Android's Webview class is an excellent way to convert your website instantly into an app provided it is responsive. There are a lot of tutorials out there to convert your website into a webview instantly. I too wanted to convert one of my websites into an app.
However, there are certain things you need to keep in mind before you go ahead and submit in the app store for publication.
Since this is a relatively newer experience for me, I did not anticipate certain obvious gotchas. My application went through two sets of rejection before I could make it live, perhaps these could be useful for someone in similar waters.
Ensure that you are aware of all the policies that are set forth by Google Play; may it be copyrighted content, Privacy policy, Impersonation Policy, Ratings etc., I thought I had it all covered until I got this email from Google assuming that my application was an impersonation of an existing website.
Rejection#1
Notification from Google Play
Google Play Support <googleplay-developer-support+no-reply@google.com>
Hi Developers at ***,
After review, <may app>, has been suspended and removed from Google Play as a policy strike because it violates the impersonation policy.
Next Steps
- Read through the Impersonation article for more details and examples of policy violations.
- Make sure your app is compliant with the Impersonation and Intellectual Property policy and all other policies listed in the Developer Program Policies. Remember additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy issues with your apps.
- Sign in to your Developer Console and submit the policy compliant app using a new package name and a new app name.
What if I have permission to use the content?
Contact our support team to provide a justification for its use. Justification may include providing proof that you are authorized to use the content in your app or some other legal justification.
Additional suspensions of any nature may result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and/or the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and transaction fees) from you.
If you’ve reviewed the policy and feel this suspension may have been in error, please reach out to our policy support team. One of my colleagues will get back to you within 2 business days.
Regards,
The Google Play Review Team
My Appeal
My initial reaction was wtf! I have created an application for my own website, why the hell would google want to reject it? But the rationale behind this rejection made sense. What if a random person uses my website and tries to monetize my application? Or myself for that matter take a bunch of existing websites and start appifying them for my personal benefits.
I appealed. During the appeal, I uploaded a bunch of documents supporting that I am the owner of the website and that I have the rights to appify. The documents included - Google Analytics statistics page of the site and the Digital Ocean hosted app screenshots. Plus a small write up on claiming myself to be the owner.
Google understood and accepted my appeal. This is the email I got from them afterward.
Reinstatement
Re: [<my case#>] Your appeal for reinstatement
Hi Bragadeesh,
Thanks for contacting the Google Play Team.
We’ve accepted your appeal and your app <appname> has been reinstated. For the app to appear on the Play Store, you’ll need to sign into your Developer Console and click "Submit update" to submit your app again.
If the option to resubmit is not available, please make a small change (such as adding and deleting a space in your Description in the Store Listings) to reactivate the button.
In the future, if you have proof of permission you can submit it to our team proactively using this form:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6320428
The link can also be found on your Store Listing page underneath the box for Full Description.
If you're an AdMob publisher, you'll need to contact the AdMob team to re-enable ad serving:
https://support.google.com/admob/contact/appeal_policy_violation
The AdMob policy team will review your app(s) and decide whether to re-enable ad serving.
Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Thanks for supporting Google Play!
Regards,
<Google Engineer>
The Google Play Team
At this point, I was elated to have successfully appealed to my rejection and went ahead and resubmitted the application. However, later I found that, this feeling was short lived as I got a second rejection from Google Playstore.
Rejection#2
Notification from Google Play about <app name>
Hi Developers at ***,
Thanks for submitting your app to Google Play.
I reviewed <appname>, and had to reject it because of an unauthorized use of copyrighted content. If you submitted an update, the previous version of your app is still live on Google Play.
Here’s how you can submit your app for another review:
- Remove any content owned by a third party from your app. For example, your app Store Listing contains: images of “<a celebrity>” in the Tablet 7" Screenshots. Affected Translations: en_US, en_IN
- Read through the Unauthorized Use of Copyrighted Content article for more details and examples.
- Make sure your app is compliant with the Impersonation and Intellectual Property policy and all other policies listed in the Developer Program Policies. Remember that additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy issues with your apps.
- Sign in to your Developer Console and submit your app.
What if I have permission to use the content?
Contact our support team to provide a justification for its use. Justification may include providing proof that you are authorized to use the content in your app or some other legal justification.
If you’ve reviewed the policy and feel this rejection may have been in error, please reach out to our policy support team. One of my colleagues will get back to you within 2 business days.
I appreciate your support of Google Play!
Best,
<Google Engineer>
Google Play Review Team
This rejection though was totally valid. I felt so dumb to have used a celebrity picture for demonstration purposes in one of my tablet screenshots without a copyright. Google was sort of kinder and patient to me. In order, not to test their patience too much, I thought I would remove the image in question they've said and three other images as well which I thought would fall under the violative category.
I then resubmitted my application and voila! My app is now live at the play store. It was an adventurous learning because they could have blocked my entire developer account for life if I had one or two more policy strikes as many other developers have had.
Cheers!
Braga
