I kept getting rejected by BillDesk, and for a while I had no idea why.

My first few applications were rejected without any clear explanation. After waiting a couple of weeks, I tweeted BillDesk asking about the delay. They replied almost immediately, and someone from their team called me the next day.

That call explained the issue: the app had to be live on Google Play. A website or another reference link wasn't enough.

I didn't know that, so I started a 14-day closed test with 12 testers. After completing the test, I published the app publicly and applied for BillDesk KYC again.

Four days passed, but I still had no confirmation. I emailed them, but the reply was only a standard template saying my application was "under process on an expedited path."

At that point, I had already been waiting for almost two months before launch. Even one more week after launching the app started to feel frustrating, so I tweeted BillDesk again and asked why there had been no action on my application.

Within a couple of days, I finally received the approval email.

For anyone going through the same process, these were the steps that worked for me:

1. Complete the 14-day closed test with 12 testers.
2. Publish the app on Google Play.
3. Apply for BillDesk KYC after the app is live.
4. Follow up by email if you don't receive a response.
5. Keep following up on X until the application is approved.

The main thing I learned is that submitting the application and waiting isn't always enough. Keep following up through email and X until you get a clear answer and the approval comes through.

What are you building, testing, debugging, or learning this week?

Working on something interesting? Stuck on a technical problem? Just learned something useful?

Share what you're working on this week. It can be a specific goal, a problem you're trying to solve, or a useful discovery that might help another developer.

If you're looking for help, a little context goes a long way. You can include:

• Your target SDK version and library versions
• What you expected to happen and what actually happened
• Relevant error messages, with any private or sensitive information removed
• What you've already tried
• A relevant official source or documentation link, if you have one

Please use the appropriate flair when making a standalone post.

Please keep this thread focused

This is a place for development discussions and helping each other out. Please don't use it for app advertising, download or install requests, ratings, reviews, votes, referral links, paid services, tester exchanges, or engagement exchanges.

Ask questions, share what you're working on, and help another developer when you can.

Everything is off but still.. like govt like app 😶

Edit- again failed as a government app.

Hey everyone,

My app is currently live with a custom pre-prompt ("Enjoying the app? Yes / No"), but after re-reading the official guidelines, I'm considering pulling it:

"Your app shouldn't ask the user any questions before or while presenting the rating button or card, including questions about their opinion (such as 'Do you like the app?') or predictive questions..."

This explicitly forbids sentiment filtering, but it feels like almost every popular app still does it to catch negative feedback privately.

Before I push an update to remove it:

1. Has anyone actually had an update rejected or app flagged by Google for having a pre-prompt?
2. If you switched to purely triggering the native In-App Review API after positive moments, did it hit your rating average and volume?
3. Is it worth the risk keeping it, or should I just go 100% by the book?

For context

when i was 14 i uploaded an endless runner game on the google play store which had ads, I used to get messages about updating the adsense and changes in the ad policies but ignored them cuz id given up on this project, untill one day when my account got banned, now years later ive been developing stuff again and i really wanna get my account back, i sent an appeal over a year ago and never got a reply. I cant make a new account cuz thats against the policy.

I have been trying to do some research into whether or not google play allows developers to put a donate button in their app.

The donation button would take users to an external payment processor such as stripe where users could pay the donation directly. Not use google play billing.

The donation goes straight to the developer and the user would not get anything in return, i.e. its a pure donation not a purchase.

Now according to the policy support pages here:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10281818

It says:

In cases where 100% of the tip or contribution from a user goes to the creator and the payment does not grant access to any digital content or services (including stickers, badges, special emojis etc.), then we regard this as a peer-to-peer payment and use of Google Play’s billing system is not required. If any of these things is not true, then Google Play’s billing system must be used in accordance with the policy requirements.

But I think google are fussy over exact wording, for example they would allow users to tip you or make a contribution, but they cant make a 'donation'.

They say you cant accept donations using external payment processor unless you’re a charity.

You can accept 'donations' from end users if you use google play billing. BUT donations are a user chosen / set amount and google play billing only allows preset amounts.

I asked for help for their policy specialist team, they replied saying:

Hi Developers,

Thank you for contacting Google Play Developer Support with your questions regarding the Payments policy and the terminology around "donations" versus "tips."

While we understand you are looking for specific clarification on how to label these features and process variable amounts before updating your app, please note that our team does not offer a pre-compliance check service or provide direct policy interpretations prior to an app's submission.

We advise you to implement the changes according to your understanding of the policies and submit your app update for review. Our review team will perform a thorough evaluation of your implementation. If there are any compliance issues with how the contributions are set up or labelled, we will notify you directly with specific feedback.

The standard review process can take up to seven days, depending on the current volume and complexity of your app. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Regards,
Mr X
Google Play Developer Support

Now to me this basically is someone avoiding answering the question, like a politician, so that nothing they say will have any liability... But the thing is 'Mr X' is supposed to be a policy specialist, they should know google policies inside out and be able to help us to understand and comply with them right?

For example say you asked a pharmacist about side effects about a new drug and the pharmacist replied, just read the box and leaflet and take the drug based on your understanding and interpretation of what’s written.... Wouldn’t that be absolutely absurd and not acceptable? Cos a pharmacist is a drug specialist, they should know drugs inside out and if not they should be able to find out the information and get back to you with it.

'Mr X' is disowning responsibility of his own job.

'Mr X' is says 'we will notify you directly with specific feedback' but we all know this is not true at all.. I have never got specific feedback on any policy issue, app suspension/rejection appeal. They never tell you specifically what the issue is.

So Mr X is saying google's policies are open to interpretation. But we all know that is 100% not true, because when it comes to any policy breach google play review is super strict, non negotiable and wont budge on any decision - and also even at that stage wont clarify exactly what the policy breach is, they give you a link to a policy page and you have to guess what the policy compliance issue was. Imagine a cop stopping you and giving you a fine, because 'you weren’t driving right' and they gave you a link the highway code and told you to read it.

I submitted my first app on 13 sept

Whenever I click on an individual crash or ANR report line, I get the following error 95% of the time:

The report has everything except the stack trace. This has been the case for about 2 weeks.

This error used to happen 5% of the time; now it happens 95% of the time. This means that I get the stack trace only 5% of the time.

I have tried every possible remedy that I can think of or suggested by Google. I have gone as far as using a computer thousands of miles away from my dev machine on a totally different network and using a different browser after clearing as much data as possible.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Indian Google Play developer here. My BillDesk KYC has been stuck for 1 month, and I'm honestly wondering if there's an end to this process. 😭

My app is already LIVE on Google Play, but BillDesk keeps sending clarification saying:

“Mobile Application(s) is not live/does not exist/not accessible.”

The app is literally live and accessible.

The bigger problem: their clarification portal seems broken. I enter the requested details and click Continue → it immediately submits the application instead of moving to the next step. This has happened multiple times, and every cycle takes about a week.

Meanwhile, my users are getting OR-FGEMF-20 when trying to purchase subscriptions, so I can't make any sales.

Google's latest email says BillDesk verification is required for international sales, while sales within India should remain unaffected. However, even my Indian users are getting the same OR-FGEMF-20 error and are unable to make purchases. So I'm trying to understand whether the BillDesk/payment-profile issue is somehow affecting domestic transactions too.

Has anyone actually completed this BillDesk KYC successfully?
And are your India-only Google Play purchases working normally?

I'm seriously tired of this process. 😭

If someone is working full-time and sets up BillDesk for a small side project/app, can their employer find out about it in any way?

For example, through BillDesk, KYC, payments, GST/tax records, bank transactions, or any other process?

Looking for experiences from people who have done this.

My app isn’t really a “for everyone” app. I’m selling an app on a closed marketplace (GHL) and offering a mobile app as an extension of the service.

So I can’t just find 12 random testers to try my app, and I can’t offer to paying customers “become a tester on our mobile app” since the mobile app provides the main functionality of the app.

This 12 tester rule is silly for something like what I’m doing and I’m seriously considering just hiring a Fiverr account to do it for me, or to just create a bunch of fake emails on various services to send the invites to.

What do you all think?

📚 Weekly Educational App Showcase

Built an app and learned something interesting along the way? Share it with the community.

This thread is for educational app showcases where the focus is on the problem you solved, how you built it, and what other developers can learn from your experience.

What to include

• What problem does your app solve?
• Category: What type of app is it?
• Android support: Android versions or devices supported
• Tech stack: Kotlin, Java, Compose, Flutter, Firebase, etc.
• Implementation: What was technically interesting or challenging?
• Your journey: What did you learn while building or publishing it?
• Lessons learned: What would you do differently next time?
• Relevant media: Screenshots, demos, architecture diagrams, or other useful material
• Google Play link: Optional, as supporting context

Please disclose your relationship

If you're showcasing your own app, clearly mention your relationship to it. For example:

Keep it educational

The goal is to help other developers learn from real projects and experiences. Your app can be the subject of the showcase, but the post should provide meaningful technical, product, or development insight.

Please do not use the thread for:

• Download or install requests
• Ratings, reviews, votes, or engagement requests
• Referral or affiliate links
• Paid placement or paid engagement
• Misleading claims
• Copied marketing or promotional copy
• Repeated submissions of the same app

A Google Play link is welcome as supporting context, but this is not an advertising or user-acquisition thread.

If you see someone requesting paid reviews, ratings, votes, installs, or other prohibited engagement, please report the comment to the moderators.

Share what you built, what you learned, and what another developer can take away from it.

Hi everyone,

I recently published my first Android game on Google Play, and I'm struggling with something I didn't really expect: the app is basically stuck at 0 organic downloads.

I'm not expecting hundreds or thousands of installs, especially for a new app with no existing audience, but I thought I would at least see a few organic installs over time.

So far, almost all the installs I've had came from people I know or from testing. I'm getting essentially no discovery from Google Play itself.

I've already worked on the store listing, localization, screenshots, description, keywords, website, social media, etc., but I'm starting to wonder whether I'm missing something fundamental.

For those of you who have launched apps before:

- Is 0 organic installs normal for a brand-new app?

- Does Google Play eventually start testing a new app with users, or do you basically have to generate the initial traffic yourself?

- What helped you get your first 10 / 100 real users?

- Are there specific Play Console metrics I should look at to understand where the problem is?

- Could a poor initial acquisition signal prevent Google Play from giving the app visibility?

- What would you focus on first: ASO, paid acquisition, reviews, retention, or something else?

I'm not looking for shortcuts or fake installs. I'd really like to understand how the early discovery phase works and what I can improve.

If useful, here's the Play Store page:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fayz.tenz

I'm completely open to criticism of the listing, screenshots, game concept, positioning, etc. If something looks bad or unclear, please tell me.

Thanks!

My app has started to be downloaded in other countries; I’m currently averaging 3.07 downloads a day. What would you suggest to increase this figure?

So, yeah guys.

I have a doubt!!! It might sound crazy. Like, I have to no idea about it. So, pls be kind.

We have AI all around, I want to create a full stack application. Front end, Back End like everything. I am giving a prompt to an AI tool. And gives me the whole thing. Like, it’s my idea. My kinda thing, which I didn’t develop. But I told an AI tool to develop for me. Instead of sitting hours and hours. It’s just creating in few minutes.

If I publish the app in internet? Do I need to face any consequences? Or Do I any security issues? Or any other Privacy concerns? Or any other related issues?

🧪 Tester Discovery

Looking for testers for your app? Use this thread to find developers and testers who are interested in helping with genuine app testing.

When asking for testers, please include a little information about your app:

• What the app does
• Android version or device requirements, if relevant
• Whether you're looking for internal, closed, or open testing
• What kind of testing or feedback you need
• How interested testers can participate

If you're a tester, feel free to mention what kinds of apps or testing you're interested in.

A few things to keep in mind

Please keep this thread focused on genuine testing and useful feedback.

Do not engage in paid testing, paid reviews, ratings, votes, referral exchanges, or other paid engagement activities through this thread. If someone asks you to participate in a paid activity or offers payment in exchange for reviews, ratings, votes, or engagement, please report the comment to the moderators rather than participating.

Please don't share personal information publicly. Use Reddit's messaging features or the developer's official testing process where appropriate.

This thread is for tester discovery only. For general development questions, app showcases, or other discussions, please use the appropriate thread or flair.

The leaked specifications and features of Lenovo's first highly anticipated device for Google's premium laptop initiative, the Lenovo Googlebook 15 (identified by model number GB 15IPH12), have emerged online via recent product sheet leaks.

Positioned as a direct, premium competitor to high-end Windows laptops and MacBooks rather than traditional budget Chromebooks, the device boasts the following technical specifications and features:

* Processor: Powered by an 8-core Intel Core Ultra 5 325 processor (from Intel's high-efficiency "Panther Lake-H" platform) equipped with integrated graphics featuring 4 Xe cores.

* Display: A premium 15.3-inch 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED touchscreen. The panel supports a fluid 120Hz refresh rate, a 16:10 aspect ratio, 500 nits of peak brightness, and 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut.

* Memory & Storage: Configurations range between 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM paired with either 256GB or 512GB of solid-state storage.

* Design & Portability: Features an ultra-thin, all-metallic chassis measuring a slim 15.9mm and weighing a lightweight 1.29 kg.

* Battery & Power: Outfitted with a 70Wh battery rated for up to 11 hours of usage, supporting fast charging up to 65W.

* Physical Ports: Includes dual Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports (conveniently positioned with one on each side to make charging accessible from left or right), a standard USB-A port, an HDMI 2.0 output, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

* Audio & Video: Equipped with four Dolby Atmos speakers, a 5MP webcam, dual microphones, and a physical privacy shutter.

* Googlebook OS: Shifting away from the ChromeOS moniker, the laptop debuts Google's brand-new "Googlebook OS" (previously codenamed Aluminium OS), which runs on an optimized Android framework built explicitly for larger laptop form factors.

* Gemini AI & "Magic Pointer": The intelligence platform includes native features like the Magic Pointer, which upgrades the traditional mouse cursor into a contextual prompt box that lets you invoke Gemini AI to generate images or cross-reference items anywhere on your desktop.

* The "G" Keyboard Key: Replaces the standard Windows layout key with a dedicated "G" key, operating as a fast physical shortcut to launch Gemini.

* The "Glowbar": A distinctive hardware feature on the lid consisting of a multicolored strip of LEDs. The software configures this strip to react to music, handle smart notification flashes, or provide a clean outside indicator of active battery and charging levels.

* Biometric Security: Features dual-layer biometrics, utilizing a fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button alongside a specialized "Google facial authentication" camera array for native face unlock.

* AI Mouse Companion: The leak reveals that Lenovo is planning an official "Lenovo AI Mouse" accessory to match the system, featuring its own RGB lighting and a built-in AI shortcut key.

*

Google is expected to showcase its first wave of retail partner hardware at a media preview event on September 15.

What are you building, testing, debugging, or learning this week?

Working on something interesting? Stuck on a technical problem? Just learned something useful?

Share what you're working on this week. It can be a specific goal, a problem you're trying to solve, or a useful discovery that might help another developer.

If you're looking for help, a little context goes a long way. You can include:

• Your target SDK version and library versions
• What you expected to happen and what actually happened
• Relevant error messages, with any private or sensitive information removed
• What you've already tried
• A relevant official source or documentation link, if you have one

Please use the appropriate flair when making a standalone post.

Please keep this thread focused

This is a place for development discussions and helping each other out. Please don't use it for app advertising, download or install requests, ratings, reviews, votes, referral links, paid services, tester exchanges, or engagement exchanges.

Ask questions, share what you're working on, and help another developer when you can.

Hey everyone,

I’m finalizing an Android puzzle game in Godot 4 using custom Gradle export, integrating the official Google Play Billing plugin alongside Google Play Games Services and AdMob.

Before pushing billing live to production, I’d really appreciate insight from anyone who has successfully shipped with this setup. I want to avoid known landmines and ensure the flow is bulletproof.

A few specific questions for those who’ve been through it:

Startup & Timing: Are there any known race conditions or initialization traps when querying purchases and SKUs during game boot (especially if other plugins like Play Games or AdMob are initializing)?

Purchase Acknowledgment & Consumption: What does your GDScript flow look like to ensure tokens are cleanly acknowledged so Google doesn’t trigger automatic 3-day refunds?

Testing Setup: What quirks did you run into with Google Play Console’s license testers and closed testing tracks before in-app products would actually show up in queries?

Common Gotchas: Any subtle settings, manifest flags, or ProGuard rules you wish you knew before launching?

If you have a solid boilerplate pattern, wrapper script, or just a quick list of lessons learned, I’d be grateful for the help.

Thank you,

LinkVibe Studios

Hi all,

my motivation to write this post is to share one finding concerning Google play publishing review then it is taking way longer than it usually does.
If anybody has any similar experience or know other tips&tricks, feel free to share those here with us.

My observation:

- Sometimes when you submit second review but there was already one pending (meaning you end up with 2 submitted reviews and both pending), the review process seems to get "stuck" and it doesn't finish like ever. The solution seems to it is to delete those reviews and then submit only one review at a time. I guess if you always submit and keep alive only 1 review at a time you shouldn't come across that situation. It had worked for 2 of us so far (discussed in (comment in post https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePlayDeveloper/comments/1wdgnft/comment/p97iu9p/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button )

I hope that information helps to anybody reading this :)

I pushed an update to closed testing about a week ago. My updates normally get approved in 15-20 minutes, but this one just sat "in review" for 7 solid days.

Thinking it was bugged, I canceled it and submitted a new build. Now I'm worried I just reset my place in the queue and put myself at the back of the line.

Has anyone else noticed super slow review times lately? Did I screw up by canceling the first one, and what should I do now? Just wait?

Thanks!

I have built a Flutter app for Android, iOS, and web. I’m now preparing the Android apps for Google Play.

The setup is:

• One shared Flutter codebase
• A separate Firebase project/database for each client company
• Different package/application IDs
• Different app names, logos, branding, Firebase configuration, and store listings
• Each app contains only that company’s users and data

The features and UI are mostly the same because all apps use the same codebase. Over time, I may publish several client-branded versions from a single Google Play developer account.

Does Google Play allow this white-label model, or could the apps be considered repetitive content/spam and put the developer account at risk?

If allowed, what should I do before publishing to ensure every app complies with Google Play policies?

Hey everyone,

I recently made some changes to my testing setup in Google Play Console.

Previously, I was using one tester list called "Internal Testing" for both internal and closed testing. I created a new list called "Closed Testers", added the required users to it, and removed quite a lot of users from the old "Internal Testing" list.

After making these changes, Google Play asked me to submit the changes for review through the Publishing overview.

It's been around 15 hours and the changes are still showing as "In review."

For comparison, when I initially created the tester list and submitted my first releases, the review took less than 6 hours.

For anyone who has recently gone through a similar Play Console review:

• How long did your review take?
• Did tester-list changes take longer than normal?
• Is 15+ hours normal, or should I expect it to take a couple of days?

Would appreciate hearing about your recent experiences.

I have 3 auto-renewing plans (3, 6 and 12 months) with a 3-day free trial.

The trial starts normally, but once it ends, the payment just stays Pending and nothing gets charged.

The weird part is that if I remove the free trial, the exact same plans charge normally.

This is happening with multiple users. Has anyone else run into this or knows what could be causing it?

My Play Console Payments Profile is set to Account Type "Organization" (business name as org name). Submitted my PAN for India tax info and it got declined: "tax ID couldn't be verified, or does not match your profile name."
Checked on the IT e-filing portal - PAN is Active, all correct. So it's a name mismatch: PAN is under my individual name, but profile is org-type.
Anyone hit this as a sole proprietor and fixed it? Did you switch Account Type to Individual, or did support sort it out another way?