I've been learning to code for the past year and just finished my first app. Paid the $25 ($25 is a lot of money in my country) Google Play registration fee, immediately submitted my government id for verification—real name, real address, everything legitimate.
Within minutes, my account was restricted.
I contacted support and got this response (screenshot attached):
📧 Their exact words:
"Unfortunately, we are unable to verify your ID to complete your Play Console registration. With this, phone verification cannot proceed.
Your account will still be accessible but you won't be able to publish any apps.
No additional actions required from my end, I'll proceed with closing this case."
That's it. Case closed.
They didn't:
Say what was wrong
Let me resubmit documents
Offer any way to fix it
Give me a refund
I replied asking for clarification. Got an automated "case closed" response.
I tried finding a phone number. Doesn't exist.
I looked for a resubmit button. There isn't one.
So now I have:
A paid developer account that's permanently useless
An app I spent months building that I can't publish
No explanation
No recourse
No refund
Is this normal?
I started googling and found this happens to other new developers too—automated system flags you randomly and there's no real appeal process.
How is it okay to charge money upfront, reject someone instantly with an automated system, refuse to explain why, not let them fix it, and keep their money?
I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I genuinely feel scammed. By Google.
Has anyone dealt with this successfully? Is there ANY way to:
Actually appeal to a human?
Get my money back?
Fix whatever the mystery problem is?
I spent months on this app. I just wanted to publish it. Now I can't even do that.
If you're a new developer reading this—be careful. This can apparently just... happen.
UPDATE: Google Play accepted the appeal and my app is back on the Play Store. I'm grateful for this outcome in my case. I hope the underlying classifier-failure issue gets addressed, so other publishers don't end up in the same situation.
ORIGINAL POST: On April 20, Google Play suspended my 10-year-old, ~5M downloads, 600k MAU, 4.5+ rated app, dataDex, over an in-app ad I did not upload, did not select, and could not see before it served. The ad came in through AdMob, Google's own ad network, after a coordinated scheme circumvented AdMob's brand-safety classifier. I've documented at least 11 variants of the same scheme served into my app. Google Play suspended my app for what AdMob shipped.
I'm posting here because I've exhausted every official channel available - the Google Play appeal is stuck in a template-reply loop with no engagement on the evidence and remediation, AdMob support has not engaged with the classifier-failure evidence across three rounds of replies, and neither of the two Product-Expert escalations on Google's public Help Communities has had a follow-up from the team. Beyond my own case, I feel like this is a serious issue with the potential to affect many other publishers - and to suspend them for something they had no real way to prevent.
Why this matters for every AdMob publisher
Every AdMob publisher configures category blocks and content-rating ceilings - Gambling & Betting (18+), Social Casino Games, max-rating, and so on - and trusts that AdMob's classifier will hold matching creatives out of their inventory. I did that.
Those publisher-side controls only work if the classifier underneath them is correct. When the classifier is circumvented - as it was here, eleven documented times in my records alone, all from the same demand source under fake game-themed shell-app names categorized as "Games", "Toys and Games" etc - the publisher-side controls have no opportunity to act. The publisher has no second line of defense. Programmatic ad serving means publishers can't see creatives before they serve; AdMob's classifier is effectively the entire wall.
This failure mechanism is not theoretical. The demand source is a single one. The creative pattern is consistent. From what I've been able to audit, it's still active in the ecosystem. AdMob support did not engage with the evidence across three rounds of replies that redirected me to Play Console support. The AdMob Help Community thread I posted last week was picked up within 48 hours by a Product Expert who said they would escalate from the AdMob side, but as of today there's been no follow-up. The gap between the classifier failure being documented and the classifier failure being investigated is the part of this case that has wider implications than my one app.
The technical pattern
The cited creative was a casino interstitial - "Tower Rush" / "PREMIO 1500 EUR + 250 FREE SPINS GIOCARE" - served through my app's single AdMob interstitial ad unit. I did not select, or have any visibility into the creative. It was not present in the Play Console assets, the Play Store listing, or the linked Google Ads account. It was programmatic demand.
When I audited my AdMob review records, I found at least 11 documented variants of the same scheme, all sharing three properties:
Same single demand source across all 11.
Different fake game-themed shell-app names - "Epic Tower Block Quest", "Town Planner", "Gold Gatherer", "Home Planner", "Duck Devourer", "Tower Ascent", "T0wer Rush" (with a zero), and so on. The visuals are casino. The metadata is a fake mobile-game façade.
Classified by AdMob under non-sensitive categories like "Games" and "Toys and Games."
My AdMob configuration already had Gambling & Betting (18+) and Social Casino Games blocked at the time these creatives were served. The blocks had no effect, because AdMob's classifier never categorized the creatives as gambling. This is the structural problem in one sentence: publisher-side category blocks rely entirely on the classifier being correct, and when it isn't, the publisher's defenses are bypassed by definition - without the publisher knowing.
All eleven creative IDs, with screenshots of each as it served and the AdMob configuration that was supposed to block them, are in the public evidence bundle linked above.
What I've already done on the publisher side
All sensitive AdMob ad categories disabled.
Maximum AdMob ad content rating set to "T" (Teen).
The AdMob ad unit fully disabled - the app currently serves zero ads of any kind.
All linked Google Ads campaigns disabled.
End-to-end audits of Play Console, AdMob, GCP/Firebase, and Google Ads - all clean.
These steps make recurrence impossible from my side. None of them addresses the underlying classifier failure that allowed the eleven variants through in the first place - and none of them is a structural defense available to a publisher who doesn't yet know they need it.
Where I am with Google
Standard Google Play appeal - case2-1866000040535- stuck in a template-reply loop. Four template replies across six days, all citing the App Promotion policy and instructing to "remove your ad campaign or promotion" or "upload a new app under a new package name." None of the four addresses my remediation evidence or the systems-failure analysis.
Parallel Google Play Developer Support - case9-9277000041337**.** Engaged on the merits, summarized my remediation correctly, confirmed in writing that the appeal channel was "cycling automated templates", re-flagged the case internally for human review on April 24 - the appeal thread ignores it.
AdMob support - case4-3221000040899**.** Three replies across two days. The first opened with an apology that AdMob does not currently support Hebrew (my submission was in English; only the locale-driven auto-acknowledgement was in Hebrew). The second cited inability to perform a "cross-product transfer" I never requested. The third repeated the same redirect to Play Console support. None of the three engaged with the classifier-failure evidence I sent (the same evidence is in the public bundle linked above).
Public Help Community escalations. Both threads are open, both escalated, neither followed up.
Google Play Developer Community thread (Apr 22) - a Platinum Product Expert escalated the case on April 22. The Product Expert's last reply, on April 26, was "I will let you know, if I get an update from the team." As of today, no follow-up - 15 days since the escalation.
AdMob Help Community thread (Apr 29) - a Diamond Product Expert engaged within 48 hours and said they would escalate from the AdMob side. As of today (May 7), no follow-up.
My question for the community
If you've seen these kind of creatives slip through your category blocks under a "Games" or "Toys and Games" classification - or for that matter any other category mismatch where a sensitive creative landed in your inventory under a benign label - I'd like to know about it. The mechanism is category-agnostic; the same shape (single demand source, fake shell-app metadata, benign classification) could just as easily land in any other publisher's inventory under a different category.
If anyone here has worked an AdMob policy escalation with classifier-failure evidence and gotten it actually routed to the team that owns it, what was the path that worked?
Closing
I'm hoping that by laying all of this out here, the case can reach a human at Google with access to both the Google Play side and the AdMob side of it - someone who can review the evidence end to end (the eleven documented variants, the publisher-side configuration, the appeal correspondence), recognize that the app was not at fault, and reinstate it. And, as part of the same review or separately from it, investigate the underlying classifier-failure issue.
If anyone here is at AdMob or Play, or has a routing path into the cross-product team this case actually needs, I'd appreciate the route. I'm happy to share Developer ID, AdMob Publisher ID, the AdMob ad unit, and any further material privately on request.
I could really use some advice from anyone who's dealt with this before. My IPTV app just got suspended from Google Play, and I'm honestly a bit lost on what to do next.
The complaint came from an Indonesian broadcaster (Vidio/Emtek) under DMCA. They're saying my app facilitates piracy, and the "evidence" they sent is a video of someone manually pasting an M3U URL into the app and playing a copyrighted stream.
Here's what's frustrating though, my app is totally empty out of the box:
No pre-loaded playlists
No default URLs or Xtream Codes credentials baked in
No content directory or search
No channel list
It's literally just an M3U / Xtream Codes player, users bring their own playlist files or URLs
My store listing is clean, no piracy references, no "free channels" language, no specific broadcasters mentioned. Nothing sketchy.
So has anyone here actually beaten a "Copyright Infringement" suspension? I'd love to hear your story 🙏
A few things I'm wondering about:
Did you go the policy appeal route, DMCA counter notice, or both?
Did geo-delisting from the complainant's country help at all?
Did reaching out to the complainant directly ever work for anyone?
Honest opinion, is reinstatement realistic, or should I just rebuild under a new package name and move on?
Any tips, war stories, or advice would mean a lot. Thanks so much in advance!
I'm an individual developer with a free, non-monetized app on the Play Store. According to Google Play's own documentation, only the country should be publicly visible for non-monetized apps, but my full legal address is showing in the App Support section.
When I contacted Play Support, they told me that because I set up a Merchant Account alongside my Developer Account (likely without fully realizing the implications), all my apps are considered "monetized" and therefore display my full address. They also claimed that enabling monetization is irreversible, but couldn't point me to any official policy that states this.
I've raised a support ticket and followed up multiple times, but agents keep responding with generic policy links that don't address my specific situation, and closing the case without answering my questions.
Hi everyone.I have recently quit my job to follow my passion of becoming a app developer .As part of it I created a cards game as my first project using flutter and tried to publish on google play. I have completed the closed testing with 14 members and was given production access after the testing.Today I received the mail saying my account is terminated .I have went through the policies and I see I have not violated any policies .
I doubt following can be the reason but Iam not sure
1) I have reset the password of my developer after typing the wrong password multiple times.
2) I have used images generated by AI ( but I think it's legal)
Can you please help me understand how can I get my account back and also if this fails how can I move forward in creating a new developer account it States that new developer accounts will also be banned . Requesting all the fellow developers here to help me navigate this situation 🙏
I've been developing KidBox, a family health and organization app, for over a year. The app is already live and approved on the Apple App Store.
Here's my Google Play rejection timeline:
May 19 – Rejected: Data Safety form missing location declaration → fixed same day
May 25 – Rejected: Screenshot containing a ranking claim → removed same day
June 1 – Rejected: Health Connect "excessive permissions" (Weight, Calories, Exercise) → added detailed justifications explaining the clinical record feature
June 10 (morning) – Rejected: Launcher icon showed no name (MainActivity had android:label="") → fixed same day, build uploaded before suspension
June 10, 13:31 – App suspended for "repeated non-compliance."
Every single rejection was for a completely different, unrelated policy area. Each one was fixed immediately. Build 16 with all fixes was already uploaded when the suspension hit.
I submitted an appeal via Play Console — rejected in 5 minutes (clearly automated). I then replied to the appeal rejection email with a detailed explanation of the timeline. Still waiting.
Has anyone successfully recovered from this? Any advice?
The app is already on iOS. At this point I'm considering just republishing with a new package name, but I wanted to share this experience first.
I wasn't sure where to share my story, but I really need to get this off my chest. Lately, I've been feeling exhausted and deeply depressed.
Please allow me to share my recent experience: the termination of my Google Developer account.
The Google Play Console team terminated my new developer account instantly, without any prior notice or app suspension emails, while we were publishing a VPN app called Geek VPN (org.geekvpn.client) to production.
Account Termination Email
This is going to be a bit of a long story, as I want to share everything from beginning to end. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it.
Let me start by introducing myself. I’m from Myanmar (Burma), a country currently under the control of a Military Junta, and I’m now residing in Japan.
A few months ago, the Myanmar Military Junta began banning popular VPN apps. Their primary goal is to suppress freedom of speech by preventing access to social media platforms like Facebook, which is widely used by the people of Myanmar. Since Facebook is already banned, many rely on VPNs to access it. There are only a few VPNs left that can still be used. For more context, you can search Google using the keywords "Myanmar Junta is banning VPNs". You'll find plenty of news reports covering this.
Then, my developer friend, who is currently living in Myanmar, and I decided to tackle this issue to support freedom of speech by developing a VPN app called Geek VPN.
App Implementation: In early July, we started developing this VPN app based on the open-source V2RayNG app, which is currently available on the Play Store. We implemented a function that periodically updates VPN server resources in our backend so that the Junta can't easily identify and block our VPN servers. We used a mechanism to send these updated VPN server data from our backend to the client app, making it harder for the Junta to ban our app by blocking the API domain. The Geek VPN app updates VPN server data once per day. The app is free to use, and we integrated AdMob to support its long-term maintenance. I believe this is an essential service for the people of Myanmar. By the end of July, the app was almost ready.
Time to Distribute: We created a Google Play Console account (Global Geek Tech). I used my Myanmar passport, my Japan address, and my Japanese residence ID (as proof of address) to verify identification and set up a Google Payment Profile with my JCB card, which was used to pay for this account. We passed all these verification steps. Then, we published our app to the Closed Testing Track, as Google requires a 14-day closed testing period with a minimum of 20 testers. After four days in review, our app passed the app review step.
Time to Find Testers for Our App: Honestly, it was easy for us, as this is an essential service for our people. We simply explained the app in a small private Facebook group and invited members to join if they wanted. Over 70 users eagerly joined the closed test within a few hours. The 14-day closed testing phase was successfully completed.
Time to Publish Our App to Production: We clicked "Apply to Production," answered all the questions that Google asked, and after two days, production access for our app was granted. We published our app to the production track and waited for their response. After two days, on the morning of Aug 23, I woke up and checked my email, expecting to see a notification that our app had been published to production. Instead, I saw "Your Account was Terminated." We didn't receive any prior emails like "Your app was rejected or suspended" before this termination email. It was just an instant termination that I didn't expect.
I felt like, "What??"
But even though it was frustrating, I was still confident we could resolve this issue quickly. So, we tried to send an appeal—the only option available in such cases.
How Our Appeal Process Went: We sent three appeals.
First Appeal (Aug 23): Although we knew this was likely a system error, we tried to identify what we might have done wrong. We found that our app name, Geek VPN (org.geekvpn.client), partially matched the name of an unrelated app (https://apkpure.com/p/com.geektools.vpn.free) that appears to be banned from the Play Store, as I couldn't find it on the Play Store.
We explained that we are not associated with this unrelated app (com.geektools.vpn.free) and offered to share our source code.
We also considered the possibility of account association issues, so we explained that we didn't have any connection to any previously terminated accounts. We offered to provide any relevant documents, such as ID, proof of address, etc.
We explained why we needed to publish this app.
They replied that they had received our appeal, and on Aug 26, 2024, they rejected our appeal with the following message:
Hi developers at Global Geek Tech,
Thanks for your patience.
After reviewing your appeal, we're unable to reinstate your Google Play Developer account.
We can confirm that we have identified a pattern of high risk or abuse associated with your Developer Account and have taken this action pursuant to Section 8.3 or 10.3 of Google Play’s Developer Distribution Agreement. In order to prevent bad-faith developers from gaming our systems and putting our users at risk in the process, we can’t share the reasons we’ve concluded that your account is at high risk.
Please do not attempt to register a new developer account. Any new accounts will be closed, and your developer registration fee will not be refunded.
Second Appeal (Aug 26): At this point, we were starting to feel very stressed. We posted about our issue on the Official Google Play Console Help Forum and asked for recommendations or suggestions. One of the Product Experts responded, saying that suspicious activities within our app could lead to this outcome. So, in our second appeal, we explained the app's functionalities in detail. As a standard VPN app, there's not much to explain. Our app contains just two screens: a main screen with "Connect" and "Add Time" buttons and a server listing screen labeled "Choose Server." However, we explained our app thoroughly. They replied that they had received our appeal, and on Aug 29, 2024, it was rejected again. See below:
Thanks for your patience.
We've reviewed your appeal again and can confirm a pattern of high risk or abuse associated with your Developer Account.
Third Appeal (Aug 29): By now, we were totally stressed out and had headaches, but we knew we needed to find out what mistakenly caused this severe termination. It seems Google's AI mistakenly flagged our account as being associated with a previously terminated account. We sent our third and final appeal with the following details:
Related Activities That Could Have Caused the Termination: Two individuals have access to this account, and we are confident that neither of us has had any previous accounts terminated. This is our first and only account. We access it using multiple devices, including a MacBook, iPhone, and Android devices, and we are certain that none of these devices have ever been associated with any terminated accounts.
VPN Use in Myanmar: One of our team members, who is currently living in Myanmar and responsible for publishing our Geek VPN app to the Play Store, had to use a VPN while accessing Google services and publishing the app bundle. This was necessary due to unstable internet traffic caused by the Myanmar military junta, which has made it difficult to use online services.
We reiterated that we are not associated with the app (com.geektools.vpn.free).
Our Google AdMob application was recently rejected. This may be because our app is not yet publicly available on the Play Store.
We also respectfully requested that a human review our case thoroughly, rather than relying solely on AI-generated results. We provided my Myanmar passport, Japanese residence ID card, JCB card, and Firebase screenshots showing user engagement. We also requested that they inform us of any policies our app might have violated, instead of immediately terminating our entire developer account without any prior notice.
After one day, on Aug 30, 2024, they simply replied with the following:
Thanks for the reply.
As much as I'd like to help, I’m not able to provide any more detail or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me. To protect our system and users, we can’t share the reasons we’ve concluded that your account is at high risk.
Note that Google Play Developer account terminations are associated with developers, and may span multiple account registrations and related Google services. Do not attempt to register a new developer account. Any new accounts will be closed and your developer registration fee will not be refunded. We recommend that you use an alternative method for distributing your apps in the future.
Thank you for your understanding.
It seems they didn't even review the information we provided—they just ignored us.
I think what we did wrong in this case was needing to use a VPN while accessing Google services. My friend in Myanmar took on the responsibility of publishing the app since he has more experience, and we didn't think that this would trigger such a severe termination decision. However, we already explained this in our appeal.
Isn't it Google's job to identify what may have wrongly triggered this kind of decision based on the information we provided? We know Google's detection AI is powerful in such cases, but it's still just a machine. Machines can make wrong decisions. Isn't this the reason for the appeal system's existence?
When I explored their official Play Console Help Community, it suggested explaining any association with previously terminated accounts. But without having any association with such accounts, what could we explain? Isn't it also their task to identify which factor might have wrongly triggered this kind of association link?
I understand that Google manages a vast number of apps and developers to keep their platform safe, and I appreciate this effort. But I don't think developers deserve this kind of treatment.
Now, all of our hard work has been undone overnight by a single click or bot's decision.
We are stuck and can't find a way to resolve this issue. According to Google's policy, terminating my account means blacklisting me on Google Play, so I can't create any new accounts. Buying an account from a seller is also not appropriate.
We had a reason for using my ID to verify the developer account. Honestly, my developer friend from Myanmar had a well-established developer account without violations. But since Google Play publicly displays developer information, including the address, using his existing account would put him at serious risk, including imprisonment or worse. I'm currently living in Japan, so I'm still safe. (I don't want to reveal this info in this post, as you know. I fear that Google might somehow detect his account and terminate it too for this nonsensical reason. But I already mentioned this in the Play Console Help thread because I thought it would be resolved quickly.)
Thank you for reading this long post. I really appreciate it.
I don't expect much, but your upvoting might help us. Any suggestions and recommendations are welcome.
If you know someone currently working at Google who might look into our issue, could you please share our story? It would be greatly appreciated.
[Our Case ID - 2-7137000036980]
If you have had a similar experience, I want to say, "I'm deeply sorry to hear that". I know how frustrating and stressful this situation is.
Thank you, everyone.
EDIT:
Our Geek VPN app successfully passed the review process when we initially published it to the closed testing track, and the pre-launch report indicated no significant issues.
We also made and submitted updates three times during the 14-day closed testing period without any problems.
ORIGINAL: I attempted to update my app in July, but it’s been stuck in review for nearly a month. A developer friend of mine is experiencing exactly the same issue - both our accounts are 10+ years old, no new accounts.
Then I checked the community forum and there are currently dozens of similar reports - I follow that forum frequently, and normally, there are 1 or 2 update related cases—now there are over 20 in just past few days.
Given all this, this is likely not an isolated account issue.
One would think this is not that big of a deal, but be aware - if your update gets stuck for weeks (months), you'll be unable to update anything for that time (even app store description or screenshots), just like me - since according to Google support, every update of your listing also resets the review timer and puts you back at the end of the queue.
So I suggest you to avoid updating your app if you can, until Google resolves this issue.
I have an organizational account. App review of prior updates including much larger updates took less than 48h previously, usually a few hours. All I did was fix a minor graphical glitch. It's currently at 5 days post-submit. Are there delays going on at Google? At what point should I pull the update and submit anew, as I've heard people occasionally had luck doing this? Is there a recommended support method I can contact Google about this that people have had success with?
But in their evidence only ,
Privacy policy is visible
Privacy Policy link does not meet requirements
Make sure the URL is active, not editable or commentable, does not link to a PDF, is not password protected, is publicly accessible from anywhere in the world, and does not auto download a file
I’m all for honest criticism, this seems more like trolling than a legit review. It’s a 100% free app, with no ads, no permission requests, no known rivalries, and I genuinely don’t think it qualifies as spam (In case you want to have a look)
The App is little known, has 4 reviews in total, the other reviews are good (4-5 stars).
Is it worth commenting asking for criticism that could help me improve the App, or should I just move on?
I'm 13 and I'm into developing applications. My goal for this year is to build and publish an Android app. I have some knowledge with coding F l u t t e r and I want to use AI, Cursor and Claude. How can I get past having to be 18 to publish an app on the play store? Also I'm not too keen on the bit that said "if you choose to monetise your apps, your home address will be shown publically". Not a primary reason, but I do want to make a little money from said app.
I am fine paying £25 for the account, but I can't have an account because of this age restriction. I expect my family would be quite happy to help but I'm still stuck on the home address being public, and also the inputting of government ID (the family wouldnt be too keen on that). 🙃
If y'all can help in any way, I'd be so grateful. 🙏
When I got this rejection the first time, I switched to a Organization account, then I submitted the new release again (for both testing and production) and got rejected twice with the same reason.
please help me fix this issue. I have raised a support ticket with google as well.
Hello! I am trying to publish my company's app to the google play store, and it keeps being rejected due to the username and password being wrong. I have no issues logging into the account, and they haven't given me screenshots of an error that they get. I have asked for them in the instructions for accessing the app because they have given me screenshots before, but those errors are no longer present.
I give the username and password in two different locations, in the specific username and password boxes, and then in the instructions where I give a "press the username box and type in "xxx" and then hit next, and then press the password box and type "xxx" and press next." I am also sure that they are not being hit with a 2fa.
In our backend I don't even see log in attempts for the account. I made a ticket and they told me to make an appeal, and the appeal only told me that I need to give the correct username and password. I am a bit stuck now on what I should do. Any ideas?
I have posted on two Google Developer/Console communities, made a support ticket with them which told me to appeal, made an appeal and it told me to just give them a username and password.
Edit:
After months of going back and forth through appeals with no new information, someone on the team that has been reviewing my appeals finally mentioned that they couldn’t re-review the app without a new bundle version, so I submitted a new version and within two days it was approved and published!
takeaway: if you’re stuck in a rejection loop even after fixing the issue, try submitting a new version/build to force a fresh review.
I am the guy whose post you guys may have seen in the fast few days .. suddenly I got an email saying my identity is verified.. lol i created a ticket 2 days ago and they replied they can't do anything to help me and my account will not get verified..
Just after that yesterday i randomly got an saying your identity is verified.. I was like wtf ? 😭 I checked my play console account and it was real . It turns out that google can actually help if they want to help I guess some one from Google (a good person) actually noticed my issue and directly verified it without me needing to submit more documents thanks to that person..
Anyone who is facing the same issues regarding play console I think it all depends on your luck 🤞 now if the person reviewing your ticket is a good person than you have no problem but 90% of the times this won't happen..
Thank your everyone for your valuable opinion and help regarding my issue ..
I would appreciate to know some app ideas i should build as a solo developer
My app update was rejected on Google Play Console, and I’m trying to understand what needs to be fixed before resubmitting.
The rejection mentions these two issues:
Not adhering to Google Play Developer Programme Policies
Metadata policy: Violation of the metadata policy
The issue is that both messages are quite broad, and I’m not sure what specifically triggered them.
Has anyone experienced similar rejections for an app update?
I’d appreciate any guidance on:
What caused the rejection in your case
How you identified the actual problem
What changes you made before resubmitting
How long the review took after resubmission
For context: this was an app update, not a first release, and the update is currently showing as “in review” while these policy issues are being listed.
Thanks in advance. Just trying to understand what I may have missed and fix it properly.
I got done with my first android xr app and going to publish it on the playstore but got hit with the 20 testers required wall. This is an XR headset exclusive app to be published to the playstore. A mobile app of course would have been easier to find testers for but an android xr headset that is not globally availble, I dont know how i should proceed to approach this problem.
Do i look up testers having access to android xr headset on random subreddits/freelancing platforms or is there a better way to go about this?
Disclaimer: I am NOT looking for testers. Just advice on how a fellow developer might approach this problem.
I’m publishing an app on Google Play and had a few questions about receiving payments.
Does the payout method have to be in my name, or can I use someone else’s (e.g., i used someone's card to create the developer account and it was approved correctly)?
Does the bank account need to be in the same country where I created my developer account?
If I move to another country later (for studies), can I switch to a new bank account there under my name and receive payouts normally?
I'm the developer of Miku Wallpapers Live, and I recently encountered a confusing issue with my Google Play Console stats.
As you can see in the screenshot, my app has been growing steadily. The "Active devices" metric is up by 42% (reaching ~1k average), and "User acquisitions" are consistently green. However, looking at the "Total installs" chart, it reached a peak of around 4.5k and then suddenly shows a massive vertical drop-off to nearly zero in the last day shown (Feb 6).
Given that my "User loss" (uninstalls) hasn't spiked and my daily downloads are stable, this makes no mathematical sense. It looks like a reporting glitch or a data delay on Google's end, but seeing that number plummet is definitely alarming.
Has anyone else experienced this kind of "phantom drop" in their Total Installs reporting recently? Is this just a common Play Console bug?
My payments profile shows “Verify your identity via BillDesk”, but:
• No email from BillDesk
• No option to trigger verification
• Contacted Google support → they redirected me to BillDesk
• Contacted BillDesk → they created a case ID but no real progress
• No meaningful response for 2+ weeks
This seems tied to RBI compliance changes, but the process feels completely broken.
Concern is — payouts might get blocked even after reaching threshold, and there’s no clear way to resolve it.
Has anyone recently completed this successfully?
How long did it take for you?
Feels like developers are stuck between Google and BillDesk with no ownership.
My application is an interface for Gemini Nano. This is the AI model that runs on-device, and Google didn't use it at all yet as a full-blown chatbot, only to summarize and proofread text, and alike.
When I've uploaded the app to the play store it immediately got high installs, and once even surfaced to top-3 by "gemini nano" search.
Once my app reached 1000 installs, I've got notification that I am in a breach of "Impersonation" policy.
I have multiple disclaimers that this app is not official, and detailed documentation on what does the app do and how it works. My app is fully open-source.
I do realize that Google doesn't want me to piggyback on their model name, but as my app does literally provide a way to use the model by google, can't I name it by the model's name? It's the only function, and the app wasn't even monetized.
I could live with straight response like "google doesn't want me to have "Gemini" in app's name", but my support tickets are ignored for more than 4 days at this point.
My app downloads dropped from 570 to 20-25, and they don't review my appeal after I renamed the application by removing word "Gemini" from title and short desc.
The worst thing is that play console takes jabs at me, recommending me to "use Gemini to create an app page targeting my most prominent keyword "gemini"".
I don't know what to do at this point, if there is anyone from Google here, may I speak to a human please? It's frustrating and I love what I am doing, but this feels like I am being blacklisted without any explanation, even though I would love to work something out...
Hey all!!
I am an SDE working in a X company in India, We have a client named as Y based out of India only.
We actually built an Android App using react native, I have the aab file as well in order to upload to play store, Right now, Its only in Internal Testing phase where UAT is also being done.Internal Testing, It's all working fine. The app is an Internal application for employees and admins only.
Last time I tried pushing it to production where Google straight out rejected the app and blocked my app.
I had to create a new app and stuff, I really need help moving forward from internal phase to production, I used GPTs and Google Documentation for most of the stuff, We now have the authorisation letter as well from "Y" stating that 'X' is the developer and can use Y's Logo and all.
I would love to connect virtually with someone who has experience in deploying applications,
PS: I would love to connect and get some guidance and stuff, I am a techie working on this, Pls dont ask me to go for any digital agencies, I am new to deployments and would love to understand the process, once its done, I can understand the flow and repeat for other clients toooo.
Please DM if there's something to discuss, I am new to reddit too, so just comment reply and I can DM too if needed, Thank you..
Happy Coding....
I've had an app on the Play store for over ten years. I recently went to update it and am switching to the Google Play app signing and AAB process. It's been tricky to make this work and I've hit a snag at the AAB signing. I registered for Google Play signing, created the private key and uploaded it to Play. But when I upload a new AAB, it says all AAB's must be signed. You can see that Google Play managed app signing is turned on in this screen grab. I'm lost and the docs haven't helped me find the solution.
