Google Removed My App
by Rajat VaghaniI was recently on the receiving end of Google's infamous app removal without any warning.
One fine evening, I got an email saying Snap Search has been suspended indefinitely from the play store and that all led to a spiral of crazy events.
I've written a detailed blog post about what happened here: https://snapsearch.online/general/google-suspended-my-app-without-warning/
Such situations only show how helpless we lot are as Indie Devs. If you're an Android user/developer or not, this is relevant. Please do read if you got the time 🙂
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Not an app developer, but swung by out of interest. Does this have a happy ending?
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Haha, yes, yes it does - thankfully.
After 4 days of trouble and a lot of back and forth, I managed to get it back.
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Maybe your application violates Google Play rules? Or contains a content that violates third-parties trademarks (images, logos, videos, etc). After 2-3 removes Google will suspend the Google Play account.
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They didn't have a problem with the application. It was specifically with the description only.
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Every YouTuber's nightmare (random demonetization)
Mine as well (built entirely on top of Twitter API)
I know you got it back, so that's great, but who's to say it won't happen again over something else?
Stay safe and be extra careful in the future, I wish you only the best.
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Very true. Putting in extra efforts now to make sure all is good, all the time.
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Hey rajat, in your blog page, the header links goes to "#features" instead "/#features"
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Oops. Thank you so much for pointing that out. It's been fixed ✌🏼
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I just experienced the same thing...
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Oops. What had happened?
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Happened to me too several times. New Google Play family policy sucks;/
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I feel the pain 🙌🏼
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This should not be a surprise. Apps that include content that sexualizes minors are subject to immediate removal from the Store. I guess you were not checking legal age upon signup.
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The description was just saying what it does. And inside the app, the ‘sexual content’ was not visible directly. It was hidden well under the parental controls.
And my point isn’t it should’ve been removed. I just wish they’d give a warning and at least let the developer republish, not suspend.
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I agree with what you just said. From Google's standpoint that is however not sustainable with the number of apps going through the review procedure.
Glad you got this sorted out!
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I would agree if they actually employed humans to do the review process, like Apple does. Their bots flag these things automatically.
Yes thank you, I'm happy to come through this with favourable results 😅
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An your site snapsearch.online download links don't work. All are just pointing to "#download-links". (Win10, chrome)
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That should’ve made the site scroll to the download links. Though here is the link to the store for your convenience : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cybersky.snapsearch
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I had an android app removed from the play store because Google decided to restrict a permission (improving security as the reason) that was crucial for my app. Google gave developers some time to make changes to apps but my was going to lose its purpose
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Oops. That's bad.
Did they at least give you a warning before removing or did they remove first and then ask you to fix?
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This comment was deleted 5 years ago.
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Thank you.
And I agree, they've established a monopoly. Android still has the advantage of allowing downloads from external sources and other stores - Apple however is king in its ecosystem.
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