I wrote part 1 about 4 years ago and till date it has garnered some 100k views making it one of the most popular story on Growthbug. I must have received emails from over 100 founders over 4 years asking for help when their apps got banned by Google Play Store. This clearly makes it one of the sought after topics and issue faced by the developers worldwide.

In 4 years, Play Store has updated its developers’ policies several times and as per some rough estimates, over 1mn apps were either blocked from updating, suspended or completely removed from the Play Store.

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There are 3 ways in which Play Store can enforce its policies:

  1. Minor breach: Block further updates to your app till the breach is fixed. Users can still download your existing version so business doesn’t get affected
  2. Serious Breach: Your App is suspended and even the existing version is not visible to users. Once you fix the issues, App is brought back
  3. Severe Breach: Your App is deleted completely and you lose all data. This was recently applied to 1 Indian App

Now let’s look at some Developer Program Policies, you need to adhere to with utmost attention in addition to all the details in Part 1:

  1. Integrate only Certified Ad-networks which complies with Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) especially if your content is targeted to Kids. Any breach of this could be marked as severe
  2. Inappropriate Content: Avoid any form of nudity, Violence, hate speech, inseminating information on illegal activities & so on. Initially it is marked as a minor breach giving developer an opportunity to fix. Repeat non-compliance can be seen as a severe breach
  3. In-App Payments: If you are selling a virtual items within a game, then ONLY Google Play In-App billing has to be used. Even for non-games, any digital upgrade consumed within the same App requires Google Billing (eg. removing Ads)
  4. Declare odds of winning a lucky draw: In a new rule, Google now wants developers to clearly mention the odd of winning in percentage if you are running a lootbox/virtual lottery
  5. Gambling: Play Store only allows gambling Apps registered in UK, France & Ireland. In-App billing for gambling apps is not allowed in any country. Gambling App advertising is allowed provided it isn’t targeted to kids.
  6. UGC Apps with objectionable content: Any app promoting sexually explicit user generated content is liable to be blocked. Many Chinese Apps on Play Store are at borderline risk.
  7. Infringing IP: Selling counterfeit products, illegally using IPs not belonging to you can put you under minor breach
  8. Selling unapproved substances: Google Play Store doesn’t allow apps to sell drugs, prohibited pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, or any dietary substance with unproven claims
  9. No APK downloads from your App: Never push any APK to be downloaded from your App (even through an Advt). This falls under severe breach
  10. Sensitive Permissions: The biggest change Google made to its policies recently has been to stop Apps from taking Call Logs & SMS Inbox read permission without Google’s explicit approval. This is now put under serious breach and App is allowed only after these permissions are removed
  11. Only Ad-serving Apps: In 2018, Google removed over 200k Apps whose primary purpose was to sell Advts. Apps which has Advts on every click were classified under this and removed. So be mindful on how you implement Advt monetization in your App
  12. Deceptive Device Settings: Do not make any changes to the user’s device settings or features outside of the app without the user’s knowledge and consent. Device settings and features include system and browser settings, bookmarks, shortcuts, icons, widgets, and the presentation of apps on the homescreen.

In case you app is suspended by Google for any reason, you can send an appeal to google through this link https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/accountappeals

I will be happy to hear your feedback on this. Feel free to comment here or tag me on twitter @deepakabbot or mail me at dabbot@gmail.com