Hey, this is the daily overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps now today. Let's talk about
violating the deceptive ads policy in Google Play.
Okay, so I've had another app rejected, I tell you what I have not been rejected this much since high school.
It seems like every time you put something through you have like a 75% chance of it being approved these days,
but this time it wasn't rejected by Apple. It was rejected by Google, which is a lot more rare.
Usually I'm like, if Google rejects something I'm like, hey this is something, what's going on?
So it wasn't, it was just a rejection for an update. So it wasn't a suspension or anything like that,
no big deal, but here's what I got.
So I
submitted a bunch of apps to the App Store some updates a couple of days ago and I woke up yesterday to an email from
Google Play
saying,
You know
"Hi developers, your app has been rejected because of a violation of the deceptive ads policy,
and I thought that sounds serious. That sounds like I'd done something really really bad. I just I was like in bed
I know I should have checked my phone when I wake up in the morning
but I checked it up and I just sat straight up was like, you know, what is this and I read through it and
they got me on one of the apps. They said I'm violating the deceptive ads policy and they included a screenshot
So it was this one here.
So you see that we have this pop up for the GDP our consent form which comes up and says
Do you want to have relevant ads? Do you want to have non personalized ads? Or,
do you want to pay for the ad free version and then that ad free version goes back to the Play Store so they can
Purchase the paid version, right? Basically, I took the Google consent form and just put it into my own app,
so it kind of blends in with the theme and everything and they said that this last one pay for the ad free version which
goes to another app, that is
technically an ad and it doesn't look like an ad and it needs to be marked as an ad.
All right, so I said to them and I included a screenshot I sent it to them saying
Okay, so I appealed it because I thought that doesn't make any sense.
I appealed it and I sent them a link to the Google Play
Consent form which has the exact same form on it.
So if you use a Google consent API, it pops up with a form it says do you want to continue to see relevant ads?
Ads that are less relevant or pay for the free version and it's the same thing if you pay for the free
It goes back to the App Store the Play Store, right? So that's what I did.
So I peeled that said oh, yeah, I see what you mean, but no, this is not an ad
this is the exact same thing as as the form that Google put out. So I'm not really breaking the rules
I'm using the exact same language and that appeal was rejected.
They came back saying if it's going to be an ad it needs to say more apps
You need to say more apps or more games or something like that and it was it was rejected
So my appeal was rejected and I thought huh that's kind of weird.
So a couple of weeks ago
I was talking to our friend Rodrigo and he had the same issue and he told me about it,
he said they rejected it because I have this button to go buy the full version and
they said that that's an ad and it's a deceptive ad and I said we'll just change it.
So that's what I'm I have to do what this one has just changed it, right, but when it was Rodrigo
I was like that's interesting. When it was me. It was like, it's me. So
anyway, I wasn't really that upset about it. I mean, I'm kind of am.
It doesn't make any sense, because here's the deal, right, the other day
I actually went through and I updated like 22 different apps and I uploaded them
So it was like going through and just making these API changes and just uploading, uploading, uploading.
I just sat down for like almost an entire day and just started uploading these apps to the
Play Store and out of 22 that I uploaded and went through and did all the stuff out of 22 of them
one of them got this rejection. All the rest of them went through just fine. You can see from the screenshot here
It's the Korean version of the app. So it's one reviewer who's rejected it.
I've appealed it, that appeal was rejected and it's just the way that it is.
I mean, sometimes you get one past the goalie.
Sometimes you get a reviewer who could be a bit more difficult,
but you have to
accept the fact that when you have a review or you're dealing with a person and they just don't want rubbish going onto
the Play Store or on to the App Store, and
sometimes you could go through and plead out your case and I could fight this one a little bit further saying I'm using the exact
same wording, or I could just go through and put ads in brackets or something on that button.
But because I know Rodrigo had the same issue, I thought I would bring it up here because I mean a
Projections are just a fact of life. They just they happen from time to time.
Sometimes you have a reviewer go through and look at it,
and I think google play is getting more involved in the review process than they ever were in the past
But you get somebody go through and they review it. I mean they concluded a screenshot
They made it very clear as to what I had to do,
so that wasn't that big a deal, but it's kind of annoying, but there's only one
app out of those out of all those ones that I did and
I just wanted to talk about it a little bit today if you had the same kind of issue,
because like I said, Rodrigo had it I'm sure other of you guys have had it out there, if that happens
just change it,
just change the wording put ad on there, do whatever you have to do to get to get it live.
Make the reviewer happy, because a reviewer, they're just trying to do their job and they just want to be able to rubber stamp it
It's like yeah, that's fine go through. So anyway that is it for today. I'll talk to you guys again tomorrow.