Google just terminated our startup’s Google Play Publisher account after 1.5 years without any violation.
An open letter from an Android developer to the Android Community and specially to Purnima Kochikar, director of Google Play, Apps & Games at Google.
Long story short
Our company’s developer account just got terminated out of the blue. There was no violation or warning with any of the apps. One of our app was little popular among the niche with 200K+ downloads and a rating of 4.7. The suspension email came to us as a shock as the account was operating fine form around last 2 years. We got the email tonight at 3.00 AM that our account is terminated without any prior warning or violations. We in India are already affected very badly by the pandemic. Don’t know if we will be able to survive financially.
Reason for termination
Being associated with a suspended account. (God knows which account). As we already knew their policy of lifetime ban so we never allowed anyone from our team members to login to the console form any device. The account to this date was being operated by one and only one device.
This is all we got for ruining our entire future.
A little backstory
I was making android apps from 2013 (Android Gingerbread). Started Candy App Co with a goal to make apps that are used by millions. One of our app became moderately hit with around 200K+ downloads and 4.7 rating. And was getting around 1500 daily downloads.
Our future (amid ongoing pandemic & lockdown)
After the ban we are completely devastated. We don’t know if we will ever be able to talk to a person at Google play regarding the ban. Or will keep on getting rejected by the bot. We had invested all of our saving in our startup. There is an ongoing pandemic in our country (India). Soon our incomes will dip. We are afraid if we will be able to feed our family or not.
To our ever supporting developer community
Developer community is one of the most supportive things in my life. Someone form somewhere has always come to help me in the past. Please share and make this open letter reach every Android Developer you know. Let’s support an extremely needed change for the good and the future of the community.
Dear Purnima Kochikar, please let me have the nerve to say that something is broken at Google Play from the developer perspective and nobody seems to be able to help us.
It is your call to take an action on this, to fix processes and customer support, to avoid Google Play ruining developer careers or companies, to stop people losing jobs in the worst of situations. Is in your hands to recover the developer community trust on Google Play, we are willing to help and collaborate.
Best regards.
Our reddit post :Google Play developer account got terminated without any violation. Reason being associated with a terminated account ? : androiddev (reddit.com)
Special Thanks To (for supporting us):
