We have 2 Google play accounts for historical reasons (for 2 different entities, personal account and company account).
Both 2 accounts have application listed that is similar in functionality but personal account has very old version that is crappy , but still ranks well and brings in Admob revenue.
The new version is bringing most of the money, ranks better, and has great reviews.
We do not want to kill the old version since its still ranks well but we want to improve the ratings and experience to users. We want to take the code from the new app version and upload it to the old app. I understand if we do 1:1 copy Google may not like it since its violating Policy - Spam and Placement in the Store - Do not post repetitive content.
How much different you think we have to be to get away without trouble?
We want to:
change the name and logo
change color scheme
remove some features of new app so that functionality is different
Most of the codebase will be the same. is that a problem?
Thanks for reassurance. I think they will like it, many of existing users do not rate it highly because app is really crappy new app gets fantastic reviews and does the same thing but just works better
no this won’t get you banned. Even same code, same graphics and same music with same name of files won’t get you banned unless someone reports it to reddit bad apps or you violate the ad policy/copyright.