Samsung apps is rejecting Startapp because they say it contains push ads.

Samsung apps tested one of our apps and rejected it, because they wrote that it contained Push notifications. This is simply not true and I can prove that the app does not have any Push notification ads. They wrote that they scanned our app and found Startapp SDK. This SDK does not use any type of push ads! You can read about how Startapp works here:

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding StartApp

I haven’t got a reply from Samsung apps about this, because the test of the apps is made in automatic way. Their support just says that I should post on their developer forum, where I get no reply. What should I do?

Well the easiest thing to do would be to remove StartApp’s SDK.
From the looks of it Samsung Apps now reject any apps that use out-of-app ads. Quite simply they are trying to clean up their brand image now that they are the true Top Dogs in mobile hardware.

Have you had much success with their App Store? I tried submitting an app once, but it got rejected twice for really minor reasons that I couldn’t understand.
Is it worth it?

Yeah they does that ! And you are not going to get any valid replay from those guys…They are just impossibly stupid :mad:

The app that got rejected for startapp sdk, was it an exit-ad only sdk or one including all exit+icon+bookmarks ?

I was wondering if they ban exit-ad only(in-app) sdk? Considering their level of ignorance, they probably will…

I had 2/3rd of my apps rejected for ridiculous reasons. Their approval process looks random.
Once the apps are approved: For me the amount of downloads is about 1/15th of what I get on Google play. So yes it is worth it IMHO.

A1ka1in: Yes, they have approved 20 of our apps. It is really just 10 apps, but it is a full and free version of each app. Their tests are really difficult to pass. I get about 500 downloads from the appstore each day. Only about 4 sales each day though. It is not worth it if they don’t allow “out of app ads”, like Startapp. This is the only way of getting any real revenue from live wallpapers. If this is the way the appstore are moving, with removing the only ways we have of earning money from the Android apps, our company will only focus on iPhone apps.

amalvj123:I have got no answer of explanation from them, just “please ask your question on the developer forum”. Where nobody replies on my question. It was an app with bookmark and icon, but absolutely no push ad!

Its not about just about push ads,its about all out-of-app advertisements…including notification ads,icon ads,bookmark ads…

which means soon there will be no widgets or wallpaper apps in samsung apps…then they will realize their mistake…

Are you sure that no out-of-app advertisements are allowed by Samsung apps now? Have you got any information from them about this? I can’t find any information about this on their site and I have got no info from them about this. I tried to post on their developer forum, but my thread was ignored.

Samsung store does let to almost all developers from the world to sell their apps, which Google doesnt. Did you think to sell your app without any ads, instead of adding some ads to it.
Samsung doesnt allow any kind of ads, which bring users to another market (example Play market). I had my app with Admob+Tapjoy, so they rejected it because of Tapjoy… Im thinking to sell a version without any ads in that store.

Daler, I don’t think that approach would be very profitable. The buy to download ratio is very low on Android, even for highly rated apps with good reviews. The only way of getting any real revenue from Android apps is to put commercials in the free versions. The full paid versions also generate revenue, but almost always less than the commercials.

IAP is a thing to consider. They probably can get you more than ads.

I now tried to get an app up that has
-push ads
-link to play store

I want to see if samsung changed anything so far, because restricting push ads is a very very bad idea

Your app will be reject:
1, Link to other store
2, Push ads

That’s why I will try it xD

They havnt changed a thing…Actually worse…Now they reject all the following(my experience)

  • Anything with push ads (since 2 months)
  • Startapp full sdk (Since 2 months)
  • Airpush in-app sdk (since last month)
  • Startapp in-app sdk ( since a couple of weeks).Had an app update rejected 5 days ago…

I have started the following thread about rejecting the lase 2 cases, but no use

Forum | SAMSUNG Developers

as for google play link…of course they will reject it

I wonder if they reject appwiz or mobilecore !!

I have removed all the Startap ads and replaced them with a smarter implementation of Admob interstitial ads. This has resulted in better revenue than before and almost no bad reviews. Startap pays off really bad and it results in angry users, who complain. Now I understand why Samsung apps don’t allow it.

how can you use admob interinitials…I thought it was allowed only to ‘selected’ apps !!

That is correct, but Google has approved our company to use the Admob interstitials. They pay off more than 4 times better than Revmob, Greystripe, Jumptap and all of the others that I tried.

Do admob interstitials have close to 100% fill rate ? What type of ads they run ? Does it sometimes show AppWalls or only traditional ads ?

I also got number of apps in suspend. For my question : "What name of ad network, that you found in my apps you do not allow? " I got following answer:

"Regarding your inquiry, we would like to inform you that Samsung Apps certification team has confirmed Google AdMob contains “push notifications”. Thus, in order to publish your applications on Samsung Apps again, we suggest you to remove Google AdMob advertisement from your applications before re-submitting for certification again. "

Nice! A? AdMob contains push notifications!!!

I checked the Admob fillrates for my apps. The highest is 99,98% and the lowest 68%, but it is usually >90%. I have only seen ads for other apps and games in the insterstitials. They also have ads for other things and products in the banner ads. They collect info about what the user is interested in from their google searches. They then use this to find the right type of ads for the user. I think that is why they pay off so well. I haven’t seen any appwall in their ads.

Kidgames: They must have made a mistake there. Probably someone was drunk at the office or something. I have Admob in all of my apps and they haven’t said anything about it.