legal name, your country (as per your legal address), and developer email address on Google Play. If you decide to monetize on Google Play then Google will display your full address." Organizations: "To help improve transparency and user safety on Google Play, Google will display your legal name, legal address, deve…

Displaying full home address is especially dangerous. There's a reason why people pay for WHOIS privacy services to keep that private. Crazy people will use that information to show up at your home and harass you or even commit violence against you. Presumably you could use a PO box but like paying for a second phone number that's another cost to keep small developers out of the Play Store. I imagine most parents won…

Considering one of the fundamental points of a curated application store is end-user security, demanding that software publishers display their contact information is one of the most basic means of establishing and maintaining that security.

If the publisher takes money from their end-users, now more accurately their customers, it is an absolute requirement that their street or mailing address be also displayed for further security and liability purposes. Wouldn't you want to know exactly where your money is going? Wouldn't your bank? Wouldn't your accountant? Wouldn't your tax collectors?

I agree publishing your home street address for all to see isn't ideal, but that is why many people have separate street and mailing addresses and why the wiser folks also run their own business to publish their products under to separate commercial liabilities from their personal liabilities.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#56

Post by radley »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #27

What services offer long term phone numbers without be having to create new "lines" on my cellular plan? I currently use an app called "Hushed" but it is extremely expensive, especially compared to how much raw providers like Twilio charge. There seem to be plenty of "disposable" phone number apps but I just want cheap extra numbers, without having to write code.

OpenPhone https://www.openphone.com/

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#57

Post by nicolas_17 »

bdw5204 wrote: post #52
nicolas_17 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... Individuals: "Google will display your legal name, your country (as per your legal address), and developer email address on Google Play. If you decide to monetize on Google Play then Google will display your full address." Organizations: "To help improve transparency and user safety on Google Play, Google will display your legal name, legal address, deve…

Displaying full home address is especially dangerous. There's a reason why people pay for WHOIS privacy services to keep that private. Crazy people will use that information to show up at your home and harass you or even commit violence against you. Presumably you could use a PO box but like paying for a second phone number that's another cost to keep small developers out of the Play Store. I imagine most parents won…

> I imagine most parents won't want their teenager who made an app publishing their phone number and home address on the internet.

You need to be 18+ to make a Google Developer account. If the app is monetized, said teenager would need to provide bank account information and deal with taxes, so the parents would need to be pretty involved in the process anyway.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#58

Post by callalex »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #27

What services offer long term phone numbers without be having to create new "lines" on my cellular plan? I currently use an app called "Hushed" but it is extremely expensive, especially compared to how much raw providers like Twilio charge. There seem to be plenty of "disposable" phone number apps but I just want cheap extra numbers, without having to write code.

What is preventing you from keeping a Twilio phone number long-term?

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#59

Post by colanderman »

Dalewyn wrote: post #47
MBCook wrote: post #10

The page isn’t clear on if the info has to be shown or can be shown. I get doing more to verify developers (ignoring what I think of DUNS). But acting as an individual developer if I were to think of creating an app for Android and saw that I had to publicly post my phone number that would be an absolute dead stop to development.

1. As a customer, knowing I can call you goes a long way towards establishing your legitimacy in this day and age of overflowing junk devs and junkware. It's a way of demonstrating and establishing liability, FSVO liability. 2. If you don't want your personal phone number published, which is perfectly justifiable, provide your business phone number. Don't own a business? Go and register one at your local government o…

2 -- what? No. I'm not a business, I'm a hobbyist. I'm developing a thing I want to share for free with the world. I don't care if it's pseudonymous and I can't build a brand with it. But I want my network not to have to jump through hoops to install it.

Re: Google now requires and lists phone number in Play Store listings

#60

Post by lucb1e »

westurner wrote: post #7

What percentage of existing app developers on the Play Store do not have a DUNS number? Do they need to incorporate an LLC in order to get a DUNS number for their open source project? Google decided to take the first 15% of app developers' first $1M in revenue instead of 30% in 2021. Google decided to take a 30% cut from all Play Store app and in-app revenue, and you may only use Google Payments in your app (just lik…

> F-droid charges $0 to host APK app downloads and comments but doesn't scan APKs IIUC?

Correct. I've donated before to cover my usage for a while as well as contributed some translations, but it's all volunteer stuff and it's not like we are eager to gatekeep each other's work (assuming that's what you meant by app scanning before publishing).

The quality of things on F-Droid varies as much as it does on google's gated repository, but I have yet to come across a single instance of adware, let alone malware. The store also hosts old versions, so if you don't like the latest changes in an app, you can just hit downgrade. And old apps are not removed if not broken; there's no requirement to keep up with sdk targeting blah. Finished or abandoned products do not have to be kept up-to-date constantly. They look old, but work just fine; google just forbids that.

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