Develop Reference

Are not-standalone (companion) Wear OS apps still allowed for submission on the Play Store, or are they always rejected?

Our Wear OS application, which is not a standalone application (it is a companion app of our smartphone app, it cannot be used without the smartphone app) keeps getting rejected by Google Play Policy team for the following reason : "Your application requires phone interaction for the watch version to function." even if we have clearly explained in our Play Store description that it is not a standalone application and cannot work when the smartphone app is not available.
Our application was previously accepted and published on the Play Store but we suspect a Google policy change even if we haven't found it clearly anywhere (we have only found recommendations which encourage standalone apps).
=> Are not-standalone Wear OS apps still allowed for Play Store submission or must our Wear OS app include at least a standalone feature ?
Thanks in advance for your help.

TLDR for those who don't want to read the whole message: I had to set the following flag in the watch app's manifest to get my watch app approved:
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.wearable.standalone"
android:value="false" />
The longer story
I don't believe that what they forced me to do makes any sense. My application is semi-independent according to Google's own documentation:
A watch app can be considered as one of the following:
Completely independent of a phone app Semi-independent (a phone app is
not required and would provide only optional features) Dependent on a
phone app If a watch app is completely independent or
semi-independent, it is in the standalone category. You must indicate
this categorization to the Google Play store by setting the value of
this meta-data element to true:
My app requires an initial initialization of 2FA accounts, which can be done from an Android phone or from an iPhone. In the second case the Android phone is not required. Google requested to write a "disclaimer", which I've added to the app's description, but that didn't have any effect, they continued rejecting the app. I've asked three times about what was wrong with the disclaimer, but the best answer I've got was:
As much as I'd like to help, I’m not able to provide any more detail
or a better answer to your question.
I've asked one more time about what's wrong with the disclaimer, didn't get any answer, set 'standalone' flag to false and got approved two days later.
The problem that Google created for me and my users was that going forward installing the watch app would be possible from an Android phone only and not from a watch directly. It means that iPhone users would either need to find an Android device to install the watch app or to use ADB, and I'm sure, the users will hate me for this change.
Once again, an impression is that Android is on its way to self destruction: new policies break the old apps, support doesn't exist and developers are forced to make changes that make customers unhappy.
It's not the first episode of this stupidly, just recently I had to disable GDrive functionality in my Android app because new policies broke the existing logic that worked for years, and all OAuth 2.0 processes that Google suggested to be compliant with the new policies were not feasible for a small company
Here is a fragment of my comms with Google that fell on their deaf ears

Nativescript 7 - can't do in app purchase on ios

I have an app developed in NativeScript 7, designed for both Android and iOS. It is basically finished except that I have a problem with the in app purchase on iOS, since it works as expected on Android.
I can load the app correctly in App Store Connect and start the verification process, but the testers fail to test the IAP because the information from them is not downloaded and therefore the window to buy does not appear.
I am using the library https://github.com/choang10/nativescript-in-app-purchase following the configuration described in it, as I said above, on Android it works correctly.
At the same time, when the app is rejected, in the IAP it tells me that an action must be carried out by the developer, but I don't see anything explicit inside, only that a red ball appears in the description text, and when I modify any letter or space turns yellow and the error that an action is needed no longer appears.
In addition, everything that has to do with bank accounts, contracts, personal information, acceptance of terms of use and others has already been configured and accepted.
I do not know if the information I have provided is sufficient, let me know, thank you very much.

Delete unpublished app from devices who have it installed (Android)

We unpublished an Android-app from the Google play-store. We still see that it is installed on 500+ devices. Is there a way to remove it from these devices? If not, is there a way to show people who open the app a message?
If for both questions the answer is no, what would be the way to go?
Br.

Sorry, the answer would be no for the first aspect of the question and a maybe no for the second aspect of the question. The thing is that if you have some kind of connectivity in your app, i.e. some type of way to communicate with your users built by you, then you could use that channel to communicate whatever you desire. If not, well then you can't force them to uninstall the app. They got the app when it was available, and you've got no control over what apps a person has on their phone, even if you made that app.
Best of luck.

Why my app doesn't appear in chromecast.com/apps?

I have developed an Android app with chromecast compatibility, i have finished all the setup on Google Cast SDK Developer Console, my app runs well on my devices and also in other android devices an other chromecast devices, is published correctly, but is not apearing in this List.
What more I have to do to list my app in this page?

Since this is not a coding question, it would be best if you contact our support team; they will be able to help you address your issue and make your app appear in the right place.

VideoCast Sample App on Android does not detect cast device

I have downloaded and built the CastCompanionLibrary and CastVideos-android sample code from github, after updating google play services library etc.
I have modified the strings file to enter my AppId.
I have a test device configured in the developer console, and also I configured an app (is the sample video app in this case) and I entered the same package name as in the AndroidManifest.xml for the app.
The app start, runs and shows lists of videos - but does not seem to detect the chromecast device as on button is added to the ActionBar.
I am now trying to publish the sample app to see if that fixes it, but following the instructions and using the stock sample code is not working for me so far.
What am I doing wrong?

Andrew, which XML file you were referring to that had Pay Service version stuff in it? As to your issue, my suggestion is:
(1) Make sure your devices is whitelisted for your app. I imagine you are creating an app id on the dev console and using that app id. If your device is whitelisted, you should be able to access it using a chrome browser at http://<chromecast-ip>:9222, if you cannot access that, your device is not whitelisted. To troubleshoot, take a look at this post.
(2) After your device is set up for development, then make sure you put the app id in the strings.xml. Make sure your dependencies are set correctly: the companion library depends on appcompat and mediarouter from v7 of the support libraries, and rev 15 of play store library. The CastVideos-android only depends on the companion library.
If you follow these steps, all should work.

OK here is my summary of things I had to do to get things working with an unpublished app:
Double-check the Device ID. It's difficult to read and some characters could be wrong. Taking a photo in good lighting is a good idea.
Configure the device in the dev console (https://cast.google.com/publish/#/overview), register it and wait. Then later I had to reboot my Chromecast device (in fact twice). I used the chromecast app (Mac OS X) which you can download from here: https://cast.google.com/chromecast/setup
I had poor Wi-Fi performance that made my Android device change WiFi SSID to a different one from where the ChromeCast was connected. Latest versions of Android seem to test response time and bandwidth and then may change if deemed "unstable" (I had it overloaded with downloads) and there is another better one available. So, double check you are on the correct WiFi on Android.
Off course, configure the app in the dev console and past the (Case Sensitive) app id into the app_id string in the strings.xml file in the Android res/values folder.
I think that´s all. Happy casting!

I have the exact same issue, the cast video sample app doesn't find my chromecast so it doesn't show the "cast button" in the action bar.
Like you, in https://cast.google.com/publish/#/overview i have set up a new Styled Media Receiver application with the Android platform and set the package name to : com.google.sample.cast.refplayer
Then i found this : https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/receiver_apps#default
So i changed CastApplication.java in the onCreate method :
APPLICATION_ID = CastMediaControlIntent.DEFAULT_MEDIA_RECEIVER_APPLICATION_ID;
Now it works, i can see the cast button and send videos to my chromecast.
But i still can't use my own application to use my own receiver.

I published my application from the Cast developer console (https://cast.google.com/publish/#/overview) and that seems to have fixed it.
BTW: Other people may have had uppercase/lowercase problems with the app ID - but not me.

I took the advice of some google page, and took a photograph of my Chromecast close up....with that unreadable laser etched ID.....
Then I zoomed in and checked.....and yes, I had a '8' instead of a 'B' in my device ID, probably causing my device to be not WhiteListed as mentioned by Ali Naddaf.
I deleted the old device, and created a new one with the correct Device ID. Then I had to wait 15mins for it to be registered.
So, I changed the package name of the sample in AndroidManifest.xml, I created a new Android app in the dev console with that package name, and put the new App Id into the code (strings.xml) and rebuilt and deployed my Android app.
All that did NOT work and the chromecast did not appear......so for now, using a published app is the only thing that works for me.