Hi! This is A Minute Of Overpass. My name is Eric and I make apps. Now, this week I
wanna talk about "What are you gonna do when it all ends?"
Okay, so I know a lot of people comment about their accounts being suspended
from Google Play. So Google Play just shutting them down and it's something
that scares me a lot. And in a few weeks ago, somebody was asking me about it. They
were saying that they have 2 strikes against them and you're allowed to
have 3 and what will you do if Google Play shuts you down and all
this kind of stuff. And it's something that I actually think about all the time,
right? I'm terrified of Google Play shutting down my account because
everything's in there, because I've worked so hard of building that up.
The millions and millions of downloads and I'm not doing anything wrong.
I mean, when I talk to people on this ago why would they shut you down you're not
doing anything wrong? and I said I know but I've got like 3 strikes against me
already.
I don't know how many you're supposed to have. So I'll tell you about one
of them which wasn't that bad,
and then we'll go on from there. So if you have a look at my screen
here, this is an app which was just a reskin like purchasing the code
reskinning it.
This is the only time I've ever done this and it's the last time I'll ever do
it. I've done a video about this before so I'll not go to it too much but we
purchased the code for a Swing Copter clone and my designer went through and
made it all Spy based. We thought we could appeal to like Ear Spy users
and everything like that. Go with all the whole spy theme and everything.
So we worked quite a lot on this and we released it and Apple approved it.
You know it makes me no money. I think I don't even think we have AdMob and if we
have RedMob in it. So I make like I mean I think I make 1 cent every 2
weeks or something on this thing. It's it's ridiculous but I mean it was
approved by Apple.
I mean it went through Google as well but this is what I got.....Suspended!
I got suspended almost immediately and the reason they said was because it was
trying to imitate another app. And this was kind of thing where maybe I should
have appealed it. I mean this was a few years ago because other people are doing it
and if you go to like these reskin websites whatever, they'll tell you,
"All you have to do is change the graphics and release it as your own", and
you know it was kind of thing where this is the only time I've ever
done it. I kinda didn't feel right about it and then once I released it and
then it was suspended I said that's
the last time I'm ever gonna do that, but this is the kind of
thing which scares me about Google Play. It's doing something that is
not that bad, it's having something completely suspended. Now, my
2 other strikes here are....let me just go back here... Alarm Spy and Eye Spy. So our big
app is called Ear Spy, so that we would have a companion site
called Eye Spy and what that was is it takes a camera in your phone and it
uses it as a web server and you can't use it like remotely, you can only use it
like within your Wi-Fi network. You put in another room and then you just use
the browser connect to it and it takes a picture. So it wasn't
that bad but it was removed. And the reason they said they removed it was
because it had malware or harmful code in it, right? and I did appeal this one
because I said I'm not malware but part of me was thinking it is a creepy app,
right? It was you know when I thought about it was doing really really well
but it's kind of creepy. Now, if you have a look at this and one of the reasons
why I think it may have been something with an ad network is because back then I was
adding every ad network that was available, trying to see which one was
best.
You see the paid version here is still published. They never done anything with
the paid version so people still buy this quite a lot, and so it's
kind of thing where this one and the Alarm Spy was the same kind of
thing. It was a motion sensor. It sent you an email if it sees any movement in your
house and stuff like that. So those 3 of them are my 3 strikes and they
scare me a lot because you think what if I release something else and I have an
ad network and the ad networks are the code that you cannot control. You don't
know what they can add in there. And this again, it goes back to my love of app
AdMob. It's the only one I like. I trust AdMob. I'm using AdMob, AppLovin and right now
I'm using Facebook Audience Network and everything else is using through
mediation, having other things go through there and see how those do, but
those are the things. So they're starting to make me think that yes maybe
one day I could get my account suspended because I don't really really know very
much about it. If you look at the help on this
which when they have these suspensions, they talk about "Every suspension counts
as a strike against the good standing of your Google Play Developer account and
multiple policy violations can result in suspension." right? so this you know the
good standing,
that's what kinda but I don't know how many strikes you're allowed or anything
like that so if anybody has had their account suspended, if you could put like
a reason why. You do it anonymously, I don't know if you do it anonymously and
just kind of let us know because this is something that you know is really
interesting to me.
So anyway we go back to what will happen if everything you know,
what will happen when everything ends essentially? and aside from being
embarrassed about the fact that I have so many
YouTube videos out there about app development, it won't affect me very much.
I mean, every industry changes and everybody goes through these kind of
things. I mean, when I became an app developer I left a very good job and
everyone was saying that you're crazy to do it and then
eventually they end up.... well the end of it may be made redundant, I worked at
companies where everyone thought their jobs are secure and then 6
months later they're carrying boxes out of the building long after you've left.
And every industry is on the move. Everybody has to assume that this is not
going to be here 6 months from now, a month from now or whatever. And this is
one of the problems with app income and I love app income. I love the
fact that it comes in even when I'm on holiday. It comes in when I'm sleeping,
all this kind of stuff. I suppose a client work which we obviously work for.
The nice thing about that is it's coming in. The downside is you don't....it's
not really that predictable. I mean you could keep promoting things but
everything could dry up tomorrow and then you'll be back where you
started, so you're always preparing for that rainy day. So I'm not too worried
about my account being suspended.
I mean, it will be a pain because I have to go back and do some more client
work and stuff like that, and but you know it's a thing I think when it
comes to the justice of the Google Play system, I don't have a lot of faith in
it. I mean, I suppose I should but it seems more automated than with Apple. If
Apple sees a problem with your app, they will tell you about it
and they will let you fix it. Google will suspend it and if I go back to this
suspension page over here. I go into one of these, it just doesn't let you do
anything. It doesn't let you amend it. It doesn't let you resubmit it. It doesn't let
you even delete it. So it's just this thing that sits in your applet.
So anyway, that's it for this week. I'm ending on a dark note but I think
the surprising thing is even though I've been thinking about this for the
past few weeks up, yeah is that everything's going really well. I mean,
more income is coming in than it has never come before.
Things are going well but even when I was working when my job was totally
secure,
I was always thinking about what am I gonna do when this ends and
you know always knowing even when you're on a boat you know
where the lifeboat is. So anyway, that's it for this week. Rambling... I'll talk to
you next week. Bye!