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This is the first game I have written and I am trying to publish it to Google Play store in the Designed For Families section. The app keeps getting rejected with the following feedback:
Apps in Designed for Families must include metadata text and images
that accurately reflect the app experience.
I have read all the guidelines and policies and I cant work out where I am going wrong! I have revised the short and full description and I feel they fully reflect the app. The images are all screen shots from game play so they should accurately reflect the experience.
I have changed the "family category" to be "Brain Games" as this is the best fit for the app. I m happy to include the full description and short description and the images that i have used for the release but I didnt want to bombard the thread with to much information...
Have I totally missed understood the feedback??? is it actually referring to the metadata in the androidManifest?
I know there are lots of thread about getting rejected from the play store but none of those address this particular issue.
Thanks for reading I hope someone can help as I am really stuck!
We experienced this problem with 2 apps:
First App: I received a message saying that my update was rejected because of the violation on the Family program alleging that it was crashing or giving an error (pretty generic message without any detail at all), I enter in contact on the support form and they send an email asking for me to read the terms and to update my APK number and submit again, I read the terms, I already had complied with everything so I replied saying that, we already comply with everyhting and we tested the APK and OBB installation and game play, all good, please send more details, they replied copying and pasting the same message, I once more insisted and asked for them to explain the problem, they replied asking for update my APK version and submit again, I said this will solve no crashes, please explain what is the problem and the support called Sara highlighted in the message asking to update the APK version, kind of talking with a machine that do not responded what I asked, but I updated my APK version, submitted again and... Worked. Why? For some reason they will not explain, my guess is they just marked my APK as dirty as an attempt to remove apps that the developers don't update, there's no other logical thing I can think off.
Second App: This one I didn't had a happy end as the previous one, I tried the technique of updating the APK version 6 times, none worked, I asked help on the form (many times), they just copy and paste the message about read the Terms, I started to insist for some details, provided them with many proves that my APK+OBB files sent to Google Play are working fine, and asked for any clue about this "problem", like a device model and Android Version that they experienced it (isn't the minimum they suppose to provide us?) but after requesting this many times, for the first time the support guy called Arthur didn't copied and pasted and finally wrote an email, his answer was:
Hi Developer,
Thanks again for contacting the Google Play Team.
As much as I'd like to help, due to policy, I’m not able to provide any more information or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me.
If you have a different question about Google Play policies, please let me know.
Regards,
Arthur
The Google Play Team
It means, he has no information at all about what is the problem, I've trying to solve this for 2 months, our flagship game is threatened of been removed from the store and they can't even explain why, the support team can just copy and paste a generic message without any understanding of our problem and we have no other channel to ask for help.
I'm really disappointed with Google for such poor support for developers.
Well maybe you are missing something, may you are not, and even what Ricky Levi wrote about his case could be just a matter of sending again and none of his changes made any difference. All this process is a mess and there's no channel we can ask for help. (Well technically we can ask for help, the problem is the person that will reply has no idea of your problem and can only copy and paste a non sense message)
In my case it was:
API level was really really low ( 22 vs latest 26+ )
Adding more images to the Play store
Adding privacy policy to the store listing ( at the bottom of the page )
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I have created an internal release of an Android app on the Google Play console. When I copy the opt-in link and paste it into the browser, and then click the link to install the app, I get this Not Found page.
According to the Play Console, the Internal Testing Track is not active, but it's been 5+ days.
Here's what's not the problem:
All the app details are filled in, and the Play Console says the app is available to internal testers
I am logged into a Google account that is on the internal testers list
The release is over five days old, so it should be done processing
The opt-in link is available
The answer is that 48 hours may be considered typical, but my internal test was not ready until a full week after its upload to the Play Console. During that week, I put in a ticket with Google developer support, but never got a response. My recommendation is to wait for a week, and then put in a support ticket if it's still not up by then, and hope they respond.
Same issue - our app wasn't available after 48 hours, so I reached out. I quickly got this reply, which is unfortunate:
Hi,
Thanks for contacting Google Play Developer Support!
Please note that your app submission to the internal test track is still processing which is the reason it's not accessible via it's opt-in link yet.
Due to adjusted work schedules at this time, we are currently experiencing longer than usual review times. While the situation is currently evolving, app review times may fluctuate, and may take 7 days or longer.
Moving forward, we recommend you adjust your planning to account for this and avoid resubmitting, as each update or change to your app will cause the review process to start over from the very beginning. We understand the inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience and understanding.
If you have any other questions about using the Play Console, please let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
Regards,
Suraj
Google Play Developer Support
Wow! I am on day 4 now and my app is still "being reviewed"... The Internal Testing Url is still not working... My app got rejected because of some wording in my description that violated their content policy. The reason for rejection was very vague and didn't say what it was. I cleaned up anything/everything including the term "youtube videos" and saved it. So when they emailed me the "rejection" email (Day 2) I went and checked the Google Play Console and it still said being reviewed and didn't mention anything about the rejection...
Google needs to overhaul that entire system because it is virtually un-usable! They may as have have used white text over a white background! Geesh!
My iphone app review process with Apple was done in 2 days! Much better experience!
App releases on the Internal testing track may or may not be subjected to a review. If it is the first release on the track, it is very likely to be reviewed. Reviews can take days or minutes, and from experience, it is best to plan for about 7 days (safest side) in the app review process in Play Store.
Google PlayStore does not provide expedited review like Apple AppStore does. PlayStore's Internal testing track also has nitty-gritty details in its working, which I never found any documentation for, and had to learn them the hard way.
Maybe this post helps: https://medium.com/#tukai.anirban/internal-testing-in-google-playstore-47de955062ad
(Disclaimer: I wrote this post after facing various hurdles when getting my latest app through Play Store)
My free app directed at children from (0-5) just got rejected from Google Play in its last update. It is not released yet, I'm only releasing internal tests. The issue is the following:
"Issue: Violation of Families Policy Requirements
We have detected that your app collects personal information, however, it was not disclosed in your Play Console. Apps that include children in the target audience must comply with all Families Policy Requirements, which requires that you disclose the collection of any personal information from children in your app, including through APIs and SDKs called or used in your app. "
My app does not contain any ads but instead it has a single IAP (non-consumable) which unlocks the full game. I am using a middleware called Construct 3 to make it and also GameAnalytics to record events such as game completed, errors, etc.
The Required permissions are the following:
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, android.permission.INTERNET, android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, com.android.vending.BILLING
So I am not sure what the problem is, to be honest, and I am a bit confused. The mail I received mentioned doing the following:
"Review the App Content > Target audience and content section in your Play Console and be sure to accurately disclose the collection of personal information. And if applicable, you must collect verifiable parental consent before collecting any personal information from children."
So I tried and the only thing regarding the collection of personal information is what they refer to as PII (personal identifiable information). However, I don't collect any personal identifiable information as far as I know unless it's because of GameAnalytics SDK?
Example of fake data I get on GameAnalytics:
{arrival_ts:23:06, country_code:US, data:{android_app_build:3600, android_app_signature:fdg46g465dfg45d4fg654dfg64g, android_app_version:0.0.36, android_bundle_id:com.test.test, android_channel_id:com.android.vending, build:0.0.36, category:session_end, client_ts:45464654, connection_type:wwan, device:Pixel 3, google_aid:dbf5e8ab-488a-4152-afb1-dfgdf556, length:1196, manufacturer:Google, os_version:android 9, platform:android, sdk_version:construct 2.2.3, session_id:c8e3d86c-8519-42f7-a3b4-6465dfgdgf, session_num:32, user_id:dbfdfggfdab-488a-4152-afb1-df45dfg, v:2}, first_in_batch:true, game_id:78269, ip:182.19.58.0}
If anyone has some idea where to look at, that would be really appreciated.
This my post on Stack Overflow, so if it does not have this place here sorry.
We experienced this problem with 2 apps:
First App: I received a message saying that my update was rejected because of the violation on the Family program alleging that it was crashing or giving an error (pretty generic message without any detail at all), I enter in contact on the support form and they send an email asking for me to read the terms and to update my APK number and submit again, I read the terms, I already had complied with everything so I replied saying that, we already comply with everyhting and we tested the APK and OBB installation and game play, all good, please send more details, they replied copying and pasting the same message, I once more insisted and asked for them to explain the problem, they replied asking for update my APK version and submit again, I said this will solve no crashes, please explain what is the problem and the support called Sara highlighted in the message asking to update the APK version, kind of talking with a machine that do not responded what I asked, but I updated my APK version, submitted again and... Worked. Why? For some reason they will not explain, my guess is they just marked my APK as dirty as an attempt to remove apps that the developers don't update, there's no other logical thing I can think off.
Second App: This one I didn't had a happy end as the previous one, I tried the technique of updating the APK version 6 times, none worked, I asked help on the form (many times), they just copy and paste the message about read the Terms, I started to insist for some details, provided them with many proves that my APK+OBB files sent to Google Play are working fine, and asked for any clue about this "problem", like a device model and Android Version that they experienced it (isn't the minimum they suppose to provide us?) but after requesting this many times, for the first time the support guy called Arthur didn't copied and pasted and finally wrote an email, his answer was:
Hi Developer,
Thanks again for contacting the Google Play Team.
As much as I'd like to help, due to policy, I’m not able to provide any more information or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me.
If you have a different question about Google Play policies, please let me know.
Regards,
Arthur
The Google Play Team
It means, he has no information at all about what is the problem, I've trying to solve this for 2 months, our flagship game is threatened of been removed from the store and they can't even explain why, the support team can just copy and paste a generic message without any understanding of our problem and we have no other channel to ask for help.
I'm really disappointed with Google for such poor support for developers.
Hope you can solve your problem updating your APK and submitting again, otherwise you can enter on the same loop as me.
Good luck!
I am working on client project. I submitted the android app on play store from my account. It was showing on Play store. Than according to requirement i have to publish the app from client play console account. I removed app from my account and published the same app with different package name. Than it shows app rejected because of some family policy violation. I fixed this and resubmit the app. Now it taking a lot of time in reviewing the app.
I have tried to resubmit the app after editing the policies required by google.
I want to know how much time google will take to republish my app after reviewing it again.
Or How i can connect from google with any #support email.
It usually they review my apps within few hours... but... I feel there's something wrong inside Google and one of many emails I had from their support told me it's because there's a new review process for apps on the Family program. Well I will tell a little bit about my journey may give you some idea why you are having this problem.
We experienced this problem with 2 apps:
First App: I received a message saying that my update was rejected because of the violation on the Family program alleging that it was crashing or giving an error (pretty generic message without any detail at all), I enter in contact on the support form and they send an email asking for me to read the terms and to update my APK number and submit again, I read the terms, I already had complied with everything so I replied saying that, we already comply with everyhting and we tested the APK and OBB installation and game play, all good, please send more details, they replied copying and pasting the same message, I once more insisted and asked for them to explain the problem, they replied asking for update my APK version and submit again, I said this will solve no crashes, please explain what is the problem and the support called Sara highlighted in the message asking to update the APK version, kind of talking with a machine that do not responded what I asked, but I updated my APK version, submitted again and... Worked. Why? For some reason they will not explain, my guess is they just marked my APK as dirty as an attempt to remove apps that the developers don't update, there's no other logical thing I can think off.
Second App: This one I didn't had a happy end as the previous one, I tried the technique of updating the APK version 6 times, none worked, I asked help on the form (many times), they just copy and paste the message about read the Terms, I started to insist for some details, provided them with many proves that my APK+OBB files sent to Google Play are working fine, and asked for any clue about this "problem", like a device model and Android Version that they experienced it (isn't the minimum they suppose to provide us?) but after requesting this many times, for the first time the support guy called Arthur didn't copied and pasted and finally wrote an email, his answer was:
Hi Developer,
Thanks again for contacting the Google Play Team.
As much as I'd like to help, due to policy, I’m not able to provide any more information or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me.
If you have a different question about Google Play policies, please let me know.
Regards,
Arthur
The Google Play Team
It means, he has no information at all about what is the problem, I've trying to solve this for 2 months, our flagship game is threatened of been removed from the store and they can't even explain why, the support team can just copy and paste a generic message without any understanding of our problem and we have no other channel to ask for help.
I'm really disappointed with Google for such poor support for developers.
Hope you can solve your problem updating your APK and submitting again, otherwise you can enter on the same loop as me.
Good luck!
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Does anyone have any figures or rule of thumb in how to interpret crash report figures in terms of number of actual people affected, specifically those given on the Google Play Developer accounts?
My understanding is that a crash is only reported if a person clicks report after the crash and I wonder what percentage of people actually do.
I am very new to Android and my app is used by about 70 people, I have had one crash report in an earlier version of my app, but does that mean that only one person has had a problem in a rare situation or that it is just the tip of the iceberg and a fair bit of energy should be focused on correcting it?
I have not been able to find this information elsewhere but I assume people here must have a rough idea.
EDITED: apologies for the question being too broad, but I now know the answer is that bug reporting varies a lot depending on several factors, that many bugs don't get recorded, and that what I should be doing is using something like Google Analytics or BugSense rather than trying to guess based on crash reports submitted.
If you want in depth crash reports and ANRs (Application not responding), you need to implement google analytics into your app. Otherwise, only reported crashes will be able to be seen in the developer console.
During my first year or so as an Android developer maintaining an inherited project, I'd get most of my bug reports via customer service. Usually they'd be vague. If I was really lucky I'd get a log. I'd figure out how to reproduce the problem and cut a new build. I'd follow up with customer service, and the feedback would be that the customer was very happy with it.
Then I found out about BugSense. Now I'm astounded by customers' low standards. The vast majority of crashes (well over 95%) are never reported to customer service. The flip side is that after fixing over 90% of the crashes, no customer has ever commented on the improvement.
I have had a few different crashes reported to me by my users. This was because of ACRA. It writes the stack of errors as an email and presents it to the user who has the option of sending the email or discarding it. Very useful IMHO.
But then again, it does not change the fact that it is upto the users discretion. So percentage wise I doubt if anyone can give you a number.
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I got an app at playstore, yesterday I get a bad rating (1 Star) but not of any error inside that app. It is no problem for me to handle bad ratings, because this gave me some feedback and shows me that I have to modify my app. But in that case the user hadn´t read the desription in playstore and inside the apps manual.
This user complains that my app is downloading dropbox if the dropbox app is not installed. But this is not possible without user confirmation and a warning before. Also this is described in App discreption at Playstore, so it is no suprise and this bad rating is just unfair.
I asked the user if he wants his money back, if yes I will cancel the purchase. My question is, will be that rating also removed from playstore if the app purchase is cancelled? I can´t get no information about this, this is not described anywhere in the developers guide or anywhere else. If somebody knows this I would be thankful if he/she tells me.
First of all, get used to unfair ratings. It sucks but this just happens, depending on how big the application it could happen a lot.
If someone doesn't like the color, not enough warnings, too much warnings, etc etc. Theres always a reason for someone to give a bad rating.
What to do about it?
Make a great app and get more and more better ratings.
What I found on your topic of removing ratings when uninstalling:
Uninstalling the reviewed app does not seem to remove one's review. (Which makes sense, I guess.)
Here is some extensive information about it:
How do I remove a review I've written from the Android Market app?
Google doesn't seems to allow to remove reviews at all:
Issue 16483: Android Market doesn't allow removing an existing application's rating and comment.
Tips:
Make sure you warn people in application description that you require dropbox. Not just warn in-app. This might also be the reason for low ratings because people do not expect it.
If the user would like so, cancel the purchase / refund anyway. This might give incentive for the user to change his rating before uninstalling. And gives you a good name.