What to do when your app gets suspended??......Here's the solution...

Hi guys…
This is my first post, This forum has helped me a lot in generating revenue from my apps with proper guidance from you guys.
Now it’s time to return the favour.:slight_smile:

What to do when your app gets suspended??

Now that’s a really tough question. Frankly speaking we cannot do anything, there is only 1 step i.e. appeal to google (yeah…if that really works:p).
Google never replies to our appeals. If it does, there is no positive response.
So, the only solution left is to update your app package and republish. But what about the thousands of users from our previous app:confused:. Well they are gone and we have to start from zero again(that really sucks:mad: ).
We all devs will agree that more the number of active users more is the revenue, but starting over is like going back to the stone age and is like a hard blow over our faces coz many of us work full time on apps and pay our bills from the revenue :(.

The Solution.

The solution that I am going to present won’t protect your app from the Google ban hammer(No one can) coz of constantly changing google policies and not so compliant Ad networks(We all know that…right?). The solution will help you get back your 80% - 90% of active users from your previously banned app to your new more compliant app in just 8-10 days(that’s awesome…agree??:)).

Introducing GetBackOnTrack SDK

GetBackOnTrack SDK (still working on the name) was developed as a result of the frustration I got from google when it banned 2 of my apps with over 100k downloads :mad:.

Simply add the SDK to your project which literally takes no more than 5 min(may be less, tried to keep it as simple as possible).
Just add the SDK to your libs folder and add 2 lines of code in your MainActivity and 2 activity declaration in AndroidManifest, that’s it:D.

Using this SDK you can control your app to show a custom pop over if your app got suspended and redirect the user to your new app in google play :D.
If your app is not suspended and there is no pop over to display, the SDK will show a custom House ad(simple interstitial) only 3 ads a week(previously it was 1 ad per day :p) you can consider it as a donation to me which can help me get back on track and besides 3 ads a week wont even cost you a cent.

This SDK is like an insurance for your App in which you invested so much time and energy.

(Releasing the tutorial in the next post:D)

[b][u]Download SDK[/u][/b]

Demo App pop up screen:

demo screen.jpg

  1. Download the SDK from the download link above. Extract the zip file.

  2. Zip file contains 2 files
    (i) GetBackOnTrack.jar (The SDK)
    (ii) GetBackOnTrackAdmin.apk (The Admin control pannel)

  3. Now the 1st thing you do is install the apk on your phone(it uses only Internet permission).

    • Start the app and register with your email id and password (please remember the password, coz i am yet to implement the forgot password functionality :P).
    • Now there will be 2 buttons 1. Add app 2. Refresh.
    • Press “Add app” button > Enter your app packagename (be careful, the packagename should be same as your application packagename otherwise it will not work) > press save
    • If there are no errors your new app will be registered and you will get back to the “Registered Apps” screen.
      Press Refresh, you will see your new app in the list.
    • your app is now activated and the SDK is ready to be integrated in your application.
  4. Now copy the SDK in your app’s libs folder.

    • open your AndroidManifest.xml

    • Add the Internet permisson
      <uses-permission android:name=“android.permission.INTERNET” />

    • copy these lines inside your <application></application> tag.
      [b]
      <activity
      android:name=“com.lib.getbackontrack.AlertActivity”
      android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen" />
      <activity
      android:name=“com.lib.getbackontrack.AdActivity”
      android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen" />
      [/b]

    • open your MainActivity(the first activity of your app) and copy the line below inside your onCreate().
      [b]GetBackOnTrack.initialize(“[email protected]”, “PASSWORD”, getApplicationContext()); [/b]

    • That’s it :smiley:

    • The above line initializes the SDK and checks if your app is suspended or not from the server, if it is suspended than a pop over is shown with your custom message and new packagename else it will show a house ad(if available) once a day.

    • If you display ads on app launch as well than with the above code use a listener as well and implement your ad display code inside it coz if your app is suspended then you will only want to show the pop over for your new app and not your ad (if your fine with displaying pop over as well as ad then you don’t have to implement it ;D).
      copy the listener code below and paste it below “GetBackOnTrack.initialize(“[email protected]”, “PASSWORD”, getApplicationContext());” method

[i][b]
GetBackOnTrack.setPostLibraryListener(new PostLibraryInitialization() {

		@Override
		public void onNoAlertDisplayed() 
                    {
			// TODO Add your ad display code here..
						
		}
	});

[/i][/b]
- We are done :smiley:

  1. Now if your app got suspended than publish your new app again with different packagename(obviously) and open your GetBackOnTrackAdmin app
    • Login with your registered Email ID and Password.
    • You will see your registered app packagename(which is suspended now).
    • Select your app > you will be taken to “App Details” screen
    • Now fill in the details like - 1. Your new package name 2. Small heading for your new app (like App Moved!!) 3. Sub heading (like Get the updated version now!!) 4. Press the seekbar so that your App Status shows : “App Active : NO” and finally save.
    • That’s it, whenever your users open your previous app they will receive a pop over with your custom message.
    • Users will click on download button and will be redirected to your new google play app page. :smiley:

This is it.
Feel free to ask any question and i’ll help you out.
And please give your valuable suggestions
Thank You :slight_smile:

this seems like a really good idea, waiting for reviews from developers who have implemented this if it’s worth it or if it works. thanks!

why must use apk admin?

Uwhy not use webssite, anyone think about a day he can change your link on your app to him??

Very dangerous

The apk is used to communicate with the server that’s it…
I am not good at website development so it was easier for me to create an Application ;).

And no one will be able to change the links coz it needs an Email ID and Password that only you know…

Nice idea! One suggestion, I don’t think you should include password as method signature at the initialize method since it will expose your password in the apk. I think email address would be enough to identify the developer.

point taken. I’ll update the SDK and post the update in an hour :smiley:

This is a very bad deal for developers and I’ll explain why:

  1. he wants to show his own ad once per day on app startup. This is probably the most ad important position in your app. Your users likely won’t open your app many times per day, so you’re giving him a very significant portion of your ad revenue.

  2. androidexp is a lone developer (not a company) who has likely uploaded spam/illegal apps which have been banned many times by Google. also if you do some Google research, you’ll see he’s from India. not to be racist or anything, but i don’t think you can deny developers from 3rd world countries are more likely to screw you over if the money is good enough. he has the ability to show whatever ad he wants in front of your app.

in conclusion, please take extreme caution if you are considering this

Big Thank you bakasan for registering just now to reply to my post ;).
I have already made every thing clear that I’ll be showing just 1 ad per day that’s it and not even every day, just some times.
and the house ad that i’ll be showing will always point to google play not to 3rd party sites.
And I never new that being from India can be a negative factor in helping others :stuck_out_tongue:

and for the spam/illegal apps which you are so sure I have uploaded, were actually 2 games, I was banned due startapp exit ads.

I think I have made everything clear now.

I think it would be wise for you to at least modify the part where you state “besides 1 add per day wont even cost you a cent”. Depending on the app and your ad frequency, this could result in the loss of 20-100% of all ad revenue. Stating a loss of only “1 cent” is a bit disingenuous in my opinion.

I think the best way is to try the SDK for 2 to 3 days.
And I have already mentioned that my ad frequency is just 1 add per day, sometimes not even showing an Ad at all…

If all of you still think it can affect your revenue than I’ll reduce the ad frequency further…

just to let you know guys, I am not androidexp

Hahaha that’s right :wink:

OK, so many of you were skeptical that 1 ad per day can decrease your revenue, I don’t want that to happen and besides I developed this SDK to help devs to constantly generate revenue even if their app is banned.
So, I have reduced the ad frequency to 3 ads per week (I think this is pretty reasonable right??).

If you have any more query or feedback plz reply in this post

Thanks:)

That would be a great idea if the SDK was open source. I know, you wouldn’t be able to earn from it then - but maybe a donation based one?

Not trying to highjack the thread, but for situations like this I use Push Notifications. There is a lot of providers for $15-20 per month and you can send unlimited pushes. I integrate their sdk into my apps, if the app gets deleted then after I upload a new version of it I’m sending a custom push linking to the Play Store of my new app to all my “old” users.

Besides that it’s good to send informative push notifications from time to time to your users to remind about your app))

Just my 2 cents.

any suggestions from practice for that? I used to use parse, but with that you can only direct to your app, not to another link

You can see yourself that you were paying $15 to 20 per month, whereas this SDK is totally free…
why pay for something if you can get that for free (else if you are getting something extra).

Currently using PushApps.mobi for $20 per month. They have the option to send a custom JSON containing any link you want your push to point to.
@androidexp I am getting something extra: returning users and letting my users know about new updates :slight_smile:

Anyways, good luck with your SDK, it’s a nice option and solution, just make sure to keep your word regarding the ad frequency and no shady experiments))