The Absurd (lack of) Support for Android Developers
I want to tell you a story, the story of a company of millennials who worked days and nights for 6 months on their first mobile game.
Today they are risking to shut down the company and lose their jobs, because the app has been removed from Google Play for no reason and without an explanation.
The company is NIGMATICA S.R.L, a little italian startup that is trying to carve out a space in the highly competitive field of mobile gaming.
We worked on our first game from January to June 2020, with a team of 8 under 30 working from home, due to the lockdown caused by the COVID-19.
Our creation’s name is Soccer Quiz, a multiplayer trivia game about soccer where users can compete against each other in different leagues.
We created a new product in a market flooded of clones and fake apps and users really loved it, around 3500 players played more than 200.000 matches in the first week.
We were so proud of our game, but then it happened.
Day 1, August 4
On the morning of August 4 I woke up with the this email in my inbox:
According to Google, our app violated their “Repetitive Content Policy”, we checked that policy, and all other developer policies as well, and we found that our app was actually perfectly compliant, I thought that maybe it was just a mistake by the Google Play’s automated review system, so I wrote to the Google Play Support Team:
Dear Google Play team,
This morning I noticed that our app Soccer Quiz (cat.nigmatica.soccerquiz) has been removed from Google Play without any forewarning.
According to the email you sent me, our app violated the “Repetitive Content policy”, we double checked your policies and I can affirm that our app complies with this and all of your other your policies.
I think this was an error of your automated system, could you check it please ?
Best Regards.
Giuseppe Gullo, CEO & Co-Founder @ NIGMATICA S.R.L
Day 3, August 6
The next day I received this email from the Google Play Team.
It looked like this Eugene was working to solve the problem, fingers crossed !
Day 4, August 7
On August 7 I received a new mail from Eugene, here it is:
He informed me that they accepted the appeal and that I should be able to re-publish the app in the Play Store!
Woah!
I was sure the problem would be easily fixed because I was absolutely sure our app was perfectly compliant.
I tried 3 times that day to do the procedure he suggested, at 8 AM, 2 PM and 8 PM, nothing happened, the app wasn’t still on Google Play.
I wrote to Eugene in the evening to tell him about the app, and also to ask him some clarifications about what actually happened.
Hi Eugene,
thank you for your support, I followed your instructions step by step but the app is still not available on the store, I tried it 3 times in the last 12 hours.
I also have to ask you why this happened and how we can prevent this from happening again in the future, we strictly follow the Developer Program Policies for all of our apps and we can’t lose an app without a reason. We are not a single indie developer, we are a company on which ten people with families depend. Seeing our app removed from the store during a marketing campaign, without being warned, and without even a valid reason, would be a big damage for us.
Thank you again,
Giuseppe
Day 5, August 8
Still nothing from Eugene, at this point, since I’m a very anxious person, I began to worry.
Day 6, August 9
The day of August 9 began with bad news from Google.
Our app has been rejected from Google Play because, according to them, it “simulate gambling”.
They also attached this screenshot to the mail as a “proof” that we simulate gambling in our app:
I don’t know what made them think that our app “simulates gambling”, especially by just looking at that screenshot.
Day 7, August 10
News from Eugene on August 10:
He reaffirmed that our app simulate gambling and we had to change our content rating. We don’t simulate gambling in any way, but since we have salaries to pay and we had to get the app again on the store as soon as possible, I changed the content rating following Eugene’s instruction, then I replied to him:
Hi Eugene,
Thank you for your answer.
I updated our rating questionnaire according to your suggestions, however pay attention that there isn’t any kind of gambling or betting simulation in our game. We use a mechanism of competition where users use our digital currency to compete against each other in our leagues. The same model is used by several other mobile games companies and none of them specified that there is a gambling simulation in their games, because it is not gambling, there is no causality that determines who win a game.
It is really hard to work with Google in this way, I think that someone should actually test the game, as Apple do, instead of just looking at the screenshots, because, as I said, if we were in a marketing campaign this would have been a big damage to our company.
Best regards,
Giuseppe
A doubt came in my mind while writing this email: is Eugene a real person ? I asked several questions but I never received an answer, only generic copy/paste emails.
Day 8, August 11
This has probably been a day that I’ll never forget, as one of the first Android developer in Italy in 2009 I always had a great respect for a company like Google.
I received the following email, in the late evening, just before going to sleep:
Our app has been suspended again, and again with the same initial reason: “copying content from other apps without adding any original content or values”.
Which apps ?
Which contents ?
We didn’t know.
That night I couldn’t sleep.
Day 10, August 13
I received a new email from Eugene during the night:
At this point I was really upset, I just wanted to fix the problem as soon as possible, as the app had been out of store for 10 days.
I asked him if he could help me to understand which contents they think we copied and from which apps:
Hi Eugene,
I thought we already figured out that this “Repetitive Content Violation” was a mistake by your automated system.
If you tested our app and you think we copied content from other apps, could you please tell me what contents we copied and from which apps ?
Our is an original game, with an original gameplay and 10.000 original quizzes, we made everything by ourselves, in 6 months of intense work and with a team of 8 young people that we pay.
We checked the entire Google Play and Apple App Store before we started working on our app and couldn’t find any apps similar to the one we wanted to create
This is an unbelievable behaviour from Google, our app is out of the store for 10 days without a valid reason, and you are not giving us any useful indication on how to solve the problem.
If you can’t help me, please let me talk with someone who can, because we really need to solve this problem as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Giuseppe Gullo, CEO & Co-Founder NIGMATICA S.R.L
Day 11, August 14
I got the answer from Eugene the next day, but it didn’t help at all
So, according to what he wrote, he personally reviewed our app, and he found that it violated the Repetitive Content Policy, but he didn’t want to answer to my questions.
Which contents we copied and from which apps ?
We did everything from ourselves, design, coding and contents, and I can’t still understand what’s the problem.
I tried to explain it in another email:
Hi Eugene,
this is what Google Play policy about “Repetitive Content” says:
- “We don’t allow apps that merely provide the same experience as
other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users
through the creation of unique content or services.”
Our app is the only live multiplayer trivia game about soccer currently
available on Google Play.- “Copying content from other apps without adding any original content
or value.”
We didn’t copy any content from any other apps, our is an original
game we made in 6 months with a team of 8 people, designers and developers.“ Creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content,
and user experience. If these apps are each small in content volume,
developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all
the content.”
We have no other apps with similar functionality to this one.I can’t absolutely understand what is wrong, again, if you can’t help us please let
me talk with someone who can, because if you don’t tell us what the problem is we can’t solve it.
Nothing:
I tried to text him again asking again for more information, but this was the last time I heard from Eugene.
I never heard from Eugene.
Today, August 24
Today, there is still nothing we can do to fix the problem, as we don’t know what it really is about. If we try to re-release the app, Google may delete our developer account.
This was by far the most frustrating experience of my entire life and you probably felt some of my frustration as well reading this story.
This is what we tried so far:
- We opened two more tickets on Google Play Developer Support, we never got an answer.
- We chatted with the Google Play support, the agent told that he opened a case and we will get an answer by email, we never received it.
- We chatted to the Google Play Developer support, the agent just told me: “I can do nothing at all about it”.
- We sent a legal mail to Google Italy, we didn’t get an answer.
We at Nigmatica share the Google’s mission to make Google Play a better marketplace, getting rid of all the clones and fake apps that still flood it, but in this case we are in good standing and, if they think that we are not, we deserve to know why they think so, or we cant’t never and ever solve the problem.
Making an app is a big investement of money and time, and having it removed from the store for no reason, as is happening to us, is something that could discourage anyone from starting to create a new mobile app, so Google, do something and take care of your developers, we are working for the same goal.
Google, do something and take care of your developers, we are working for the same goal.
If you can help us feel free to contact me at giuseppe@nigmatica.it.
