Google Tightens Up App Guidelines on Play Storefront

Google has sent notice of new guidelines going into effect on the Google Play storefront in order to combat the problems of copycat applications, spam and malware. The new guidelines to developers come as a result of customer feedback as well as high-profile incidents.

– We’ve added clearer details to the payment policy, and guidelines on how we will handle cancellations in our new subscription billing feature

– We are restricting the use of names or icons confusingly similar to existing system apps in order to reduce user confusion

– We are providing more detail on the kinds of dangerous products that are not allowed on Google Play. For example, apps that disclose personal information without authorization are not allowed.

– We are giving more examples of practices that violate the spam policy.

Additionally, we are adding a new section that addresses ad behavior in apps. First, we make it clear that ads in your app must follow the same rules as the app itself. Also, it is important to us that ads don’t negatively affect the experience by deceiving consumers or using disruptive behavior such as obstructing access to apps and interfering with other ads.

Please take a look at the Google Play Developer Program Policy at http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html to see all the changes and make sure your app complies with our updated policies.

Any new apps or app updates published after this notification will be immediately subject to the latest version of the Program Policy. If you find any existing apps in your catalog that don’t comply, we ask you to fix and republish the application within 30 calendar days of receiving this email. After this period, existing applications discovered to be in violation may be subject to warning or removal from Google Play.