An app I published in Google Play got flagged by Google as being in breach of their malicious behavior policy. Specifically they stated that: “Your app contains the following dynamic code downloading: https://redirector.gvt1.com/edgedl/android/appdatasearch/libAppDataSearchExt_armeabi_v7a.v7.so”
I was completely unaware of this behavior and would like to remedy the situation. However, even after a few days researching this subject online, I still have no idea how to locate the root cause and fix it.
The google play support team can’t or won’t give any more information/guidance other than the statement above.
I suspect this behavior could stem from one of the external libraries used in the project (since I don’t perform this action directly in my code), but have yet to find the way to check this hypothesis
Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?
Any diagnosis tools that monitor this sort of behavior by an app?
Thank You,
Related
I am trying to find a way to understand how many users are downloading and/or using unofficial hacked versions of our app but I could not find anything about it.
First of all, are these included in Play Console download figures or not? Is there a way to understand how many downloads hacked apk's get? We have implemented our system for events tracking but I guess it can be disabled in an hacked apk, so looking at the number of people using it without being subscribed would possibly provide biased estimates. Any suggestions?
So I have used App Actions in my app for a couple of years, last week I pushed a maintenence update that has been rejected by Google. After some to and fro with Google Play support, the best I have managed to get out of them for the reason is "App Actions", and I should read the program requirements (the link they sent me has no program requirements section).
It's odd, as I have changed nothing in my app-actions area of code for a very long time, so I can only assume Google have quietly tightened some rules, and my app is no longer complaint. Unfortunately, my crystal ball is currently away for cleaning, so unable to use it, I'm hoping someone else might have some real-world specific examples of how an app may not be compliant in the area of app-actions.
Thanks.
Unfortunately, there are no straightforward rules specified by Google, so you have to go with some trial and error here to see what red flag(s) is your app raising. You can check this article to see all the potential reasons on why Google may reject your app.
An app called Bass Booster has the functionality of displaying a list of installed applications that are possibly incompatible with it.
I plan to implement in my app a similar function, which shows the list of apps that may be incompatible and the following message: "The following apps may present conflicts with XBooster. Please check them and take the necessary actions to avoid conflicts between your sound apps. "
This function would be very useful to identify installed apps that can interfere with each other and hinder the operation of all installed equalizers (including preinstalled).
But in the following link of developer policies:
https://play.google.com/intl/en/about/privacy-security-deception/deceptive-behavior/#!?zippy_activeEl=deceptive-settings#deceptive-settings
It can be read that they do not allow the following:
"Apps that encourage or incentivize users into removing or disabling
third-party apps or modifying device settings or features unless it is
part of a verifiable security service."
Does implementing the function that would show a list of apps that could be incompatible, somehow incentivize users to take the action of removing or uninstalling them?
I would like to know the opinion of the other developers about it.
I don't know how to contact the Google Play support team to ask about my question and avoid implementing a function that could cause me problems.
If this is not the right place to post this question, help me know where I should post it.
I would like to know the opinion of the other developers about it.
SO is a question and answer site - not an opinion forum. Questions like "will this violate Google Play policies" are best directed to a lawyer.
I don't know how to contact the Google Play support team to ask about my question and avoid implementing a function that could cause me problems.
Try the Android Developer Console help. Click the "?" icon in the top right, then down to "Contact Us / Need more help".
However, it's highly unlikely you'll get any good / direct answer. Google Play "support" is notoriously vague about what constitutes violations of the policy (presumably so people don't game the system / sue them).
If this is not the right place to post this question, help me know where I should post it.
Maybe try Twitter, Reddit, or some such platform where you can query the masses for their hot takes on a question.
Hope that helps!
Is there any service that can be used to monitor how a beta-user engages in an android application I made?
I've looked into different analytic solutions, but they all come with the disclaimer that I should not send "unique identification information about the users" - fair enough, and I can appreciate the privacy concerns. But I need to dig that information during my beta testing.
Currently, I'm emailing the apk files to a few people to install the app and test on their phones. They give me feedback, but not all of them are good at describing exactly what they are doing. I need more detailed information - like how they opened the app (was it a fresh open, or did they relaunch it from the running app list?), what exactly they did in the app and if possible, to get some debugging information too, since some issues are unique to the specific model of phone they use.
In a nutshell, it means that I need to dig into my beta-testers devices - and they all agree to it too, so its not like I'm spying on them or some such. (At the very least, I want to record their behavior in my app with permission)
Is anything like this available? If not, are there any other approaches I can use to solve/debug issues that generate from end-user behavior? (NOTE: I'm not talking about app crashing/hanging. The app is stable - its just not working correctly)
Stuff that doesn't seem to work:
http://acra.ch/
This looks more like a crash reporting tool than a usage/monitoring tool. :(
http://try.crashlytics.com/
Similar issues to above
Paid levels of BugSense come with a feature called Bread Crumbs, which I've never used but which sound like what you need.
Many apps just broke, perhaps google changed something? The documentation at http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/publishing.html says that
<URI_prefix>search?q=pub:<publisher_name>
should work, and was working until very recently. Is anyone else having problems with this? Using a market:// link? It is giving No Results Found, and I tried for other publishers also. Is something wrong with my Google Play app perhaps, or is this affecting everyone?
Perhaps they broke something moving over to Google Play?
Thank You
UPDATE: The documentation seems to have been fixed now. Thanks to #Meh for pointing that out in his comment.
To create the link, you need to know your publisher name, which is
available from the Developer Console.
From a web site:
http://play.google.com/store/search?q=pub:
From an
Android app:
market://search?q=pub:<publisher_name>
Here's an example:
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=pub:Google Inc.
For details on how to send the link in an Android app, see Linking
from an Android App.
PREVIOUS ANSWER:
I found what was causing your trouble. When using a publishers name specifically, it now needs to be case sensitive. For instance, this works: http://play.google.com/store/search?q=pub:Zynga
but this doesn't: http://play.google.com/store/search?q=pub:zynga
However, if you're just searching for zynga generically, it still works even when your search term is all lower case. http://play.google.com/store/search?q=zynga
The behavior is so inconsistent now. I'd say this is a bug (or if not a bug, this quirky behavior should at least be clarified in the documentation).