Hey, this is Overpass Insights. My name is Eric
and I make apps! Today, I want to ask the question
is it even worth it putting apps on the app store anymore?
Okay, so a couple of days ago, I did a video called "My biggest decisions
and my biggest regrets", where I talked about some of the biggest decisions I've
made over my life. I didn't regret them after all, but I did
asked a question at the end where I said, "have you guys had any
regrets that you're willing to share? I mean, please put them in the comments
and there was one very good comment from a WHS,
which is very relevant to app development. Very relevant to those of us
who have been app developers for a while. And the way that the Google Play and the
App Store is going and also very relevant to those of you, guys, just
thinking about getting into it. Because i talk a lot about
the revenue I made but if you don't see all my videos, you might not know
how many times I've been suspended over the years. I was just getting tougher
and tougher. And the
frustration in this comment was so good that I mean, Ii learned a lot from it.
I wanted to share with you guys just in case you didn't see it.
And it's a bit long, I'm going to read it in its entirety but
here it goes, A WHS says, "I regret ever getting into Android app
development. Been doing it 12 years now. I've had...
I've had Google ruin my business many times over the years, over their
beautiful perfect termination system. They run the
store and Google Play like a brothel. it's such a mess and legitimate
developers get shit on every day. I'm glad to say after 12 years,
I'm done. Google is truly pathetic, unethical company to do business with.
So is Apple. I made a ton of money, thankfully.
But it's time to move on. Dealing with Google
is worse than trying to deal with a nine year-old child and anyone who's raised
kids knows how big a shitheads nine year olds
can be. Now imagine that times a thousand.
And that's how Google works. To anyone reading this
thinking about jumping into app development, run. Run the other way.
Find a better, less stressful career. Yes, the money is good but
you can have the most legitimate, clean, proper, 10 out of 10 apps in the world
and there is still a 20 to 40 chance that Google will just
ban it for no real reason. And good luck having it appealed.
Their appeal system is a joke. Murderers have a better chance of getting bail
than you have - than you will have trying to get your
app restored. Let's put it this way for any new devs
reading, I day trade stocks, I play against
multi-million dollar bots trying to steal
my money and you know what's sad? Dealing with huge hedge funds trying to make - take
my money every day is a hell of a lot less stressful than trying to deal with
Google, at least i can't be "banned by
association" from trading the stock exchange.
And best of all, none of that net 60 payment term bullshit
will do either... So, I'm - okay so this- I mean this is a really
long comment. I've read it several times over.
I'm not going to read it all here, but I highly encourage you, guys, to go back and
read that other comment. I learned a lot from it because it was
one of those things where somebody starts to point out those
deep-seated frustrations. As an app developer, as somebody
who sells app development services, it would be
very easy for me to say, yeah, you should get an app done put it
on the app store but it is getting a lot tougher out there i
mean i know for years i was walking around saying
you know when people say oh that's really your apps are doing really good i
was like yeah i just hope they don't get like banned or suspended
and people would always say the same thing they say why would your apps get
suspended and my answer was i don't know and sure
enough i've had suspensions over nothing the algorithm gets me and i'll appeal it
and sometimes well most of the times appeals get overturned but then i got to
the point where with my biggest application which was bringing the most
revenue it got uh it got suspended and then i
just worked out i got it appealed and it got restored a few months later i got
suspended again i appealed it and then i peeled it again
and then i peeled it again got restored and then a few months later it got
suspended and finally in the end i kind of just stopped doing it
so my big app idea that i had in my own head
and i designed is there's copycats all over the place out there
and they're running amok and making all kinds of money on the on the play store
where my app is just keeps getting suspended over and over again
because maybe because of the algorithm maybe because of whatever and it's just
getting harder and harder and harder to do
i think the thing that um that really resonated me with that
with that comment was just how difficult things are getting and
it's something that we can't be all pollyanna about it's something that
for those who are those of us who've been in app development for a while
you can sense the frustration there's a lot of people who just given up all
together i'm kind of sticking with it but even
then when you guys ask me what new apps are you putting out
a lot of the stuff we're doing is client work so you know a business that needs
an application that doesn't go on the play store that
they're not relying on for passive income
that could just go and be used by their their employees or their customers or
whatever i find that to be a lot less stressful
than trying to put something out there i mean that doesn't mean i don't believe
in it because we're still gonna put more apps out there and try to do it
but it is you know that and it's the suspensions that get you
and um and yeah it's that that facelessness of it
i you know it used to be in the early days where apple was the
i couldn't stand apple because they just wouldn't approve anything and there was
such a hassle getting something through the apple app store
but then google play came around and the algorithm was even
more relent relentless because they would just shut you down
and like like i said it's suspension uh you know and people say oh what
what did you do what did you do and you're like i don't know
um from my point of view because i've done a few videos about suspensions i
get a lot of consultancy for it i mean it's it's good but sometimes like the
other day i got somebody uh wanting to say
eric can you help us out and i'll say well here's my if you want to hire me
for an hour we have a look at it but to be honest with you i think you
just keep appealing it and appealing it because there's not that much i can add
to it um and i say that to everybody if you
get suspended appeal appeal appeal but the algorithm might shut you down
again and it is getting more difficult i wanted to share
that just because i might be a very positive about
this kind of stuff and there's a lot of frustration out
there for people been doing it a long time
and for those guys getting in there just know that those risks are there
just know that that that's going to be you know it's it is not
a it is not an open market it is not a free market
it is a um you know it is controlled by something if you have a website out
there and you get a lot of traffic to it you
you're fine you know you're not gonna get shut down by some government
agency or something like that uh maybe fda
it depends if you're doing something dodgy but like with an app they can just
shut you down because they don't like it or because somebody complains or
whatever this is a little bit of a depressing
video today but really good comment thank you so much
i want to ask the rest of you guys out there especially those you guys
who are seasoned developers who've been doing this for a while like i have
how do you feel things are going do you think things are getting worse
do you think things are just kind of you know maybe it's not worth getting into
it because everybody can put an app on the app
store and and make a you know and try to make a bit of money so we have so many
clones and so much junk out there and then the
algorithm just goes through and shuts everybody down or do you think it's
still are you still positive about it because
i'm i'm i'm really on the fence and reading something like that
really it had a big influence on me i mean i'm starting to think well maybe
Anyway, Ii wanted to share with you, guys, it was a really good comment. If you
want to read the rest of it, go back into the video from
a couple days ago, and obviously let A WHS know
what you think by commenting on it. I really appreciate that, A WHS.
And for those of you guys let me know in the comments today
what you guys think. How you think your things are going.
I'm trying to be positive, but, anyway that is
it for today! I'll talk to you, guys, again next time!