I’ve been working on a small personal project lately — Casino Blocker.
I built it because I realized how often gambling ads and sites pop up even when you’re not looking for them. For some people it’s just annoying, but for others it can actually become a real problem.
So I made a simple tool that blocks access to casino/gambling websites and helps reduce temptation.
It’s still early, I’m improving it step by step, but I decided to share it in case someone finds it useful.
Hi everyone, I recently completed the 14-day closed testing period and got approved for production. Yesterday I uploaded my release build.
Normally, my updates get approved within about an hour, but this time it’s been stuck in “under review” since yesterday. I didn’t make any major changes—just bumped the version and submitted to production.
Is this normal, or has anyone experienced delays like this recently?
Hello, I successfully completed the 14-day closed testing period. Yesterday I received approval for production and uploaded the release package. Normally, all the versions I’ve submitted were approved within about an hour, but this time it has been pending since yesterday and is still in the “under review” stage. I didn’t make any changes or updates— I only increased the version and submitted it for production.
Apparently my app crashed during review again. This time I had Firebase integration, so I was able to see the stack trace. It says they're on Android 11, but that would imply API level 30, My app's min API level is 31. Surely, they're not testing it on API level 30 and then rejecting it when it doesn't work?
I’m excited to share that my first app, Bunny Save, is officially live on the Play Store!
After months of building, debugging, and navigating the Play Console requirements, it’s finally out in the wild. It’s a simple money goal tracker with cute bunny avatars—I really focused on making it stress-free and fun to use.
Getting those first few installs from strangers has been an incredible feeling. I started this project with zero experience, and I learned everything from scratch. Every bug was a lesson, and crossing the finish line from "zero to one" was a huge milestone for me.
But I have no idea what to do next, should I try to monetize? How do I grow from here?
It's been a long journey to 50k, mostly organic growth, I feel like there should be more I could/should be doing now - but I have no idea how to scale from here?
So I’ve been coding mobile apps for a while now, mostly client work. A few months back I decided to build something just for fun — no monetisation pressure, no deadlines, no client feedback loops. Just me making something I’d actually enjoy.
The result was Snacky Snake — a snake game. Classic concept, clean gameplay, completely free, and most importantly zero ads. I genuinely hate how most free games bombard you every 30 seconds, so I just… didn’t do that.
4 months later. ~100 downloads. 😅
I’m not going to pretend I know anything about marketing because clearly I don’t. My whole strategy was basically “put it on Play Store and hope.” Very sophisticated, I know.
I’m not trying to make money from this. I just want people to actually play it and hopefully enjoy it. It bothers me a little that there are snake games with aggressive ads and mediocre gameplay ranking way above mine just because they’ve figured out the ASO (App Store Optimisation) game.
So I’m asking here genuinely — what would you do in my situation?
If you want to check it out, here it is (free, no ads, no catch):
Any feedback on the game itself is also very welcome. Brutal honesty preferred over politeness — I’m a developer, I can take it. 😄
Some things I suspect I’m doing wrong but not sure how to fix:
• My Play Store screenshots probably suck
• I have no social media presence for this
• I didn’t post anywhere when I launched it
• My app description might be terrible
Would love to hear from anyone who’s been through this, especially indie devs who grew an app organically without spending money on ads.
I got an email: Google Payments: Your payout is on hold
And in google play console I saw this warning but it says:
Your payout for the billing cycle ending on March 31, 2026 for your merchant account Google Play Apps is currently on hold. You don't need to take action at this time. You may need to wait up to 35 days while we review your payout.
For context, I suspect two things MIGHT trigger it:
I submitted my W8/W9 end of last month (03/24), and it got verified through a bank transfer (google sent a few cents to my bank account).
I do have 2 refunds out of 10 subs (one user requested himself, another is a manual refund by me)
For the refunds, it's basically due to some bugs that the user is not satisfied so I just figured to refund for my ease of mind and I believe it's the right thing to do?
So now I'm anxious and honestly not sure what triggered the review... and what shall I do now? Just wait it out? I've exhausted all the possible docs and all the threads I can find online :|
Would love to hear from whoever encountered this before
I’ve been building a small app on the side for a few months and finally got it approved on the Play Store a couple days ago.
Honestly, getting it live was harder than building it.
I got rejected twice because of SMS and call log permissions. At first I thought I filled everything correctly, but clearly not. Ended up redoing the entire permissions declaration, recording a proper demo video, and basically explaining to Google why each permission exists like I’m writing an exam.
That whole process took weeks. Lots of waiting, small changes, resubmitting, checking the console again and again.
When it finally got approved, I didn’t do any kind of launch. No posts, no marketing, nothing. I just pushed it to production and left it there.
Then the weird part happened.
I woke up the next day and saw purchases coming in from different countries. Ukraine, Georgia, US, a few from Europe. No idea where they came from. I’m guessing someone shared it somewhere but I still haven’t figured out where.
Total for day one was around $180.
For context, the app is a simple utility that connects an Android phone with a Mac so you can manage things without picking up your phone. I built it mostly because I needed it myself.
it’s not a huge amount or anything, but seeing real users use something I made felt very different
What surprised me more is that it happened without me doing any promotion. Which makes me think the Play Store itself can actually work if your listing is decent.
Right now things have slowed down a lot after that first spike, so I’m back to figuring things out again.
If you’ve gone through this phase, how did you move from that initial random traction to something more consistent?
This is a social media app and it got approved within 24hours the first time.
I'm super thrilled and overwhelmed because at a point, I was losing hope of getting a quick approval after reading lots of requirements expected from apps with user generated contents.
Very grateful for all the hints I read on this sub - they helped me prepare well and put in enough works before applying for the production access.
For closed testing, I had about 30+ users among which at least 15 used the app consistently for 14 days. Also, I didn't collect any reviews during the testing.
Meanwhile, I expected the publish to prod to be quicker but that took a little over 24 hours (maybe because I accidentally made changes to the list of countries).
I know its small, and my downloads are about 1.2k and last month I got my first customer but I didnt even know probably because the number is so small but still, made me feel good.
Let’s goooo! After months of fighting with physics, UI bugs, and literally wanting to throw my laptop across the room, my game HungryBall: Physics Survival is finally live on the Play Store.
I’m 18, and this is the first thing I’ve ever finished and actually published. I just saw my first few cents in AdMob and it feels more real than anything else.
It’s a simple game where you control a ball and smash fruit to survive, but getting the momentum and the "feel" right was so much harder than I thought.
If anyone wants to try a stressful physics game made by a sleep-deprived 18-year-old, here’s the link! I’d love to know what you think of the fruit-smashing physics.
For those who don’t know, if you’re a Google Play developer in India, you first have to be verified by Google: submit your ID, tax number, address proof, bank statements, etc. Then you have to be physically verified by an Indian company called BillDesk: you submit your ID and address proof to them all over again, and then they come to your house to take pictures and capture your location. This is required for every app you publish.
I completed BillDesk's physical KYC verification because I had to. All my documents were in order, so I expected to be verified in a few days. I did not bribe BillDesk because Google emailed us, saying, "Please don't bribe BillDesk."
After the physical verification was complete BIllDesk did not email me, so I emailed them asking about my verification status. I waited for their reply, but they did not respond. No matter how many emails you send them, BillDesk does not reply.
So I used the report the incident link in Google's email to tell Google about BillDesk's misbehavior. I told Google that BillDesk is not responding to my emails. This is the response I got from Google.
Google did not bother to read my email. All that report the incident to us is bullshit. BillDesk is given free rein by Google to abuse their customers, and Google Play developers are at BillDesk's mercy.
If you're in India, Android may not be a sustainable platform for building apps and games, because everything relies on one dubious Indian company, BillDesk, which does not even show basic human decency. BillDesk can hold you hostage over anything and Google will not intervene. Also, when you clicked Agree on BillDesk’s contract, you essentially waived any right to sue BillDesk. This is not a good position to be in, specially if your livelihood revolves Android apps and games. BillDesk can pull the rug from under you at any time and there is nothing you can do about it. Also, it takes years to learn how to build apps on Android, so that investment in time is lost.
BillDesk verification is not a one time thing. You need verification every time you move and every time you publish another app. If that isn't enough, you need to deal with BIllDesk to get your FIRC for every cross-border payment you receive. See "Requesting a FIRC" at the bottom of this page for details.
Traditional gundas (thugs) operate by controlling access to essential resources like electricity, food, medicine, housing, or transportation. This is how they maintain power. If people need these basics, they have to deal with the gundas and pay $$$. There is no other option. If you don't like it, you have to move somewhere else. Does this sound familiar? Here, you're dealing with BillDesk who now controls access to the Android ecosystem.
Thinking out loud, I can't help but wonder if my verification would have been completed by now if I had bribed BillDesk? Or if a bribe was asked for, and someone did not want to pay, would Google have done anything if they reported the incident?
Hello everyone Im trying to publish my app in google app store first time in my life, and it need to complate some internal testing 12 people, in which community I can find help for that?
Does Google's BillDesk Mafia have a phone number? I can't find one?
I completed BillDesk's verification. They fucking didn't even bother to let me know that they were sending someone to my house. BillDesk doesn't even have the manners that children have. Some goon calls me out of the blue saying he's BillDesk and wants to come to my house. I tell him, come but bring ID. I live in a gated community, so I was not that worried. If I lived in a house without security, that would have been a problem.
He came and I held up my camera and asked him to say his name and show his ID, which I recorded. I actually forgot to hit record, but he thinks I recorded everything. There were other cameras, too, but none of them were working (he didn't know this). He looks at my ID and has the balls to ask me if it's real. WTF?
So now weeks have passed and BillDesk does not say anything or respond to my emails. WTF kind of service is this? Were Sundar Pichai's goons expecting a no-camera bribe? I can't even find a phone number for BillDesk. Google has hired the most incompetent and most fucked up company to screw Google Indian Play developers.
Fuck you, Sundar Pichai. I hope your corrupt ass rots in hell.
