from Hacker News

When Google Decides To Delete Your App

by alexanderscott on 4/10/14, 5:57 PM with 65 comments

• by matthewmacleod on 4/10/14, 6:42 PM

  This is presumably the content from the listing in question: http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/com.cod... - expand to see the list of artists.

  I have to admit, it does look pretty spammy.

• by DEinspanjer on 4/10/14, 6:47 PM

  I was more sympathetic before I read the part where he had listed "1 or 2 dozen of the most popular artists available through Vibe Vault so that users searching for their music could easily find the app on the Google Play store."

  If he says 1 or 2 dozen, I hear at least 13, and probably close to 24. Listing 20 popular artist names in your music app's description specifically to increase the chances of people seeing your app when doing a search for one of those artist names does sound like excessive keyword usage to me. I could see naming around three just to point out that music from well known artists is available as well as indies.

  I do still sympathize somewhat because the Play Store process is horrible, and at the very least, it seems reasonable he should be informed, "Hey, you are spamming artist names, cut it down to five or less please" then get his app reinstated rather than the vague "you done bad now you shall PAY".

  EDIT: I saw the cache copy of the description made by another commenter. Now I am MUCH less sympathetic. Maybe he meant 1 or 2 gross instead of dozen? There are 167 artist names crammed in at the bottom. I doubt many people would feel that is reasonable.

• by chavesn on 4/10/14, 6:56 PM

  I feel like I wasted my time reading that. It amounts to a big "Boo hoo!", makes tons of unsubstantiated and emotional assertions ("I can guarantee you that no one ever really gave any consideration to our arguments", the "the process is bullshit"), and the real solution is to just resubmit the app with a non-spammy description. How hard is that?

  The appeal says "We don't profit from it, and thus have no incentive to spam." So change the description!

• by AznHisoka on 4/10/14, 6:47 PM

  "Don't build your app on Twitter or FB's API. Any change can kill your business"

  "Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket and build a SEO-based startup. 1 algorithm change can flunk your business"

  "Don't build your platform on the Apple Store or Play Store. Google can decide to take away your app anytime"

  "Don't base your business on Adsense. They can ban your account anytime"

  ..what's left?

• by dpcan on 4/10/14, 6:45 PM

  This happened to a small game of mine. I included the instructions of how to play the game, and those instructions required the use of the same word a lot of times. I too had my game suspended, but realized that it must have been the use of the word, and because I couldn't figure out how else to explain the rules without using the word a lot, I just had to remove the instructions from the description completely - but that did the trick, and the game did get put back in Google Play.

  However, this did happen before the Dev Center design change and I WAS able to go in and modify my game's description and that's how I noticed what the problem must have been. I think they should at least allow read-only access to the app's info so you can legitimately investigate.

• by Nemant on 4/10/14, 6:54 PM

  Why is this at the top of HN? This app clearly has a spammy description.

  http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/com.cod...

• by FaisalAbid on 4/10/14, 6:42 PM

  Last night at 3am google decided to take my app down.

  The best part is, my app was not even live!!

  It was in draft mode. My description and screenshot were not final, and were semi-complete placeholders. Before publishing the app I would have obviously made sure it complied with everything.

  Google found issue with that and took down my app. Now I've been running around trying to get a hold of someone to look into this.

• by wreegab on 4/10/14, 6:49 PM

  Another lesson for developers OP didn't list is: make the description of your app in the store part of the development tree, so that it can be reviewed by anybody if ever the app is removed from the store.

• by sgehrman on 4/10/14, 6:45 PM

  Google is not cool at all. Don't trust them.

  Banned for life: The hidden danger when developing for Android.

  https://medium.com/p/c62f2404f66

• by wjnc on 4/10/14, 6:47 PM

  I see his main point as being that the few closed mobile ecosystems (Apple, Google, Microsoft) do not offer the same checks and balances we have gotten used to in the public domain. You pretty much sign away your rights (or, better: expectations of rights) on first use, when you agree to them having final jurisdiction without (at least affordable) appeal.

  But the thing is, I'm unsure what to do. Those massive infrastructures bring software to the masses for free or little and bring huge opportunities for developers. It's hard to imagine someone forcing Google and Apple to give developers some sort of 'due process' within their ecosystem. Who would force them and why? And 'due process' exists outside the ecosystem, but you signed the EULA, remember?

  Anti-trust would say: alternatives exist. They're small, but they exist. I really don't know which approach would guarantee user rights better. But my feeling is that this trend is bad for choice in the long run.

• by DatBear on 4/10/14, 7:17 PM

  I like how he says he reads legalese every day, and then puts this in there:

  >"...Vibe Vault’s store listing did not 'not use irrelevant, misleading, or excessive keywords in apps descriptions, titles, or metadata.'..."

  With a double negative implying that it did break the policy. Hope he doesn't write legalese every day as well.

• by chrisBob on 4/10/14, 6:45 PM

  Apple gets a lot of crap for censoring their store, but my experience is that they at least provide good feedback when they have a problem with something. With iOS you are usually also safe once it is accepted which is better than finding out later (once you have reviews and downloads).

• by fredgrott on 4/10/14, 6:38 PM

  I see Google's point about keywords..as because I could simply list artists accessible in Amazon's MP3 store for an app which would boost search SEo fro the app but place an unfair advantage to other music apps

• by pdonis on 4/10/14, 8:13 PM

  What caught my attention was this statement in the article:

  > I suppose now that Android is a lot more popular than it was when we started developing Vibe Vault, it is no longer a priority for Google to treat the Android community with a modicum of care or respect.

  Oh, there was a time when Google did treat the Android community with a modicum of care and respect? There was a time when they gave you detailed reasons why they pulled your app, and would actually give serious consideration to your arguments for reinstating it? When was that, exactly?

• by tn13 on 4/10/14, 8:58 PM

  The problem with Google is that their guidelines are just a red herring. The ban account based on their whims and fancies.

  For example consider this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eterno

  And give me one good reason why it is not yet banned.

  For Adsense look at this : http://khabar.ndtv.com/ (This is a site in Hindi and Adsense does not support Hindi)

• by Namrog84 on 4/10/14, 6:38 PM

  Is there any cache of it anywhere? Where it could be criticized more deeply to see if maybe others can help identify the issue.

  That is really unfortunate and not sure if there is much you can do about it now. I do wonder if they secretly discriminate against ad free and free software for lack of money?

• by jug6ernaut on 4/10/14, 6:48 PM

  Does anyone know if DMCA takedowns count to towards the "3 strike policy"?

  I had one of my application taken down on a bogus DMCA takedown but do to having no money/time to fight it i just moved on.

• by yaur on 4/10/14, 6:49 PM

  "We listed 1 or 2 dozen of the most popular artists available through Vibe Vault" That seems excessive IMO.

• by UweSchmidt on 4/10/14, 6:48 PM

  For me, the only acceptable restriction of what kind of Apps people can make, sell and run on any device is the restriction set by law (ideally one that came into place through a democratic process).

  App Stores with a specific profile are absolutely fine IF competing App Stores exist and operate on a level playing field on that platform.

• by sparkie on 4/10/14, 7:02 PM

  Please put your app on F-droid

• by bitJericho on 4/10/14, 6:46 PM

  I'm getting real tired of Google's shit.

• by gress on 4/10/14, 6:39 PM

  Why don't they just put the app on another store? The whole point of Android is that it's open and there's no walled garden.

  /s