Users and admins of /r/androiddev, I'm opening this post in the hope of getting some valid solutions and traction for a big issue that we are all facing.

Google's behavior and policies against Android developers are getting ridiculously unsustainable. We all read in this subreddit, and outside of it, many terrifying stories of developers accounts terminated due to unknown/superficial reasons, without any answer or solution. We all know that this is a big problem, and this is poisoning the open and healthy ecosystem that it used to be.

Many of us totally depends our income on the possibility to publish apps on the Play Store, privately or for companies. Imagine if your account, and all the associated one, will get terminated due to some Google mistake. This will exclude you from publishing an Android app ever again. This happened before and it can happen to anybody at any time. Do you really want to live with that?

Google have the total monopoly of the distribution of Android apps, everywhere in the world. Do you remember when Microsoft had to display the browser-selection dialog in Windows? It should be the same in Android.

What I'm asking here is to coordinate to find a valid solutions, or at least try. I don't believe that Google will improve its policies simply by asking, but I'm sure that they will become more and more dictatorial. The times of "don't be evil" are over.

Some options that we got could be:

• Reach some EU representative and expose the problem. I have no idea how to do it, but maybe someone here does. Also political institutions outside the EU could help.

• Try to reach media attention. Maybe someone here have the connections to reach some big media distribution channel.

I'm open to any idea/criticism.

I'm asking every users here to give visibility to this post, and to the admins to pin it on top of /r/androiddev.

The whole Android Development is at stake here, do not underestimate this problem.

If any admin is reading please stick this post to the top of the subreddit to give more visibility to the problem.

Edit 1:

Quoting /u/Improvotter there has been a recent initiative from the Application Developer Alliance to cover this issue. This kind of organizations need to be supported.

Edit 2:

/r/android do not allow crossposting, so I created another post there, hopefully it will get visibility.

Edit 3:

If anyone has a way (social media, blogs, conventions, meetups, etc...) to give visibility to this problem please do. This is the only way we have to start a dialog, and try to find a solution before is too late. Act now.

Edit 4:

/u/Zhuinden proposed to use the following tags in social media: #androiddev #IndieDevsMatter

Edit 5:

Someone suggested to ping famous celebrity to speak out on this. I'll start asking help to /u/Marques-Brownlee and /u/PhillyDeFranco

Edit 6:

I've been trying to reach some of the most popular Android news channels, like Android Police and 9to5google, to ask them to cover this story.

But now I need to sleep, so I ask anyone that care about this topic to write a quick message/tweet/email/video/anything to all news platforms that they can think of (even the big one). We need to get as much visibility as possible, and a small effort from each of you could make the difference.

We need to stop complaining and start to do something about this.

Edit 7:

I found a way to directly write to the European Commission, so I did it. I suggest you to do the same:

https://europa.eu/european-union/contact/write-to-us_en

Good morning.

My name is <name and surname>, and I'm an apps developer located in <EU city>. I'm writing to trying to inform the EU about the current status of the Android apps distribution.

Currently there is a clear status of monopoly held by Google. All the Android phones in the market come with the Google Play Store installed on them, as main and only source to install apps, and the distribution via alternative channels is purposely made very complex or impossible for the average users.

Furthermore Google can determine LIFETIME bans for private developers and companies from publishing apps in the Google Play Store, basing them on their own policies often kept intentionally obscure. The bans often come without any explanations or chance to appeal.

With the growing importance of mobile apps and mobile communication more and more key services are dependent from this platforms. I believe that, for the good of free competition and freedom of expression, the EU should intervene and regulate this monopoly. For example by giving the users the chance to easily select what apps store they want to use, and by giving companies the chance to not be totally dependent from a single private institution (Google) for the distribution of they services.

This is an important issue, please do not underestimate it.

Thank you and best regards,

/<name and surname>

P.S.

This topic has been raised also in a popular social platform (Reddit), where is possible to read witness about the extent of this issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/9n88wv/the_future_of_android_development/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/9n91gl/the_future_of_android_development/

Edit 8:

I got an answer from the EU:

Dear Mr.<surname>,

Thank you for contacting the Europe Direct Contact Centre.

We would like to inform you that the European Commission is aware of the situation and that there has been steps taken towards the ending of unfair practices. Please refer to the links below for more information:

- http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4581_en.htm

- http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1784_en.htm

We hope you find this information useful. Please contact us again if you have other questions about the European Union, its activities or institutions.

This post got quite popular, so there are chances that someone in Google might read it. What we're asking to Google is to stop this unfair practices by:

• Being more transparent about the suspensions processes;

• To stop this life-banning madness;

• To stop banning associated accounts. This is just crazy and often lead to very unfair situations;

• To let us communicate with real people, and not stupid bots. I'm sure most of us here are willing to pay a fee for this service.

If you're someone working in Google bring this topics up. If you're not working in Google please share this story. If you're working for the EU keep doing the good job and end this unfair practices.

Hello Reddit!

Does anyone know what is going on with the Facebook Audience Network? It seems they are not going to pay money for their ads showed in my app.

I was using their ads for about a year without any problems. Two month ago I released new app that became very popular. At this moment it has more than 10 million downloads. Here is screenshot of daily revenue from the Facebook ads (revenue in last column). As you can see it's huge money.

I was happy until Facebook restricted two my apps with this message. It seems that it's a regular message to those who use Facebook SDK integrated in their app and use Facebook functionality like user login, publish content or share something while violating Facebook policies. But I do not have Facebook SDK integrated in my apps, just Facebook Audience Network SDK for the ads. Lets look at this policies closer:

• Give people control over what they share through your app.

People can't share anything through my app.

• Obtain consent from people before publishing content on their behalf. (FPP 2.1)

My app doesn't have publish functionality.

• Ensure that all content in the user message parameter is entered by the user. Don’t pre-fill. This includes posts, messages, comments, and captions. (FPP 2.3)

My app doesn't have publish functionality. Users can't write posts, messages, comments or captions.

• Do not misuse incentives by incentivizing people to post stream stories. (FPP 4.5)

My app doesn't have publish functionality. Users can't post anything.

• Prompt users to publish stories only after they take perform significant actions within your app.

My app doesn't have publish functionality. Users can't post anything.

• Use the Requests channel when inviting users to your app.

Users search and download my app through the Google Play Store.

After that I appealed to them many times but never got the answer.

Nightmare began when they didn't pay me about $70000 for the last month. Now they should pay me more than $90000 this month and I think they won't do that again. Support is totally dead! I wrote them about twenty letters into every form or email I ever found. Always got no answer or redirect to another support. No phones found. I don't know what to do more. Here is screenshot with two amounts pending for one of my apps.

What is it if not stealing? I found another forum thread (link removed to avoid blame me for forum promotion) where people discuss same problem. Looks like Facebook are going to make some money here.

UPDATE:

OK, there are many people here thinking I could violate some copyright or Facebook Terms of Service and that is why they don't pay. Please read the Audience Network Terms here first. There is only one term when they can decide not to pay. Here it is:

4.2: Publisher will not, and will not authorize or encourage any third party to, directly or indirectly, generate impressions, clickthroughs, conversions or other actions with respect to an Ad through any automated, deceptive, fraudulent or otherwise invalid means, including through repeated manual clicks, the use of “robots” or other automated tools, or by payment of money, false representation, or any illegal or otherwise invalid for end users to take actions with respect to an Ad...

... FB will not be liable for any payment (a) based on such fraudulent activity or invalid activity

... FB reserves the right to withhold payment or charge back Publisher’s account due to any of the foregoing pending FB’s investigation

The fact is that I can't prove in any way that I didn't do it. While Facebook can't prove that I did.

In my defence I can say that there are no reasons for me to do that. My app has more than 10M downloads total and about 300K downloads a day. Thats a huge traffic that generates such revenue. All this people using my app can’t be ‘fraudulent activity’. I would not risk my earnings by making some fake clicks. Thats stupid.

Also you can see the first screenshot in this post that has CTR/CPM stats (7 and 8 column). Given that fact that majority of my users are from US these stats are even lower than normal. Any developer that use Audience Network ads can confirm it. In case of cheating, these figures would have been higher.

Before you decide who is right in this situation you should know two more things about Facebook:

1. They approve ads in your app before you can show it to users. So, they saw my app and checked it complies with their terms of service.

2. App was restricted after more than a month of using Audience Network and just a week before the payment. Do they need so much time to recognize 'fraudulent activity' or they waited to get maximum traffic without paying a cent?

MESSAGE TO MODS: Please never remove my comments.

News from Google I/O

Congrats! :)

Edit: https://blog.jetbrains.com/kotlin/2017/05/kotlin-on-android-now-official/

Edit 2: some tutorials: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/tutorials/

Edit 3: some people asked to include this link: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/tutorials/koans.html

I’ve been an Android developer for many years and I used to love Google Play, but recently, my feelings are changing. Instead of excited, I feel afraid and frustrated.

I’m sure you’ve read about the horror stories of developer accounts being terminated for no reason, or forcing developers to dox themselves in order to publish their apps on Google Play.

But there’s another evil thing they are doing: They are turning some app listings into inferior listings, and intentionally diverting potential users to other apps.

And the worst part is, they are doing it silently without providing any reason or explanation to developers.

When Google decides to bully an app on Google Play, this is what they do to their app listing:

• They completely hide all the app details (app screenshots, short description, long description, data safety information, etc.). Instead, they show a tiny blue text-button that reads “See details”. In order to see the app details, users have to click this button, which has the lowest priority, and it doesn’t even look like a button.

• They make the “Install” button as small as possible, move it to a corner, and give it the lowest contrast possible, to the point that it’s almost invisible. This button stays this way even if the user clicks “See details”.

• They make the app icon and name significantly smaller, and show other apps with icons that are significantly bigger, diverting people’s attention to other apps.

• They turn the developer’s name into a regular text (instead of a link as it normally is), so users cannot click it to see other apps by the developer.

All these changes seem intentionally designed to minimize the conversion rate and drive traffic to other apps.

At Google I/O 2025 they said “Everyone at Google Play is passionate about connecting users with experiences that they love, while empowering developers to build successful businesses”

This is not connecting users to the apps they love, it’s diverting their attention to other apps.

This is not empowering developers, this is bullying developers.

And the worst part is, this bullying has the potential to extend beyond Google Play. In August 2025, Google announced that starting next year, Android will require all apps to be registered by verified developers in order to be installed by users on certified Android devices.

This means that even if you decide to distribute your apps outside of Google Play, you will be required to become a verified developer and register your apps with Google in a new Android Developer Console.

Think about what will happen to you as a developer if Google decides to bully you outside Google Play, you won’t be able to distribute your apps to your users, even on alternative app stores.

If you know any content creators, influencers, or publications, please share this information with them, so they can spread the word about this evil practice that Google is doing to developers.

-----

Update: Quick reply to the guy saying: "You're looking at two different pages in the store. The Normal app is the full detail page, the Bullied app is not, if you tap "See details" you should see the same page for both."

To clarify, both are screenshots of the full app listing page (not search the search page). In a normal app listing (left screenshot) all the details are shown by default. But in a bullied app listing (right screenshot) you have to click "See details" and even then, the install button remains very small and low-contrast, so you never see the same page layout for both.

-----

UPDATE: Digital Turbine didn't give an official response to this issue as they promised (see top comment). Google is still investigating the issue, progress is tracked here https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/202561926.

We recently received a couple of upvoted reviews from upset users reporting an app had been installed on their device without their consent after watching an ad and tried to close it:

We managed to get in contact with one of the affected users who kindly sent us some screenshots of the ad in question:

A quick check of that app's Google Play reviews (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.home.weather.radar&gl=ES&showAllReviews=true) shows lots of users complaining, amongst other ugly stuff, about the app being installed without their consent confirming the reports from our users were genuine.

After talking to a couple of our ad provider Account Managers, we were told this is a technology from DSP Digital Turbine (who recently acquired Fyber) who has managed a way to avoid Google Play interaction to install an app. This may be the patent related to it: https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2019/0265958.html.

This seems like a serious security vulnerability and the perfect mechanism for unscrupulous advertisers to install malware.

Hey guys,I want to start by saying thank you - I have learnt so much from this community over the years. But I have made the decision to step away from making android apps, something I have been doing now for almost a decade as a hobbyist developer.

To start I want to give as much value back to you guys so I am in the process of open sourcing all of my applications in the hopes it will help someone with their own app development journey:

Workout tracker - https://github.com/storyofdavid/Android-WorkoutTracker

Motivational Quotes: https://github.com/storyofdavid/Android-MotivationalQuotes

Hero Guide for Dota 2: https://github.com/storyofdavid/Android-D2HeroGuide

Calorie Calculator, Relaxing Rain Sounds, Portfolio Tracking app: Coming Soon to my Github

Disclaimer: The code may not be pretty, but it does work :)

---

Why I am quitting...

Last week I had both my admob and adsense account banned because I had added a bottom navigation bar to my app. (see attached picture)

Navigation previously used to be hidden behind a menu, I decided to add a bottom navigation because it looks a lot nicer.

However this meant my navigation was now too close to my banner ad -- which I found out violates their ad placement policy.I've fixed it up by removing ads completely, and have submitted an appeal through their automated system with no success.

My account was in good standing, with no admob issues for years - however Google has decided to stand by its decision to permanently ban my accounts. This is especially devastating to me, because I have been working hard these past years to build a social following. I have just over 13k followers across Tiktok and YT where I teach free educational content related to programming, making mobile apps, getting into the tech industry, etc.

Now because I added a bottom navigation bar to an app I can never monetise my free educational content.

---

Google has some amazing people who work there. My hopes are that someone who works there will see this and care enough to do something about the developer experience so others don't have to suffer similar experiences.

Suggestions to improve the developer experience:

1. Offer a paid support model where we can speak to a human. Your automated systems are not up to scratch and are determinately hurting developers. This can be a win-win .... a better developer experience + more profits for Google as it is a charged service.

2. Don't go to the harshest punishment as a first resort. App suspensions and termination of accounts should be handed out as a last resort - not the first step, especially for accounts which have had years of good standing.

3. Be more open and honest in your communication. Tell developers exactly what the issue is and when they need to resolve it by. These are the notifications I received - https://imgur.com/a/k2kWmJEThey were 2 weeks apart with the Adsense notification stating you cannot "mislead or promote hacking" which is why it was shut down. Now I have never promoted hacking or mislead people and the only logical explanation is it is related to the Admob policy violation. Just say that.

4. When it comes to termination of accounts you need humans to review the cases. You are dealing with people's livelihoods and your automated systems are near useless. A simple ad placement violation has permanently banned my accounts and even after removing ads completely from the offending app - your automated appeal system was unable to recognise that and stood by the permanent ban decision.

5. Bans should not be for all products for life. Please reconsider this approach, adding a navigation bar to a mobile app should not result in someone being unable to monetise free educational content they produce on Youtube.Likewise if I had received a developer account ban, my personal account would have been banned by association removing all access to other apps which use Google SSO. That is also a grossly unfair practice which could be improved upon.

Edit: In summary - Thankyou to the community, it's been a great ride. Google, you're an amazing company, but please improve your developer experience there is a lot left to be desired.

Edit 2: As someone pointed out in a DM my implementation is pretty consistent with this official documentation from google: https://developers.google.com/admob/android/banner/anchored-adaptive

Update 1 (17/07/2023) -- After about 2 months my Admob and Adsense accounts were re-instated by Google. I did not receive any notification or email and stumbled across it by chance when loading the console.

No communication, apology or acknowledgement - but at least I've got my accounts back. After this reddit post went semi viral with 250k views I had a Google employee reach out, plus a few other industry experts who had connections. I'm not sure if they were able to pull some strings behind the scenes to get a human review, or if their automated system decided I was no longer in violation. (As I have been deleting everything I have ever created that makes Google money, as well as removing all of my Google touch points where possible (Google SSO accounts, apps, websites, android phone, Chrome, Google default search, etc).

I'll still keep all of my apps open source for the community, and will look to make the switch to iOS - I'll most likely use something like flutter so I have the option to deploy across both platforms if I change my mind in future.

I wanted to share the rise and fall of my Android wallpaper app, something I built with a lot of hope, only to see it slowly die due to poor decisions.

I launched the app back in 2017. It featured specially edited wallpapers with a unique design style that stood out from the typical wallpaper apps. Users really liked it. Within six months, it hit 50k downloads, and by the end of the first year, it crossed 100k. It had a solid 4.7 rating and was earning about $1000 a month through banner and interstitial ads.

But then I started making mistakes.

I got greedy with ads First interstitials, then rewarded video ads. I basically bombarded users with them. On top of that, I never really invested in the app’s technical side. The performance wasn’t great, and I didn’t put in the effort to improve it. I was young and lacked business experience, so I didn’t see the long-term consequences of ignoring user experience and app quality.

Eventually, users got fed up. Uninstalls increased, ratings dropped, and the revenue fell to zero.

Looking back, I learned a lot: don’t sacrifice user experience for short-term gains, and never stop investing in the quality of your product. If you’re seeing early success with your app, don’t take it for granted.

Edit: Thanks for the support, I will share a new post explaining how my app was and is still running with 0$ bills.

Today I got a review with 5 stars. Being grateful for the 5-star rating and donation request, the reason I appreciate this is because their reason is exactly why I made the app. I had a similar experience, and I thought the app would be beneficial to many. And now and again I get these kinds of review, which I geniunely appreciate knowing actual people are enjoying my work. Just wanted to share this as a great experience I had. Have a good day!

So after submitting a small update to my app tonight (Sync for reddit) my app has been suspended for violating the hate speech terms.

Once again I'm totally confused by the Google play review team. Sync has been going for 6+ years now and it still manages to get flagged for issues every other month during routine updates....

Has anyone else faced a similar issue? With the lack of details from Google I'm stumped on what to do next...

Cheers,

Laurence

Hi Developers at Red Apps LTD,

After review, Sync for reddit (Dev), com.laurencedawson.reddit_sync.dev, has been suspended and removed from Google Play as a policy strike because it violates the hate speech policy.

Next Steps

Read through the Hate Speech policy for more details and examples of policy violations. Make sure your app is compliant with all policies listed in the Developer Program Policies. Remember additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy issues with your apps. If it’s possible to bring your app into compliance, you can sign in to your Play Console and submit the policy compliant app using a new package name and a new app name. Additional suspensions of any nature may result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and/or the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and transaction fees) from you.

If you’ve reviewed the policy and feel this suspension may have been in error, please reach out to our policy support team. One of my colleagues will get back to you within 2 business days.

Regards,

The Google Play Review Team

Rest in peace my karma.

OK guys. I'm watching /r/androiddev for a 3 years now. People became so toxic to each other here. Most of you just brag about is how your new architecture is superior than MVP or MVVM and that's ok. But don't be bullish about it! People are afraid to ask questions here anymore cause some smartass android dev bully will try to show off how alpha he is and how beta is OP. I loved this sub but it's ridiculous how angry most of you became. Also please stop posting shit like "Are you still using MVP? You are so 2016". What does it even mean? Is this a fashion show? Should everyone change their architectural pattern every year? The answer is no. Everyone can use pattern of their liking. Look at /r/iOSProgramming sub. Questions asked there are about real life programming problems not about how clean their pattern is! Android development is a mess and we all know about it. Please stop making it even shittier with toxic and dick size contest community.

one last demo i made for the Android Shaders library, feel free to contribute if you feel like it

https://github.com/mejdi14/Shader-Ripple-Effect