Will Google ban amazon app

If u follow news u must have read that amazon has added its play store in their shopping app on play store.

Amazon apps require user to allow installation from unknown sources which is not allowed in play store.

Funny thing is that amazon rolled out this addition of category very silently without updating what’s new section of app listing which shows their desperation to bring users to their platform.

I m waiting for update on this from Google.

Google will ban anyone!

javaexp,

Can you confirm that you are able to download apps from Amazon App Store directly using the generic Amazon app (which IS available on Google Play).

Previously the generic Amazon App (the one which lists books/physical products etc.) had started pointing to apps on Amazon App Store - BUT that still had required a FURTHER download of the Amazon App Store app (which was NOT on Google Play) - so THAT step right there was the limiting factor - as it required user download an app from a link (requiring Settings - “Unknown Sources” to be enabled etc. before the downloaded Amazon App Store app would run).

If what you are suggest is correct - this would be revolutionary for those of us who are LIMITED by Google to only offer free apps (i.e. cannot offer paid apps yet). We could conceivably now offer the app on Amazon - AND would only have to ask users to “check out our paid app using the Amazon app” (a hurdle still - but still much less problematic than before).

However there must have been a reason that the Amazon App Store app was NOT available on Google Play store before. If so this would be Amazon sneaking this feature into the app - what is Google going to do - BAN Amazon app ? Would that be more trouble for Amazon - than bad press for Google - if users clamor for Amazon app and not find it on Google Play ? (after all - beyond some point Google Play HAS to support the “essential” apps - and Amazon app could be very close to an essential app that users in the U.S. EXPECT to find on Google Play - else it will be seen as a “deficient app store” !!).

So this could be a power play by Amazon.

HOWEVER - I wonder WHY Google can ban an external party from offering an app store app on Google Play (could be challengeable in anti-trust lawsuit against Google - if someone bothered to challenge it). After all Google DOES allow external apps to offer external digital and physical product sales (and even allows those apps to use third-party payment methods for that). The only place that is banned is when the payment is related to the app’s features itself (where presumably Google Play store could have been used - for in-app purchases for gold coins for games etc. - for instance).

If Amazon app is offering “digital product” - which is an app - I wonder how it would be considered predatory on Google’s business … (?)

Engadget wrote about it earlier: Amazon has made its Appstore for Android obsolete

Wasn’t Opera doing this for years?

@adforandroidapps
amazon has played it very safe. The apps section is present in US and not India. I think that is because amazon is better suited to fight google in US than in any other country. If they can win any litigation in US from google. They can then open it up for other countries

Original techcrunch article which broke the news supposedly:
Amazon Quietly Launches A Functional App Store Within Its Main Android Application | TechCrunch
Amazon Quietly Launches A Functional App Store Within Its Main Android Application
Posted Oct 24, 2014 by Sarah Perez

@javaexp - it’s also present in Europe where Google would have the hardest time to fight this. I’d love to see alternate app stores to be allowed in Google Play, that would diversify Android more instead of making it more and more into a walled garden as it is now.

Was trying to do some reading to get some sense of Amazon App store and possible response from Google in future …

Updated Google Play Distribution Agreement takes a shot at Amazon - Ausdroid
Updated Google Play Distribution Agreement takes a shot at Amazon
in Google Play / Google Services / News — by Phil Tann — 11:50 AM on September 26, 2014

The article below suggests that Google Play distribution agreement changes - may be what prompted Amazon to shelve it’s App Store app (which the main Amazon app was pointing to - when users wanted to download apps). Earlier the mainstream Amazon app (which WAS on Google Play) - DID allow you to search for apps - but then it would ask you to download the separate Amazon App Store app (which was NOT on Google Play) - thus enable “Unknown Sources” in android Settings - and then download Amazon App Store app from their website - and only then could you proceed to the app page to download the app you wanted etc.

By the arguments of the above article - this process would have fallen awry of the new Google Play agreement changes.

Which maybe why Amazon actually shelved the App Store app … and instead chose to (risked to ? - and in any case this was better or what they wanted in first place probably - since fewer steps for users) - i.e. now chose to include app store functionality directly in the mainstream Amazon app.

What Amazon maybe going on - maybe to argue that since the purpose of the mainstream Amazon app is not “solely” to distribute apps - but is a mainstream product app - then the Apps & Games section they have now included is just a “minor” part of it. This argument would work with users (and possibly a judge - in the case of an anti-trust suit against Google ?). AND it may actually legally be plausible - given the language in Google Play distribution agreement is that they don’t want apps that are primarily just app store apps. Even though supposedly Google Play already has some smaller app store apps - as articles suggest the app stores for various mobile carriers etc.

So I do not think Google could really prevent appearance of a multi-purpose app like Amazon mainstream app - and prevent it from offering one particular set of digital goods (apps) - so in long run it would legally be potentially winnable for Amazon (also good PR for Amazon - and bad PR for Google if lawsuit is public and much-discussed when it is ongoing).

CAN DEVELOPERS POINT DIRECTLY TO APP PAGE ON AMAZON APP ?

The clause in the Google Play distribution agreement (as quoted in the article above) is:

Quote:
You may not use the Store to distribute or make available any Product which has a purpose that facilitates the distribution of software applications and games for use on Android devices outside of the Store.

Now the question arises - can WE as free app developers (on Google Play) - ALSO advertise in the Google Play description that “you can download a paid version of the app from Amazon - just download the Amazon app from Google Play - and search for our app XYZ there (Google currently prevents us from offering a paid version on Google Play)”. There may in fact be a direct URL one could use (with new Android intent stuff - this could potentially open the exact app page within Amazon app store).

Since this is technically redirecting users to full version of the app (but on another app store) - I wonder if this would fall awry of any Google policies (“distribution … outside of the Store”). Since you are technically pointing users to a version of your app - which is NOT dependent on Google Play (to be updated etc.).

This would be similar to providing a direct link to an APK - that you have on your website - which a user can directly download and install. If one places a direct link to an APK in Google Play Description section - would that also be cracked down upon by Google ?

SHOWING ADMOB ADS ON AMAZON DEVICES (NON-GOOGLE-PLAY-SERVICES)
By the way - regarding showing Admob ads in Amazon-distributed apps (possibly for Amazon devices like Kindle etc.) - it seems you CAN show Admob ads within Amazon apps i.e. Amazon is ok with that - BUT with Google move to use of “Google Play Services” versions of Admob - your app is no longer just dependent on an included library - but now your app will use Google Play services APK installed on the device (if that is newer) - and will use your included library (that is in YOUR APK) if THAT is newer. However, it seems that STILL - as long as you have bundled the Google Play Services library for Admob in your APK project - THEN it supposedly works ok on Amazon devices like Kindle. Here are some links explaining that:

Forums: AdMob or other ads in amazon app store …
Thread: AdMob or other ads in amazon app store apps ?

Quote:

anatolyl
#2 is not correct
Google Admob is not dependent on Google Play Services APK (installed or not) so it will work on Kindle Fire devices - just try and see yourself.

Explanation here:
android - Do you really need to check for Google Play services to use AdMob? - Stack Overflow

and the response from a higher support tech at Amazon it seems (since Sujoy@Amazon was not aware of this):

DougM@Amazon
To anatolyl’s point, AdMob does fill ads on Kindle Fire as long as the library project is included within your build. I validated this on a Kindle Fire HDX with Android Studio with adding compile ‘com.google.android.gms:play-services:+’ into my app module’s dependencies in Gradle. If you are using another build system or environment, you will need to follow instructions from Google for how to add the Google Play Services library project into your build and runtime dependencies.

You won’t be able to validate that GMS is installed at runtime nor dynamically update the libraries, per the StackOverflow post that anatolyl has linked to, but you can actually use the library and it will function.

The link mentioned by anatolyl above:

android - Do you really need to check for Google Play services to use AdMob? - Stack Overflow
Do you really need to check for Google Play services to use AdMob?

This is answered by Eric (Google employee):

Quote:

TL;DR - You do NOT need to check for Google Play services to use the Mobile Ads APIs.

The Google Mobile Ads offering in Google Play services is unique from most (all?) of the other libraries in Google Play services in that it CAN work without the service APK installed on the device.

If the APK installed on the device is a more recent version, the library will load the classes from the APK service and use these newer classes to request ads. Otherwise, the version of Google Play services that you compile in your app is sufficient to fetch ads.

The benefit here is that you effectively will always run against the latest version of the library when the device has the service installed. And in the case that your service version is older than the version you compiled your app against (ex: your example above) or in the case where there is no service on the device (ex: Kindle Fire), the library compiled with your app can still do the ad fetching, but you’ll still have to pull in updates manually.

answered Feb 4 at 1:34
Eric Leichtenschlag

I am not sure for now but Google will surely ban them in future ! we could expect that just by chance Google will leave them to pass over it and over the upcoming time I am sure this news is going to fill up this forums that, Google has banned Amazon for freaking them out !

OMG this is really an awesome news! :smiley: