Ask HN: Flowx removed from Google Play without warning

1 points by duanem 1 year ago | 3 comments

I am posting: 1. to ask for advice or help, if you know someone at Google 2. in the hope someone at Google will see this and help 3. and to raise awareness.

Yesterday we got an email saying Flowx was removed from Google Play because of "Misleading Claims" on our store listing. Flowx is a weather app with weather model data from weather agencies like NOAA and ECMWF. From what we can gather we violate the following:

"Apps that falsely claim affiliation with a government entity or to provide or facilitate government services for which they are not properly authorized."

We have since added a clear statement that Flowx is not affiliated with these government agencies. We submitted this for review and appealed the removal but Google says it might take up to 7-days to review this.

I am a solo developer and this is our livelihood so this is quite stressful. I've had a user email and ask why they couldn't buy Pro.

We have been on Google Play for over 12 years and have been awarded Google's "Editors Choice". We don't believe we've violated policy in terms of "Misleading Claims". Or if we did, then most of the other weather apps in our app category, including the big boys with 100x more users, are in violation too.

I wonder if this removal was part of an AI process. If this is the case, it is not fair without a chance to fix it. Google, if you're listening, at least give the developer a chance to fix issues before removing it from the Google Play.

Thanks for listening and for any help.

Aulig 1 year ago |

From my experience, your best bet is to remove references to these agencies from the app and especially the app description.

duanem 1 year ago | |

Thanks for the reply.

The store blurb lists the data models available in the app, for example, NOAA HRRR and DWD D2, which only cover certain regions in the world. This is important for the user to know before installing the app.

Also, all other weather apps, including Windy and Ventusky, lists the weather models that are available in their app.

This violation notice just doesn't make sense, this is why I wonder if it was an AI process that removed it.

duanem 1 year ago |

So Flowx is back on Google Play now. There was no notification that the changes were accepted or the appeal was accepted of that the app was live again. Nothing.

During the 1-2 days the app was removed from the Google Play store, Flowx missed out on new subscriptions and it seems the recurring subscriptions were cancelled.

I find it crazy Google can do this to people with no recourse.

This is why we need multiple app stores on each platform.

As a solo developer, it has been hard to support multiple app stores but now I will make an effort, encourage other developers to list on other stores and encourage users to install from the smaller stores.

I know it's hopeful, but I hope get get a better app ecosystem.

I remember when Apple and Google worked hard to woo developers and users, now they own the market, they can act without concern.