Google just terminated my Google Play Developer account forever
Are you an Android app developer or want to be one? Read this story, it might be helpful in the future.
Did Google’s AI ban your developer account forever, in fact killing your business, passion or hobby? I know that dead sadness, because mine has been terminated as well.
Hello, I’m Mattia D’Alleva. I’m an indie Android app developer, known under the nickname “AntaresOne” for my contributions to the Android open-source community in the figure of Recognized Developer on XDA-Developers.com and formerly as Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505’s CyanogenMod official maintainer.
My journey as Android developer started in 2013 when I got my first mid-tier Android device, I had a lot of fun developing custom ROMs and framework modifications for it, in fact Android OS became my biggest passion. In 2015 I have opened my Google Play Developer account in order to start publishing utility apps. One of these, Quick Reboot, performed very well for 3 years becoming very popular and almost reaching 1 million downloads without advertising.
I have invested years improving my apps, development flow, UI & UX design capabilities and was so happy with the results achieved. Very happy, till 16th July 2019 when, like a bolt from the blue, I have received this e-mail from the Google Play Support team:
A lifetime ban from Google Play. I literally saw my professional career as Android developer fade out forever, then while trying to recover from the initial shock I decided to take action and try to understand what exactly happened.
Reason for termination of my developer account
Let’s take a few steps back and talk about Google Play Services, the framework preinstalled on every Android CTS certified device. Normally, you can’t see it on the Play Store without following a specific URL, therefore many Android developers published on the store little tools in order to follow such URL at the touch of a button and open it directly on the device’s Play Store. A simple click here will let you see that there is a ton of similar or almost identical apps.
While working hard to improve my UX design capabilities, I came up with the idea to develop and publish an app similar to these above with improved UI, that’s how “Play Services update, install & info” (package ID eu.antaresone.pschecker, here a cached copy on APKPure) came to light. One day I was going to update it and after I have uploaded an updated APK, some time later I received an e-mail from Google Play with this content:
I have read carefully the Developer Program Policies again and found that probably I needed to state in the app’s description that the app was not Play Services neither was affiliated with Google LLC which, in fact, is what I did later before trying to update the app again. This step leaded me to receive another e-mail with this content:
After some investigation I discovered that apps cannot contain links to other services such as APK Mirror and, in fact, my app had a button to view Play Services’ APK Mirror page. Got the strike and learned the lesson.
Some time later, I have modified this app in order to comply with Developer Distribution Agreement. New icon, UI, removed APK Mirror button, new package ID and published it under the name “PS repair, update & install now” (package ID eu.antaresone.psmanager, here a cached copy on APKPure). Google accepted it and has been alive on the Play Store for some time: I needed to do a description update and after sending it, I have got an e-mail containing this text:
Hi Developers at AntaresOne,
After review, PS repair, update & install now, eu.antaresone.psmanager, has been suspended and removed from Google Play as a policy strike because it violates the impersonation policy.
The app was banned again for violation of impersonation policy. The description of my app on the store still clearly stated:
Notice
Play Services Manager is not affiliated with Google LLC.
All product names and logos, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names and logos used in this app are for identification purposes only.
but apparently this was not enough. Maybe the app’s icon, as you can see from the cached copy on APKPure, was too similar to Play Services’ one?
I can state that, based on my experience and the one of many other developers on the net, it’s impossible to talk with a human from the Google Play Developer support. Every time you ask what’s wrong with your app or account, all you get is a templated e-mail with generic information about your violation.
Now, if I have read carefully the Developer Distribution Agreement once more, how do they pretend I comply with such agreement when I still don’t know what’s specifically wrong with my app?
Time to move on and make a new app icon. I came up with this:
Then, the same story as before: UI modifications, new package ID and so on. Published for the third time, now as “Play Services update, install and info” (package ID eu.antaresone.playservicesmanager, here a cached copy on APKPure). This time all seemed good, some months have passed and the app was performing very well on the store. Please note that the “Play Services Manager is not affiliated with Google LLC. […]” statement was still in the app’ store description.
I woke up on 1st July 2019 with this e-mail in my inbox:
Hi Developers at AntaresOne,
After a recent review, we’ve found an issue with your app, Play Services update, install and info (eu.antaresone.playservicesmanager). See below for more information about your app’s status and how to correct the issue.
Publishing status: Suspended
After review, your app has been suspended and removed due to a policy violation.
Violation of Impersonation policy
We don’t allow apps that use another app or entity’s brand, title, logo, or name in a manner that may result in misleading users.
Issue with your app
We were unable to verify your ownership or permission to use certain images or text included in your app’s store listing (e.g. app title, icon, and/or developer name).
What? Another strike for violation of impersonation policy and they were unable to verify my ownership or permission to use certain images or text in my app’ store listing? Nobody contacted me about, nobody told me I probably needed to make modifications to my app’s description, neither a Google bot.
At this time I gave up on the idea of having that app live on the Play Store and moved on. Didn’t touch anything on my Developer Console for two weeks, just to wake up on 16th July 2019 with the famous e-mail, also readable in the opening of this article, saying that my developer account was terminated forever.
The first thing I did was to fill out the form to try to recover my account, only to receive an e-mail, probably from another bot, starting with this text:
Hi Mattia,
Thanks for contacting the Google Play Team.
After reviewing your appeal, we have confirmed our initial decision and will not be able to reinstate your developer account.
Your Google Play Developer account has been terminated due to multiple policy violations
Now, if I understand correctly, Google closes your account forever if you have the misfortune to have apps suspended at least 3 times by them with serious impact on your professional app developer career.
Nobody warned me about what was wrong with my apps. If I was notified by someone or something at Google, I would have certainly corrected the possible mistakes I did and stop doing the same. In fact, today I’m still asking myself what I did wrong.
“Don’t be evil”
Google’s journey started with the 3 words above. We are humans and everybody knows humans can commit mistakes. These allow us to make experience in order to not commit the same mistake ever again.
Banning a developer forever, in my opinion, is being evil. We are not murderers and as human beings need to make our own experience on the road of life. Being banned for life to publish on the biggest mobile store ever doesn’t sound that funny. Google is treating our mistakes as irreversible.
An automated system controls and handles apps publishing, they go under bot inspection after they are published. If your app is suspended three times, your developer account is terminated forever because you will not be allowed to register one ever again and so neither your relatives, friends, brothers and sisters because these other accounts will be treated as if they are connected to you and will be banned straight away without prior notice.
We are lost without a phone number to call, no e-mail address to contact, all we have is a complain form, completely shrouded in fog, to object against account termination which in fact leads to a probably templated e-mail saying that your account will never be reinstated.
When you are kicked out of Google Play Store as a developer, you will not find the same alternatives to distribute your apps because the Play Store is preinstalled on every Android-certified device as the default app store. The majority of users are tied to it in order to install apps and neither know about the existence of other stores. The other app stores don’t have an equal chance to be true competitors.
In my honest opinion, developers should be given the opportunity to talk with human beings from the Google Play team and not dealing with banhammer-powered unethical bots. Developers issues should be sorted out with human-to-human communications treating any case as unique. Being banned for life without even having the right to know the specific reasons, therefore without having a way to remedy at your own “irreversible” mistakes because nobody will tell you what is exactly happening it’s unacceptable.
Android developers, be careful: your developer career might be compromised forever and if Android development is your job and represents your income you might have to look for another job, or even worst: imagine you manage app release process of your start-up, company or just doing it for your customer(s), these accounts might be at risk of ban as well because of being treated as associated to you.
