Was my application rejected from a Google game due to some network policy issue?

Question

The following is the message - and should have rejected it because it violates our device and network abuse policies and section 4.4 of the distribution agreement . . If you submitted the update, the previous version of your application still works on Google Play.

Here's how you can submit your application for another review:

Modify your application to ensure that it does not have access or uses the service or API in a way that violates the terms of use; for example, by turning on background video playback on YouTube. Read the Device and Network Abuse policy for more details and examples. Make sure your application complies with all other policies listed in the Developer Program Policies. Remember that additional interference can occur if there are additional policy issues in your applications. Log in to your developer console and submit your application.

My application has a button that opens WhatsApp directly, and I also enabled the youtube website.

Please tell me the problem

Answer 1

Several times now I had applications downloaded to the game store, after a few days they will reject it, saying, for example, that this violates the metadata rules, please read our metadata rules.

They sent me a link, I clicked on the link and searched for metadata. No metadata is mentioned anywhere on the page.

They must have a very specific reason for the rejection, which I will be happy to correct if they would only tell me why it was rejected. Instead, they give a general, general term and simply say that you have violated their terms, please, all our terms and conditions, and resend. But they don’t tell you specifically what they rejected the application for.

They need to know why they rejected the application in particular. But it seems that we rejected your application, but we will not tell you why, you will have to solve it yourself. This is similar to what they like when developers make their way through demand pages and pages to try to figure out why they are now breaking the conditions when you were compliant yesterday.

Answer 2

For more information, 4.4 developer-distribution-agreement -

Prohibited Actions:. You agree that you will not engage in any activity in the Store, including the development or distribution of Products that unlawfully violate, disrupt, damage or gain access to devices, servers, networks or other objects or services of any third party, including, in addition to other Android, Google users or any mobile network operator. You may not use the customer information obtained from the Store to sell or distribute Products outside the Store.

Another suggestion you get just explains the reason for the violation,

It does not use or does not use the service or API in a manner that violates its terms of service; for example, by turning on background video playback on YouTube.

This means that you probably forgot to pause the video when your application is in the background,

Better link to How to stop YouTube videos from playing in an Android browser? and try this answer as well, where the webview onPause method is called in onPause() like.

 @Override public void onPause() { super.onPause(); mWebView.onPause(); } 

Answer 3

I had the same problem for my application. I showed Banner Ads on a web view screen where a user watched a Youtube video. According to the Google Play policy, we do not allow BANNER ADS to be shown on the screens where we access the Youtube video.

Check out my photo I got from Google Play Support.

Answer 4

After many attempts and sleepless nights, I finally published my app.

First, I add the following code to my web activity:

 myWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){ @Override public void onLoadResource(WebView webview, String url) { super.onLoadResource(webview, url); if (url.contains("youtube.com")) mShouldPause = true; } }); @Override public void onPause() { super.onPause(); if(mShouldPause){ myWebView.onPause(); } mShouldPause = false; } 

And most importantly in the manifest file:

 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/> 

I have done so many tests, and I don’t think the problem is that the video is really on YouTube in the background, because I tried without any link from YouTube and the application does not send to Google Play, it just works after permission in the manifest file.

I hope to help someone

Answer 5

I do not believe that the problem with video playback does not allow to approve Android applications at all.

Just add this line to your application manifest and approve the authorized application.

 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/> 

Also for those using Cordova (PhoneGap), add a plugin called cordova-custom-config to add a manifest:

 Name ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE Value: <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/> 

Answer 6

In my case, I had an insult in the description of my application. I just had to put * on the word, and that solved it. Incredible ...