I think I'm done with Android apps development. The following publishing requirements just closed the door for me as a hobby developer:
> Have at least 12 testers opted-in to your closed test.
> Run your closed test with at least 12 testers, for 14 days
The funny thing is this seems to apply to recently-created personal publisher accounts. I had a very old publisher account but because I was unable to move my account owner to another email address, I closed it and registered a new one. Little did I know what this would lead to later on.
If you can't get 12 people to test your app, how do you expect to get actual users? I believe this is a good change by Google to prevent slop on the store
No, this invites slop rather than stopping it. 12 testers is trivial to buy online or swap for on Reddit and Discord, so only hobbyists get blocked. Note that this requirement also affects PWAs which is quite funny to be honest. To this the fact that some people register businesses and provide paid "publishing services" to 3rd party devs over their accounts. Is this really the best Google can do? Laughable.
Look, not everyone is chasing subscriptions, ads and thousands of users, and with Google constantly squeezing side-loading, the Play store is becoming the only distribution channel left on mainline Android.
But yeah, I guess it's not a big loss, most people install 0 apps per month anyway.
p2detar · · focus · HN ↗
> Have at least 12 testers opted-in to your closed test.
> Run your closed test with at least 12 testers, for 14 days
The funny thing is this seems to apply to recently-created personal publisher accounts. I had a very old publisher account but because I was unable to move my account owner to another email address, I closed it and registered a new one. Little did I know what this would lead to later on.
bunbun69 · · focus · HN ↗
p2detar · · focus · HN ↗
Look, not everyone is chasing subscriptions, ads and thousands of users, and with Google constantly squeezing side-loading, the Play store is becoming the only distribution channel left on mainline Android.
But yeah, I guess it's not a big loss, most people install 0 apps per month anyway.
hulitu · · focus · HN ↗
Just like Google did with its Clock and Messages apps. They have billions of people to test their app. If it compiles, ship it.