App suspended for an unknown reason please help.

Hi everybody,

A few weeks ago google suspended my app for an unknown reason I received this email from them.

REASON FOR SUSPENSION: Violation of section 4.4 of the Developer Distribution Agreement.

After a regular review, we have determined that your app downloads, monetizes, or otherwise accesses YouTube videos in violation of the YouTube Terms of Service or YouTube API Terms of Service. Accessing content, a product, or service in an unauthorized manner is a violation of the Developer Distribution Agreement, and is not allowed on Google Play.

I sent in an appeal only to get it instantly rejected. So I decided to be a man, find the violation and fix it. Spending the next week reading all the google and youtube API policies I couldn’t find the violation. I need to know what or if there is any violations in my app before republishing it. Could any of you please tell me what’s wrong? If you can I would be much obliged.

Here is the apk download link: MinecraftForum

Thanks
TDS200

I checked your apk. I see only a website.

Yes, all my app does is display a website. It has a slide out menu to make it quicker and easier to navigate the site and I placed an admob ad on the bottom of the layout. That’s it no downloading youtube videos and there’s plenty of content on the site. So what rule did I violate?

Sorry to say, but making a app that just shows a website violates the ‘being an idiot’ rule… more so if it is not your website!

I agree with mind as it is really dump to make an app that just loads a website into a webview.
People like you that makes it hard for us to earn a living.

I am not going just to insult you in this comment but I am going to do you a favor to explain you why your app got suspended.
First of all Minecraft Forum.
Only the name of your app will get it suspended sooner or later.

But the reason your app got suspended because if you load YouTube into a webview even if you lock your phone the videos keeps playing in the background and this is against Google policy.
Mainly for the advertisers.
The advertisers pay money for video ads and not for audio ads therefor YouTube is not allowed to be played in the background and that is what your Minecraft forum app is doing.

Please instead of releasing bunch of 1 minute developing apps go read more, learn more to finally make something that you are going to be proud of instead of the numbers showing in your dashboard.
Good luck.

Thank you for not insulting me. I understand about cheap apps I hate them too, I have many features planned for this app I just needed to get this first version on the app store too see if it is worth my time to continue . To answer minds question I have gotten permission from the website owner before I ever started. Also the main reason I have made the app is because I look at the minecraft forums often on my phone and they have no mobile version of the site making it almost impossible to navigate. Many others are asking for an app that instantly loads the forums instead of searching the Web and tediously clicking (and missing) the tiny links. My app is made to make navigating the minecraft forums easier on small mobile devices. If you swipe from left to right you will see what I mean. Thank you for explaining what is wrong. Do you have any suggestions on how to fix it?

Well that was one of the fastest way to earn monies back in the early days of Android.
Now it seems such trick can no longer work reliably anymore.
We have to understand once something (idea,initiative etc) becomes big, people will think of ways to game it.
In my other post, Google Play has spawned a new slate of initiatives like pay users to install,review,new gp accounts etc.
It is impossible to weed out such practices. This is how the world functions.
We have to learn to live with it (flaws and all) or simply exit ourselves from Android development world.
But to be honest, we exit Android development and goes into say MS development, such practices will rise again.
So instead of running away, we learn to face and make our way around it. This is how one can survive in this brutal world.

Plus I am a new android developer and thought this would be a nice start up project.

@TDS200 ok, your problem then is the following:

  1. You have 1 app already removed. This may make you more likely to get future apps closely looked at. If your account is ever banned, you will find it VERY, VERY, VERY hard to make another and keep it.
  2. You need to make a native android experience, not just load a webview (users can do this with their browser). THIS is what everyone here assumes got your app removed. Google seems to take a dim view of this. Mostly because people were doing it just to load a YouTube video and then putting an advert at the bottom.
  3. You should probably state clearly in the description (1st line!!!) that the app loads data from a source that is not yours, BUT THAT YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO DO SO. This might stop your app being removed by a lazy Google person. No guarantees though, but it does address the ‘profiting from someone elses hard work’ issue.

Consider your first app a “baptism by fire”… now go make something cool people will like :slight_smile:

Thanks for the help. I have fixed the problems and added the permission notice in the description then posted it on the app store but it got rejected for the same reason. I sent in an appeal and am now waiting for the results. (Please note that this was not a strike just the computer rejecting it for some reason).

I realy woud like to make a 3D archery trick shooting game. I am a national ranking archer and love trick shooting from hanging tennis balls to shooting through pipes. I would like to share the experience with others that cannot do it themselves via mobile/web/computer. I want to know what is best program and or language to use for this particular project. I know these programming languages and programs already: javascript (perfected), java (still learning), css, xml, html, php, blender, unity and eclipse. I know unity can use javascript and that would suit me extremely well but I would like some advice from somebody that knows what there doing.

Learn Unity, buy one of the complete projects on the asset store and study it or reskin it for your use, you have a long road starting from nowhere but its better than building webapps.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/search/archery

Well I got an answer to my appeal today pretty much the default no and a repeat of the reason of rejection. But I think I saw a bit of compassion from the person who reviewed my appeal he made the word monetizing bold. So I assume it’s a monetization problem. Would removing the banner ads and only showing a full screen ad when exiting the app work or will it still get banned?

I am going to make the archery app but probably in 2D I just would like to get this one app out there to cover for the time I spend working on Trickshot.

If they don’t want you monetizing someone else’s work… then switching from banner to full screen advert is still going to be a problem.