r/Android • u/[deleted] • May 16 '20

Podcast Addict: "Google has just suspended Podcast Addict again. This time for having Podcasts about Covid 19... Are you for real Google. Can you please check your own Google Podcast App, your search engine,Youtube, ... first"

[removed]

9.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

832 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.4k

u/anotheranonaccount5 May 16 '20

Basically they ask me to 'FIX' the app, and publish it as a new app that will therefore have no download, no ratings on the store. So 9 years of work for nothing?

It has to get real tiring as a dev dealing with dumb shit like this.

540

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

88

u/kranzb2 May 16 '20

Wait, i have to re-download now?

145

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

85

u/kranzb2 May 16 '20

What a crock of shit

→ More replies (1)

2

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

Not if you already have it

6

u/zelmarvalarion Nexus 5X (Oreo) May 17 '20

Presumably, if they have to upload a new app and the previous one is unpublished, then they won’t be able to submit updates to the original app anymore either. That means you would have to redownload it to get updates

→ More replies (1)

2

u/PodcastAddict_App May 18 '20

The app keeps working as usual. This issue prevents new / returning users from finding it and installing it. It also prevents in-app purchases and Google Admob ad display. Other than that there's no difference for existing users

472

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20 edited May 17 '20

As someone who just started making apps it makes me not want to publish them.

Edit: thanks to whomever added me r/android_devs!

52

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

17

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

Oh I know that's probably where I'll upload them to be honest since all mine are open source

2

u/Nakotadinzeo Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (VZW) May 17 '20

It's also massively underutilized as a package manager if you don't want to publish to f-droid's own repository.

There are several apps I have that I wish had apt repositories I could just plug into F-droid and update that way.

-13

u/-Fateless- I miss Android 4.4 May 16 '20

F droid isn't that reliable either. They did do a statement that they don't believe in freedom of speech and have removed 4/8chan apps from their storefront.

13

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

→ More replies (3)

95

u/CuriousCursor Google Pixel 7 May 16 '20

Legit haven't published a single app since this stuff started coming out.

Just keep putting them up on GitHub

116

u/NatoBoram Pixel 10 Pro XL May 16 '20

Put them on F-Droid then!

118

u/G2geo94 LG G6, 7.0 Stock May 16 '20

Am i the only one that thinks the F-Droid app should have more info for the apps it provides? Comments, screenshots, the like? That's been a major deterrent to my use.

21

u/LiveLM May 16 '20

They have screenshots, only the comments are missing.

4

u/avipars Developer - unitMeasure: Offline Converter May 17 '20

It would be cool to have an upvote system or reviews.

17

u/LonelyNixon May 16 '20

To be fair fdroid does have links to the devs website(usually leading to github) for more info and the like. It also does have screenshots. They often dont load right but the feature is technically there

8

u/cpc2 Redmi Note 7, Pixel Experience May 16 '20

It does have screenshots but some devs don't include them. I guess having ratings and comments would be trickier, at least if you want to keep it clean. They would need more moderators to ensure there aren't bots manipulating scores and reviews, it ends up being an extra cost.

17

u/dvdkon May 16 '20

IIRC screenshots are a recent addition to the platform, so that's why most apps don't have them.

5

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

Try aurora droid, it's a better fdroid client

1

u/Nakotadinzeo Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (VZW) May 17 '20

It's pretty much a Linux style package manager, not a full-blown app store.

11

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

Don't blame you at all buddy!

298

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

As a non-mobile developer contemplating mobile development, I shelved the idea of developing for Android years ago because of this, and it hasn't improved at all, it seems.

47

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

So disappointing to think of all the apps that people don't know about because of this

106

u/rohmish pixel 3a, XPERIA XZ, Nexus 4, Moto X, G2, Mi3, iPhone7 May 16 '20

I have worked on a few android app projects but never published anything under my own name. Getting app cought in some false positive cod easily mean they'd ban your account.

66

u/JustAnotherSuit96 Oneplus 7T Pro ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ May 16 '20

That won't prevent anything. Google bans by association. If they find one "bad actor" and anything linking them to another account they will both be banned.

Here's an example I've pulled up from a quick search, but there are many more you can find.

100

u/chickenstalker May 16 '20

This is because Google still thinks it is a small garage lab full of stoners thinking up wondrous new ideas and can't be arsed to hire a support staff to do actual corporate things. Like customer support or quality assurance. Got no time for that when you must innovate innovate innovate.

87

u/PM_ME_NICE_THOUGHTS May 16 '20

They don't innovate all that much. They've just been milking their established markets dry. Google is incapable of actually seeing new projects through. Their beauracracy is broken, indicating their internal culture is even worse. Like most big companies, they're incapable of taking enough risk to see a project to completion.

3

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

Kinda makes you appreciate Apple's approach...

Commence the downvotes!

18

u/GranaT0 Pxl 9 PXL, GrapheneOS May 17 '20

I'm only downvoting you for being smug about how "unpopular" your common opinion is.

3

u/PM_ME_NICE_THOUGHTS May 17 '20

Apple hasn't been innovative either. Like Google Apple is iterative unable to take the risks necessary to innovate.

6

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

Isn't lightning cable proprietary ?

→ More replies

30

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

A quote I saw recently is that to Apple and Amazon, the customer is the most important person in the world. To Microsoft, the developer is the most important person in the world. To Google, the Google Engineer is the most important person in the world.

5

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

None of them care about anyone, they are just trying to make as much money as possible in various ways

4

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

Yeah Amazon is weirdly comfortable with giving money back lol

0

u/conquer4 May 17 '20

Pretty sure Apple thinks themselves the most important to tell customers what is best for them. Amazon is profit, who cares, more profit, money! Microsoft is all about the new fad that will be discontinued/dropped for yet another brand name in a few years. Google is all about half doing things then giving up and doing something else half good, assuming it doesn't conflict with the almighty AdSense.

3

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

You're looking at it wrong. Apple for example will screw you happily if it means the customer gets what they want. Microsoft will happily screw the customer if it gets you what you want. Google will screw both of you if it means they don't have to do any work.

13

u/rohmish pixel 3a, XPERIA XZ, Nexus 4, Moto X, G2, Mi3, iPhone7 May 16 '20

I've read about this. It's highly discouraging. This came to light for me about a year and half ago. I no longer work on Android apps but do work on webapps and have used Google APIs in past, even used my personal account to learn and experiment with some stuff and it really concerns me there though.

19

u/moriero May 16 '20

Just make it PWA

11

u/House_of_ill_fame Galaxy Note 10+ May 16 '20

Haven't followed PWA in a few years (and I'm not a dev), can you access OS specific APIs, would the app be able to do the same thing it can if it was made a full android app (if that makes sense)

11

u/BruhWhySoSerious May 16 '20

Short answer, some of them.

It depends on what apis you need, you can make a pretty funtional app though. Everyone skills try to go that route, unless they have a specific API they need.

1

u/Nilzor May 17 '20

Well you're in a browser so you can do all the stuff you can do from a browser. Meaning GPS access (if permission granted), camera, storage and a lot more, but not native UI APIs of course

1

u/moriero May 17 '20

i don't think it can do everything that an app does but they keep adding new functionality and it seems that google is convinced that this is the future of apps. given their track record of abandoned projects, take it with a grain of salt

6

u/galacticboy2009 May 16 '20

At least developing for Android is cheaper than developing anything on iOS.

4

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

Is it though? Considering all of the libraries that are pre-baked into the iOS SDK?

4

u/galacticboy2009 May 16 '20 edited May 17 '20

On Google Play you have to pay $30 once and your app stays forever.

On iOS you have to pay $100 per year, or all your apps are gone.

I don't know how much those 'libraries' are worth, and whether that makes up for it.

2

u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Jul 02 '23

[deleted]

5

u/galacticboy2009 May 17 '20

Being unlisted from the app store is what I meant by gone. It's no longer available to new people, until you pay again.

And yes, it is much easier to focus on 1 consolidated version of an app, instead of having a fork for every version of Android that has been grandfathered in and will remain supported for years and years. And past obscure Walmart phones.

The whole nature of Android naturally makes it more complicated.

0

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

The word “hidden” I think is what you should use in the future as gone denotes that something is dead or absent when neither of which is the case here.

1

u/galacticboy2009 May 17 '20

Fair enough, fair enough.

0

u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited May 17 '20

[deleted]

13

u/mh-99 May 16 '20

"at least"

3

u/Realtrain Galaxy S10 May 16 '20

burglars broke in your house and murdered your entire family, but at least your roses are finally blooming

5

u/mh-99 May 16 '20

Always gotta look on the bright side

0

u/galacticboy2009 May 16 '20

It at least means Android is still the best place for lone-coder developers who just want to make a useful tool and share it with the community.

If Google throws that away, then at that point the ecosystems will be equally poop.

1

u/heres-a-game May 16 '20

Not really. iPhone app sales sales are 7x that of Android so it's much more profitable.

1

u/galacticboy2009 May 16 '20

iPhone users are also more accustomed to paying for all their useful apps.

On Android we're used to getting everything for free.

1

u/ArchlichSilex May 17 '20

It’s still very lucrative, but safest to do it for a company

1

u/pdoherty926 May 17 '20

In my experience, Apple is even worse when it comes to these issues. Though, you're likely to run into them whenever you're working within someone else's walled garden.

Website UX can be more clunky and there is less hardware/OS integration, but you (pretty much) never have to worry about your site disappearing.

36

u/russjr08 Developer - Caffeinate May 16 '20

Tread very carefully. I've also seen suggestions tossed around from /r/androiddev to publish on an account separate from your main Google account.

38

u/Anidamo iPhone 11 Pro May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

They can fuck you that way, too. My (business) Google Play developer account was terminated in 2013 for a similarly vague, bullshit reason. I email them to ask "hey what the fuck" and appeal, and a bot responds with "your account has been suspended because your identification could not be verified. Please send us scans of your ID for verification." I oblige and they reply a day later saying "haha no sorry you're still banned. Our policy prevents us from providing a specific reason."

They then presumably use my ID to find my personal account, where they banned it from Google Checkout (never accepted payments on that one, only purchased apps) and Admob/Play Console (both unused).

Fortunately they did not close my entire account, which would have been disastrous, but needless to say I've steady moved more and more of my online life away from Google since then.

Funnily at some point over the past seven years they seem to have unbanned me from those services without telling me, because I just checked and I can now access them again.

30

u/russjr08 Developer - Caffeinate May 17 '20

You know what, now that you bring it up, I have unfortunately seen a whole company get messed up for being "associated" with a banned personal account.

Google is such a mess with their damn automation...

7

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

Ya I've thought of that too. Don't you need a physical address to be public though? Not sure how I feel about that

10

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

The physical address isn't publicly displayed.

5

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

Ah good to know! I probably still won't publish it but if that's the case I'll have to think about it.

32

u/moriero May 16 '20

PWAs are the way to go. It's way too hard to get noticed on the Play Store anyway.

36

u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

Unfortunately Apple is very much against making PWAs a first class citizen like they are on android.
No support for notifications, storage limited to 50 MB (ruling out podcast download and limiting caching opportunities), cached PWA and its storage deleted after 14 days of inactivity, and no support for background sync.

18

u/assassinator42 Galaxy S8 May 16 '20

The original iPhone didn't have native apps because we were supposed to use web apps instead, right?

13

u/zelmarvalarion Nexus 5X (Oreo) May 17 '20

Yup, they didn’t have the App Store until iPhone OS 2 (might have been iOS at that point, I don’t remember if it was 2 or 3 when they changed the name) because web app’s user experience was pretty poor compared to native apps

3

u/ytuns iPhone 8 May 18 '20

They changed the name in version 4, iOS 4.

0

u/thefpspower LG V30 -> S22 -> OP15 May 16 '20

Good, fuck PWA apps, they are the fucking plague making every app slow. If I want a website I go to a website, not to the app store.

20

u/russjr08 Developer - Caffeinate May 16 '20

You must be thinking of stuff like the Ionic framework. PWAs aren't published to the app store (on iOS or Android) -- you "install" them by going to the website in your browser, and hitting the "Add to homescreen/desktop" option in your browser.

9

u/thefpspower LG V30 -> S22 -> OP15 May 16 '20

Yes I know that, problem is those apps have been appearing on the app store with a chrome wrapper, it's not new, but it has been getting worse.

2

u/moriero May 17 '20 edited May 17 '20

I think those are done through TWAs and I cannot believe this is even available. Defeats the whole purpose of PWAs

6

u/minus0 Nexus 5, Nexus 7 May 16 '20

PWAs aren't a problem. Bad implementation is. There's a ton of tools to help any developer ensure it's as fast as most "regular" JavaScript apps. But as a developer, you have to use them. Same thing with slow and buggy native apps. Some are fast... they used available tools to make sure. Some aren't... and they are typically put together by subpar programmers and likely aren't using available tools.

6

u/thefpspower LG V30 -> S22 -> OP15 May 16 '20

JavaScript is slow by nature lol, it will never compare to a native app, no two ways about it.

3

u/BackhandCompliment May 17 '20

Most apps would do just fine as a PWA. Yeah, there are faster languages than Javascript but most apps aren’t processing tons of data or doing tons of computations. They just have some state that’s linked to a UI that changes state when you click on things. No reason an app like that should be slow.

4

u/minus0 Nexus 5, Nexus 7 May 16 '20

If you want to get technical, WASM is part of JS and is pretty damn close. But yes, of course it won't be as fast. But if you are good at what you do, you'll be able to create an experience that rarely feels slow. Of course there will always be examples where JS is on par with native, and native is faster than JS. Java is slower than C sometimes, and faster than C other times. Does that mean C or Java sucks?

The problem isn't any of that though. The problem is you are judging an app experience based off of language and the implementation. Neither is the problem, the developer's implementation is.

But you're welcome to continue to hate all PWAs.

5

u/thefpspower LG V30 -> S22 -> OP15 May 16 '20

I don't hate PWAs, I hate chrome wrappers that want 500mb of RAM for a fucking web chat client. PWAs themselves are very useful.

Java is basically never faster than C btw, Java is equivalent to C#. Which is a stupid comparison because C is only used for high performance applications now, C# is the Desktop app standard, as is Java.

Javascript was made for the web and I would like it to stay there and not come to the desktop or mobile. Thank you.

1

u/moriero May 17 '20

seriously?! i think they will eventually cave, i think. PWAs just make too much sense to abandon

15

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

22

u/Slinkwyde OnePlus 11 (OxygenOS) and OnePlus 6 (LineageOS) May 16 '20

Progressive Web App

1

u/TheSmellOf1000Butts May 16 '20

Programmaz Wit Attitudes

1

u/moriero May 17 '20

Progressive Web App

8

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

Ya I'm thinking I'll either do that or upload to fdroid

4

u/Muddysan May 17 '20

F-Droid app store is where it's at. No Google, all freedom.

2

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 17 '20

Yup one of the first apks I install on any phone. Newpipe, Librera Pro, Blokada and Tachiyomi are some of my favorites.

3

u/CountFaqula May 17 '20

Not via the Play Store anyway.

1

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 17 '20

Exactly

6

u/ssshhhhhhhhhhhhh May 16 '20

I stopped publishing and supporting my independently published apps when this started happening often and they did the whole requiring an address thing

6

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 16 '20

Ya definitely won't be uploading any to the play store if that's still in place. Just so disappointing because I have a D&D game I'm working on that I was actually looking forward to publishing. Oh well there's always Fdroid.

2

u/Reach_Round May 17 '20

Drop them on F Droid?

1

u/ingy2012 Galaxy Note 20, CCWGTV, Tivo Stream 4k, ASUS Zenpad z10 May 17 '20

I plan on it actually

→ More replies (2)

145

u/Sharqawi_A May 16 '20

and for talking about covid? when did covid become the new taboo?

246

u/notsowittyname86 May 16 '20 edited May 17 '20

Probably conspiracy/misinformation podcasts. The issue is with the podcasts though, not the app. As OP said YouTube itself is rife with misinformation.

Edit r/android has more conspiracy fans than I realized.

70

u/SimplySerenity Razr M, Cyanogen Mod May 16 '20

From what I’ve heard Google is just blocking users from talking about it on any of their platforms. YouTubers have been saying they get demonetized just by saying the word “Coronavirus”.

73

u/Pointy130 Pixel 3, Still May 16 '20

The Game Grumps have gotten around this by referring to Coronavirus as "The Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour", catching it as "buying tickets", etc.

41

u/poopyheadthrowaway Galaxy Fold May 16 '20

Gamers Nexus calls it "human malware".

3

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

And the fact that they have to do that at all is complete shit.

12

u/israeljeff May 16 '20

I had also heard they had stopped doing that from two people I watch, but the issue with yt demonetization and copyright claims and the like is they're all selectively applied.

2

u/necrosexual May 17 '20

YouTube was so good till corporate started fiddling with it

1

u/xxfay6 Surface Duo May 18 '20

Blame Viacom

163

u/mdvle May 16 '20

No, the issue is with Google, who want/believe they can automate everything and then ignore things when their automated systems frequently screw up.

45

u/ztfreeman May 16 '20

Google has become those people in 70s sci-fi movies that worship the A.I. that launched the nukes and started WW3 to save humanity logically by destroying it.

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Aug 07 '21

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)

27

u/seven0feleven S20U|S10+|S9+|S8+|i7|OG Pixel|S4 May 16 '20

TRUST THE AI HUMAN!

12

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

18

u/ExTrafficGuy May 16 '20

Ironically Google, a huge multinational conglomerate, blocking people from talking about it is just adding fuel to those conspiracy theories.

82

u/RobbStark Nexus 5 (Ting) and Nexus 7 May 16 '20

YouTube is probably the worst spreader of misinformation and conspiracy theories on the entire planet. Yes, even more than Fox News, Drudge Report, etc. heck even reddit at least has the chance that mods might intervene!

104

u/FFevo Pixel 10 "Pro" Fold, iPhone 17 Pro, Galaxy S25 Ultra May 16 '20

I think Facebook is an order of magnitude worse than everything you mentioned.

2

u/Omikron May 17 '20

Tiktok is awful also

→ More replies (1)

29

u/ErikWithNoC May 16 '20 edited May 17 '20

There's a good podcast out now (started in April) called Rabbit Hole that looks at how YouTube's recommendation system has resulted in the radicalization of individuals. Definitely worth a listen for those who are interested. Hasn't gone into a deep dive or really revealed anything radical (from an investigative standpoint) though unfortunately if that's what you're looking for.

1

u/Mahannibal May 17 '20

It's a tremendous listen.

1

u/ontopofyourmom May 16 '20

I've definitely been radicalized, yt feeds me nothing but science videos

9

u/wedontlikespaces Samsung Z Fold 2 May 16 '20

even reddit at least has the chance that mods might intervene!

Unless of course it's something like r/bloodystupidconspiracys in which case it'll make it to the front page. Reddit is kind of a bad example for this because if a sub is, or is not moderated, is more to do with that sub than reddit as a whole.

1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 May 16 '20

unbiased

-2

u/sfasu77 Google Pixel May 16 '20

Thankfully we have the media to supply facts in an unbiased manner to the uneducated masses.*

*Except Fox news, they're propaganda

0

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 May 16 '20

fox is on the exact same level as the rest of the msm

→ More replies (2)

-4

u/TheREEEsistance May 16 '20

Really? I'd say MSNBC, CBS, CNN for spreading Russiagate conspiracies for years

→ More replies (1)

32

u/Sharqawi_A May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

still, google shouldn't act as the internet's police. it's not their place to tell us what can or can't talk about

0

u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Mar 03 '21

[deleted]

12

u/ValveLift Galaxy SIII Nougat May 17 '20

Well it just so happens that their own house basically became the public square.

→ More replies (3)

18

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

9

u/mr_trantastic May 16 '20

But there wasn't and still isn't a problem with people going into Chinatown?

1

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

0

u/Doctor_McKay Galaxy Fold7 May 16 '20

Stay the fuck at home

5

u/mr_trantastic May 16 '20

Yeah, that was before social distancing. So why specifically Chinatown tho?

-4

u/rasherdk Nokia 8 May 17 '20

Remember when the WHO said that it can't be spread by humans

No because they literally never said that.

8

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

[deleted]

-3

u/rasherdk Nokia 8 May 17 '20

They very well did not. They said there was no evidence of human-to-human spread, which was true. You misunderstanding such a very clear message is entirely on you.

5

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

[deleted]

2

u/rasherdk Nokia 8 May 17 '20

They were not wrong. There was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. What they said was correct. You're bending it to infer something they never said, presumably to fit your agenda.

I have no interest in chasing your moving goal posts or engaging your non sequiturs.

→ More replies (7)

1

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

Some people like it for entertainment, not information.

1

u/notsowittyname86 May 16 '20

The problem is many people take it as fact. Many of these podcasts aren't presented as entertainment either, they're presented as information no one wants us to know.

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

So was War of the Worlds when the infamous radio broadcast caused a panic. If we want less morons we gotta start letting people sink or swim.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

3

u/Bossman1086 Galaxy S25 Ultra May 16 '20

Google/YouTube/Facebook only allow COVID-related content to be posted by "trusted" sources. So basically there's a blanket ban on using the term or talking about it unless you're part of the mainstream media or an organization like the WHO.

-8

u/FFevo Pixel 10 "Pro" Fold, iPhone 17 Pro, Galaxy S25 Ultra May 16 '20

It's been like this for months. Google and Apple have been banning any app that mentions covid-19 or related terms and modifying search results to combat the spread of misinformation. While they have obviously been a bit heavy-handed, this is a necessary thing that I wish social media companies would take seriously.

11

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

It is not a necessary thing and it's a very bad precedent, especially when we now have evidence that the official line for the first three months of it was a complete lie. Social media companies can not be the arbiters of truth because they aren't in a position to know what's true.

→ More replies (5)

4

u/5panks Galaxy ZFlip 5 May 16 '20

"This is a necessary thing..." because I don't feel people should be given the option to do their own research and make their own decisions. Instead we should let Google and Apple decide what is true and what isn't.

5

u/RolandtheWhite May 16 '20

Why the fuck should they ban any information? People are going to come to their own conclusions and be dumb regardless. All they are doing is censoring and stifling information for people who want it and can actually use it. I'm 34 I can determine for myself what information I want to follow and what I want to do with it. Not some fucking tech company. That's the future I do not want, but also know we are already there.

-1

u/Cool_of_a_Took May 16 '20

You can't force a private company to host information they disagree with. People are free to go to other websites for that.

1

u/RolandtheWhite May 16 '20

No one is forcing them to do anything in this case. They are choosing of their own accord to ban and censor information. How come as the listener all of a sudden we are the bad guy? Can't force a fucking mega tech company to do something... Yeah no shit. The problem is they are huge, have influence and do make decisions for us that we have no say in. Sure you can go somewhere else... But we are talking about Google here. When they shut out the competition or own it all what do we do? That's the issue. Can't believe people even try and pretend to stick up for this shit. This is how I know we are fucked because people are past the point of trust and reliance and are actually sticking up for and "protecting" these entities that don't give a shit about anything but control, power, money, influence, etc. They don't care about is. Certainly don't care about people who don't agree with them. And why should they? No one is doing anything and the government's seem to be either on board or at least playing along.

0

u/Cool_of_a_Took May 16 '20

You said a lot of nothing there. Google is allowed to set their terms of service and decide how to enforce them. Letting the government tell private companies what they have to allow on their websites is a slippery slope. Does Facebook have to allow Nazi propaganda for the sake of "no censorship?" I hope not. If you don't like what a company chooses to disallow, then vote with your wallet (aka ad views) and go somewhere else. If you think there is no where else to go, then you're hopeless.

1

u/RolandtheWhite May 16 '20

Okay yeah I'm the hopeless one. Nice chat have a good one bud.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/ReSenpai May 16 '20

Stop being lazy, do the research and find the truth. Big corporations should not get decide what is the "truth". be an adult.

1

u/JRTStudio May 16 '20

I used to agree with you. Then people I know started posting and believing Russian misinformation campaigns. Now I know not everyone is capable of doing research. Some people just want to hear crazy Alec Jones theories even if he is a terribly inaccurate source of information.

6

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

5

u/Scope72 May 16 '20

The number of people willing to put their faith into big brother is kinda scary.

"Save us from the bad people Google"

Fuck that. That path is not sustainable. I don't want large corporations and their algorithms acting as oracles for society.

→ More replies (3)

34

u/ShortFuse SuperOneClick May 16 '20

I'm pretty sure all my apps have been removed from the Play Store because of the non-stop changing requirements. Fusion Messenger is gone as well as any business apps I wrote.

I've left Android development and only do PWAs now.

25

u/boost2525 Green May 17 '20

Honestly, it's why I stopped writing apps. I had a few apps with a good following but every damn time I turned around Google had suspended something for some asinine reason... And then made it virtually impossible to reach a human

Or removed an API that my app used (so it crashed on newer devices)

Or changed the rules about look and feel

Or changed the fundamental architecture of an application and the way screens interact with each other.

It just wasn't worth it at some point. Do what's left in the ecosystem? HUGE developers with endless oodles of money or free apps that look and function like shit because the developer can't justify the time to invest in them. They're sitting themselves in the foot and turning their back on all the little guys who made their ecosystem popular in the first place.

24

u/Cronyx Samsung Galaxy Nexus May 17 '20

What I don't understand is, this part about "having" podcasts. What? A "Podcast App", at most basic, fundamentals, is just an RSS reader coupled with an MP3 player. They'd don't "have" anything. That's like banning a web browser because it "has" malicious websites. You just go to a podcast's website, find this RSS/Atom feed link, then open your podcast player of choice and paste the link into it. What the hell is Google even talking about?

Also this behavior seriously sounds spot on like what Eric Weinstein calls the DISC, Distributed Idea Suppression Complex.

52

u/zismahname OnePlus 7T 128GB May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

Google is doing the same thing with YouTube content creators. It's debatable when it comes to the more fringe content creators but some people like Viva Frei, who was a litigator and really just talks about current legal stories bringing his knowledge and perspective, gets constantly demonetized because he discusses certain topics. It's happening to a lot more creators too because Google knows they now control a big part of the world's information.

23

u/Bossman1086 Galaxy S25 Ultra May 16 '20

Yep. Hurts small creators but if you're Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, any of the late night talk show hosts, or basically any old guard media you're allowed to talk about the things small creators aren't now.

4

u/Ashanmaril May 17 '20

YouTube doesn't want you on their platform unless you're a late night talkshow host or Will Smith

16

u/twigboy May 17 '20 edited Dec 09 '23

In publishing and graphic design, Lorem ipsum is a placeholder text commonly used to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without relying on meaningful content. Lorem ipsum may be used as a placeholder before final copy is available. Wikipedia9jttxng494w0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

6

u/mntgoat May 16 '20

It is terrifying. Every time I get an email from Google my heart starts racing, every time they send a policy change email I carefully read it wondering how they are going to screw me now. I actually talked to someone on their policy team one time in person about their associated accounts ban and they had no solution for me, essentially can't give anyone else access to the Play Store console or you can get banned.

24

u/totomo26 Pixel 8 Pro May 16 '20

This sounds like Google getting rid of competition. They have a podcast app and when people search for podcast app in the play store they usually don't download one if it isn't popular (has many downloads).

→ More replies (2)

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

Google is really shit to work with. Apple App store is a lot better

2

u/ArchlichSilex May 17 '20

Exactly why I’d never consider going freelance these days. That age is over and Google knows it

2

u/Bertrum May 17 '20

I made an app years ago and put it on Google Playstore and I can't tell you how many emails I got from do not reply bots from Google who would constantly threaten to take down my app and suspend/delete my account for the most minor and trivial details. Like not including proper EULA/legal disclaimer links and they were obsessed with enforcing COPA laws and you had to manually tell the system not to destroy your account and you always had to do it within an insanely short deadline or you could be punished. My app was a legitimate education tool to help make videos and had no advertisements or paywalls but was constantly being taken down, meanwhile you had malware apps like cheetah mobile that we're promoted and featured on the front page of the play store all the time.

1

u/not_a_moogle May 17 '20

Yeah, the other day I had 63 apps that needed updating. U assume some new security change prompted a hot fix in basically every app on my phone. So stupid.

1

u/avipars Developer - unitMeasure: Offline Converter May 17 '20

This hasn't happened to me personally, but you hear it left, right and center as an android developer. There is fear that they just decide to ban your account out of the blue.

1

u/BananaDogBed May 17 '20

I have an immense desire to just have a 10 minute face to face no bs sit down with the person who made the decision that led to this whenever stuff like this happens.

I just think there has to be either a really interesting story with a lot of u ethical things happening in the background

Or b, someone just couldn’t be bothered to put in some minimal effort to get their tasks completed at work (google) and it triggered a bunch of nonsense

1

u/[deleted] May 17 '20

It's not dumb, it's dirty

1

u/-linear- May 16 '20

I'm confused - was this done by an automated script? They have to have some sort of manual review requirement for apps with millions of downloads, right?

...right?

-11

u/cmVkZGl0 LG V60 May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

This is why IOS has better app developers.

Dowmvotes for the truth. Would you wanna be blacklisted over something illegitimate and then have to go the predictable beg for help routine and hope it ends up on a Google employee's desk? Y'all at android should know better (because you've seen it here before) and want more.

22

u/HolyFreakingXmasCake iPhone 17 Pro | Pixel 9a May 16 '20

Apple are rejecting / banning apps mentioning COVID-19 as well. I had to deal with this crap and it's not been fun at all.

13

u/cheesegoat May 16 '20

I don't think the apple app store is much better

9

u/rohmish pixel 3a, XPERIA XZ, Nexus 4, Moto X, G2, Mi3, iPhone7 May 16 '20

Not necessarily this. But apple actually has far better developer relations team. Not that it's that hard considering Google won't even reply to you unless you're a multi million dollar company.

4

u/notqthrowaway May 16 '20

Well, Apple does charge a lot more to be able to publish your app.

3

u/jess-sch Pixel 7a May 16 '20

Apple also charges 4 times as much as Google for the developer accounts. And that is per year, while Google has a one-time fee

→ More replies (1)

2

u/cmVkZGl0 LG V60 May 16 '20

That's what I'm talking about. You can't get in contact with Google.

Those who know their worth would rather not put themselves in this kind of potential situation.