What’s New with the NewGoogle Play Developer Policy 2016?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The gist

Good Cop, Bad Cop, Google Cop

The policy’s site headline says it all

A Friendlier Court

The New Policies: Similar Logos

The New Policies: Ad Regulations

The New Policies: Privacy

Transparency, Transparency, Transparency

Google has done an Extreme Makeover Edition of their Play Store Developer Policy (on March 1st)

THE GIST

The change to policies themselves is relatively minor. It’s the overall attitude that changed - transparency

Policies and regulations have been made much clearer and developer friendly.

GOOD COP, BAD COP, GOOGLE COP

Google has got a bad rep for being too lenient where's Apple has always been strict

That hasn’t changed with the new policies, quite the opposite: Google strives to be the better cop. The one who doesn’t just write you a ticket, but also takes the time to explain why.

The policy’s site headline says it all – “Let’s build the world’s most trusted store for apps and games.” It’s really what it’s all about.

The new policy website now provides detailed information about violations that got your app rejected, as well as course of action and solutions.

Policies have become much more detailed and clear:

A FRIENDLIER COURT

The policy is broken down into categories and subcategories.

It includes possible violations, accompanied by detailed imaged examples.

You also get a list of best practices when Google has some to offer.

When you are rejected, you get referenced to the policy which you violated. When that policy is clear and accessible, the rejection is much softer.

The highlight of this renovationis lowering developer’s frustration upon rejection of their app and offering more information to help them overcome these issues.

If an app’s name or logo looks too similar to that of an official app, it will get rejected.

THE NEW POLICIES

Copycatting of other apps is strictly forbidden:

Ad Regulations:

THE NEW POLICIES

Ads cannot attempt to look like official device notifications

Ads must always provide a way to easily dismiss them.

Anything that forces the user to click on the ad in order to dismiss it is completely prohibited.

Remember:

Ads are part of your app and you are responsible for their behavior!

Any app accessing user data must provide a privacy policy, detailing which information it collects and with whom that information is shared.

THE NEW POLICIES

Privacy Regulations:

SafeDK’s In-App Protection will tell you if an SDK is accessing the list of installed apps, as well as provide you with the option to remotely deactivate the SDK from accessing this list without releasing a new version to the store! Your users are safe!

TRANSPARENCY, TRANSPARENCY, TRANSPARENCY

Google’s change to the developer policy is about making life easier for both developers and end users.

Google improved developer experience by:

Adding categories and subcategories and providing clear examples

Making policies more readable explaining the review process and making it

rejections clearer

By introducing the review process and setting a

threshold for which apps get through, it has took

a step forward in protecting users and giving

them a selection of higher quality apps.

TRANSPARENCY, … - CONT.

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