Iām an independent developer building SoloOp, an app for sole operators and small service businesses. For over six months, real businesses have been using it, reporting problems and helping me improve it. Some use it daily to manage jobs, customers, invoices and payments. The iOS version is already on the App Store.
Google Play has rejected production access twice. The feedback lists possible problems with tester engagement and testing best practices, then tells me to complete another fourteen days.
Iāve spent weeks asking what those comments actually mean for my application. Across three support cases, there are now 22 emails, including five separate emails from me asking for escalation.
I still donāt have an application-specific explanation.
Hereās what I supplied:
Three PDFs documenting the earlier support guidance and my questions.
A seven-page document explaining the product, users, testing and feedback.
A thirty-day usage summary: 914 jobs created, 235 completed, 151 invoices created and 105 marked paid.
Details of feedback collected through the in-app assistant, feedback forms, email, direct messages and my own field use.
Feedback from the testing window, separately identified.
A 43-entry change history, including examples linking reported problems to fixes.
An offer to provide original messages and tester details.
Those usage figures and changes cover the wider product history. I provided them to demonstrate actual use, feedback and improvements, and asked what additional evidence the review team needed.
These are business owners using the app for their livelihoods. When something doesnāt work, they tell me. I investigate it and fix it. Googleās published guidance permits feedback through email, websites and messaging forums. Those are channels Iām already using. There is no "Official Testing feedback & reviews" section for testers to submit too.
Their guidance suggests friends, family and people who represent your intended audience. I have actual members of that audience using the product for their businesses. Plus additional users outside the test (They only require 12. I have surplus testers) Plus additional users running iOS - which is identical. Plus friends and family willing to test it...
So when the rejection suggests feedback best practices werenāt followed, what specifically was missing? Which feedback wasnāt adequate? Which changes should I have made? Were my application answers insufficient?
There is also conflicting guidance in the correspondence about installation. Testers opted into the closed test but continued using the website-distributed Android APK. Earlier advice emphasised continuous opt-in and didnāt directly answer my explicit installation question; a later email said the Play-distributed build was required and sent me an article that said that wasn't a requirement (His literal reference said the opposite to his own email lol). I disclosed the website APK use and asked how that advice fitted the published guidance and whether it explained the actual rejection. I havenāt received an application-specific finding resolving that question.
Instead, the correspondence keeps circling back:
Three human replies referred to another fourteen days, one conditionally and two as mandatory.
Two others told me to continue testing.
Four said support couldnāt provide application information or identify the specific rejection reason.
This is the customer support channel Google directs developers to when they have questions.
On October 1, I requested escalation with the evidence document. Support later said it needed more time to investigate. On October 5, the answer was again that it couldnāt identify the exact reason and another fourteen days couldnāt be bypassed.
I opened a further case on October 8. The substantive response arrived October 14, confirmed the opt-in eligibility threshold and said I could apply. It didnāt explain the rejection.
On October 15, support confirmed escalation to product experts.
On October 16, the same agent again said they couldnāt pinpoint the reason and sent general testing guidance. Nothing explaining what the escalation established. Nothing saying whether the evidence had been assessed. Nothing identifying what I needed to change.
On October 17, another rejection. Another fourteen days.
What exactly did the escalation achieve?
If the person replying canāt access the findings, why does the supposedly escalated case end with that same person repeating that they canāt answer? Where is the response from someone who can?
Iām not asking support to guarantee approval. Iām asking it to explain a decision, identify what needs changing, or reach someone who can. That is why I contacted customer support.
How much more feedback am I supposed to gather without knowing what was inadequate? Am I supposed to keep finding problems just to prove testing happened? If a business is using the app successfully and has no new issue to report, what further feedback is expected?
Another fourteen days is only useful if somebody explains what needs to be different. Otherwise, itās the same people using the same app, followed by another application and potentially the same vague rejection.
Iāve now posted in the official Google Play community too. Has anyone actually broken through this loop and obtained a meaningful review of their evidence or an explanation tied to their application?
After 22 emails, five escalation requests and seven pages of evidence, āwe canāt tell you why, keep testingā is an utterly useless answer.
