My Android app (1.6M dloads, 4.5 rating) was suspended from Market

http://www.martinadamek.com/2011/04/28/apndroid-is-suspended-on-the-android-market/

by martinadamek • 15 years ago

38 27 15 years ago

pedrocr• 15 years ago

You seem to have a standard monetization strategy (ads+paid version) yet the app is released as GPLv3? Has no one simply recompiled the app without the ads and put that on the market?

martinadamek6• 15 years ago

Yes, they did. But I didn't mind, they've used that for good apps. But one smartass didn't even bother to change the icon!

LeonidasXIV• 15 years ago

It is GPLv3? Thanks man, this is the first time I thought about paying for an app. Let me see how to set up payment…

Though I don't like AirPush, it would be cool if you'd find a better solution.

jhack• 15 years ago

I find notification ads (or just constant notifications) to be really, really annoying. Free Power Widget does this, constantly telling you to buy the paid version every time you turn on/off wi-fi or anything else you put there. There has to be a better way to do this.

martinadamek6• 15 years ago

Doing this on every action is too much I think, this leads really to uninstall or buy.

ilikepi• 15 years ago

Your description of Free Power Widget's mannerisms takes me back to the days of shareware on Win9x. Ugh...

worldvoyageur• 15 years ago

The advantage of an app store app over a web app seems rather thin to me.

The marketing required to get an app high enough in an app store for a user to notice seems no different from the marketing required to get a web app noticed.

However, with a web app only customers get to decide whether or not they use it. There is no corporate intermediary that would, for whatever reason, decide to not let customers choose your app.

And, as this story illustrates, the risk of being abruptly booted out of an app store without knowing why is real.

PanMan• 15 years ago

This seems to be an app that isn't (and won't for a long time) possible as a webapp: It actively manages your internet settings, and webapps (fortunately) don't have access to that.

Void_• 15 years ago

Your app is used once in a while, so regular ads wouldn't make much money, eh? See, that's not fair to bother users regularly with ads if they use it just sometimes.

martinadamek6• 15 years ago

Actually, this is one valid point against these ads, that I could agree with. I guess this must be solvable.

TillE• 15 years ago

I tried the AirPush demo and found that it actually plays the notification sound when displaying the ad.

If that's happening at random times when I'm not using your app...that's really, really terrible. It's spam, plain and simple. These are unsolicited messages that happen to be sent directly rather than via email.

shareme• 15 years ago

Its probably 4.4 of the Android Market TOS..as far as a violation.

Or someone else has a copyright claim against you. In that case I think they will send you a copy of the DCMA if that has occurred.

joelhaasnoot• 15 years ago

Or upset users reported the app which led to a simple ban without much looking into the app.

martinadamek6• 15 years ago

I also think that it might be this one.

guelo• 15 years ago

I hope this is Google beginning to ban Notification ads.

ekidd• 15 years ago

When I clicked on this headline, I expected to be disappointed by some ugly Google shenanigans.

When I read the article, my initial reaction was, "Oh yuck. That's just vile. I'd definitely give his app a single star, uninstall it, and complain to my friends. Not sure how I feel about Google yanking it, though."

But the more I thought about notification advertising, the more it reminded me of the dark days of Windows XP before the SP2 security fixes. Every other computer, it seemed, was infected with adware, and users loathed it. The cried, they yelled, and they even bought new computers in a desperate attempt to make the ads go away.

So upon reflection, if Google is going to pull anything at all from their Market (besides obvious scams, and so on), they should definitely start with applications that make users feel powerless and angry about their devices.

tbh• 15 years ago

(I'm a previous APNdroid user)

Putting ads in the notification area is remarkably antisocial. This is not what the notification area is for. It's selfish, violates the user's trust, and quite rightly causes the red mist of rage to descend.

It may sound harsh, but your app deserved to be removed for this.

adn37• 15 years ago

Developers have to come a long way to build an user base and good ratings, so it would have been fair to give a warning notice prior to removing the app, ihmo.

(speaking as an Android app dev; and yes it is too intrusive)

andybak2• 15 years ago

I disagree. It's so obviously a cheap, nasty move that no warning should be necessary.

It's beyond intrusive. It's spam and Airpush will hopefully be out of business soon.

ravivyas• 15 years ago

Notification ads are bad , it not like a full screen TV ad but more like a banner which plays during your favorite game, no one will like it , it was a stupid move to do this. "With great power comes great responsibility"

andybak2• 15 years ago

Just had a revealing little chat with an Airpush sales rep via their Live Chat system: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2493047

SilverSurfer972• 15 years ago

Serves you right. Pushing advertisements in the notification bar. Thumbs up for Google quick reaction. And thumbs down to you and your low grade methods.

bxr2• 15 years ago

I don't know what route you took to decide that this form of advertizing is "the best" for the user. Do you really think that waking me up in the middle of the night to look at an advertizement is good for me as a user?

You contrast it to TV ads. With TV ads, I know what program the ad is sponsoring. My TV doesn't click on at random times to show me ads just because I have something saved on my PVR that I never watch.

I'm very glad your app got yanked, and I don't say this lightly, I am still divided on the idea of a moderated app distribution channel at all.

martinadamek6• 15 years ago

AFAIK ads are served between 9AM-9PM. But to be honest, after reading all the feedback and seeing all the other opinions, I am not as confident as I was before. Now I'll need to manage this situation reasonably.

bxr2• 15 years ago

Even if they aren't served outside that window, not everyone's waking hours are 9-9.

fondue• 15 years ago

Camera 360 started doing this and I uinstalled it. If I knew an app was going to have this I would never install it in the first place.

Why? For me it gave the sensation of an additional app installed along with the app I wanted and this additional app was malware. I had to dig around to figure out what app had started doing this.

martinadamek6• 15 years ago

[update] I have the app available back in my hands, but unpublished. I am not going to put it back right away, because of all your feedback. Thank you all for the opinions, I've got my lesson.

My Android app (1.6M dloads, 4.5 rating) was suspended from Market

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