That would be great to be able to change a package name. I just started and even I make some money I can not afford professional subscription right now. BTW. If I buy subscription, can I change up form 25 to professional and vice versa?
Update: Just received refusal fro google to reactivate my apps:
If your account is still in good standing and the nature of your apps allow for republishing you may consider releasing new, policy compliant versions of your apps to Google Play under new package names
So I would much appreciate if this feature would be available sooner than later... thanks
> BTW. If I buy subscription, can I change up form 25 to professional and vice versa?
You can upgrade from a monthly to a professional at any time; it involves cancelling your existing subscription and then signing up for the new one (full details here). The plans aren't set up to handle downgrading very easily, but it's pretty rare. I believe what happens when you cancel an annual subscription is that you keep all the time you had left (whatever remains of the subscription you purchased), and any new subscription you purchased after that would get added to the time you have left.
Note that when you cancel a subscription, you don't get a refund, you just stop the subscription from automatically renewing at the end of the current term.
ok, and what about apps. Lets say I have 5 apps with subscription, after subscription expired, which app can I access as a free account? Can I choose? Or Can I access all of them?
@Mark. I had given pingjam a test run on a few of my apps which did not have many users in order to "give it a test run" as Colin advised in his response to my post regarding pingjam on april 25. Those were the apps which were presently listed as active in my pingjam acct. so thats not really the Issue. I am wondering why I have 10 apps listed as suspended, but 5 of which do not have PingJam enabled.
@darthvapor Ok, so you left Pingjam enabled in five of your apps (which from all we know explains why they were removed from Google Play) and then five addition apps of yours were removed from Google Play?
Was Pingjam ever enabled in you apps that were removed that no longer have Pingjam enabled?
If so are you sure that you disabled it, rebuilt, and then uploaded the new version to Google Play?
What reason did Google give for the removal of the apps that did not have Pingjam enabled?
Is that reason different then the reason given for the apps with Pingjam enabled?
Just to let everyone know we have added the ability to choose an alternative package name to the App Info tab. This should allow you to remove Pingjam, rebuild your app, and then upload it to Google Play if your app was banned.
To add to Mark's post, Pingjam has been disabled and removed as a monetization option. You simply need to rebuild any app that had Pingjam enabled in it, in order to remove it from your app (there is no longer a need to disable it, as the entire option has been removed).
yeah. I lost a total of 10 apps. All of my phantasytour.com apps (free versions) are now removed. the pay versions are still available. but the pay versions (obviously) never had any advertising.
I Deactivated most of my apps for now on Play.
-Only the 10 apps which ever had Pj enabled are banned.
--along with the five enabled are five which have been rebuilt and edited several times since I tried and removed Pj.
1 of which is the reason I first posted concerns about Pj back in April. Rebuilt several times W/o Pj. 5,000 users. PT Phish (links) is my major earner with ad-mob
All of which are removed due to System Interference Provision.
The problem here is that Google decided to change their rules, which is their prerogative I suppose - however, the question is why would they retroactively apply those rules? If that is really true, the only reason for it is to shut down apps in the wild that were still on an old version of the app that they didn't like anymore. The only way to do that is to block a package name, whether it is in 'violation' of their current rules or not.
At this point I don't think anyone has the answer to that question, and it may never come from Google either. They're the king of their house... When they change the rules and say 'jump', app developers have no choice but to jump - or don't play. Should they decide in the future that apps on Google Play can only contain ads from their own company, AdMob, then that's what they'll enforce. Definitely not fun when it affects you directly, but we'll keep doing our best to help all our users adapt as needed.
@farmerjl2008 As mentioned earlier in the thread, we released an update yesterday to allow you to build your app using an alternate package name. You can find that setting in the "Package Name" setting on the App Info tab of your project.
@darthvapor Further to what Colin said, if you had 5 apps with Pingjam that were suspended and then 5 apps that no longer contained Pingjam that were also suspended for the same reason you will need to ask Google why that happened. Was there anything else in common between all of your apps?
Looks like a final comment from Pingjam's CEO just went out by email to all their users:
Hi xxx,
It’s taken us a lot of time and effort to try and talk with the right people at Google and we now have unofficial confirmation that the bans where due to our service. It seems that someone at Google changed their minds about our service and has initiated this ban.
First, I want to personally apologize for this mess. You are suffering due to a service that we ran and we are really sorry.
Second, we are continuing to work as hard as we can to get you reinstated. To date, we have ran into a brick wall and all of our requests that you be given 7 days to remove the SDK and reinstate your apps have been refused. It seems that Google isn’t interested in providing any relief to you. We know that for other ad networks 7 days warning has been granted so this is especially surprising.
We will continue to push our contacts at Google to try and get you reinstated, but frankly - I don’t know if we will be successful.
If you still have apps with our SDK I’d strongly encourage you to remove the jar files from your app and republish.
Apologies again and I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
I just read this a few minutes ago. I don't blame PingJam as much as I do Google this was handled completely unprofessionally.
They did it in the middle of the night without warning, did not correctly explain why your apps were banned, first that said system interference, then my appeal reply said Ad Policy violation.
Now they will not consider giving us 7 days to correct our apps and have them reinstated.
Seems like Google is turning in to more of a bully everyday, people slam Apple but at least you can talk to a LIVE person with them. Google has the screw off attitude, what ever we say goes so shut up.
I been trying to get away from Google slowly and started making more and more dual platform apps iOS & Android and I can tell you my iOS apps on average earn 30% to 80% more than the Android ones.
Too bad Andromo is Android only (hence the name), I really like you guys, but Google is really pissing me off a lot lately and I only had 2 apps that were affected by this and I do not care them anyways, but some of you had 30 plus apps and worked hard on them and Google does not even care enough about you to let you fix something they decided on a whim was against their TOS.
I really believe they did not want the competition in Kit Kat dialer, at least with push ads they gave 30 days.
I would think Google would be a little more appreciative to their developers, between Apple, Amazon and Samsung having their own markets and Ad networks things can slowing start changing for Google.
hendrixs, while I do have a full unlimited account to a net based app maker that does iOS, I rarely use it too clunky so I use full native code creators and engines. Out of respect for Andromo I will not advertise other means of creating apps.
I just got a warning from Google Play support saying that one of my apps will be suspended in 7 days if I don't make changes. "Reason for warning: Violation of the Ad-Policy" "Ads associated with your app must not interfere with other apps or their ads". Whatever that means. I already rebuilt it without Pingjam a few days ago. Now I don't know what to do. Any ideas? It seems as if they are looking at older builds still.
To be clear, this is not an all new build. I caught it just before it was suspended, removed pingjam ads and updated the .apk.
Seems like we are seeing a lot of apps that were rebuilt still getting banned. I'm sorry but I would just pull every app that ever had Ping Jam in it and just forget it ever existed if you value your account. Seems like Google is holding the past on you regardless of you updating without Ping Jam
@straybullet: thanks. I didn't ask for app makers name, because it would be uncool to do so on this forum. Do you also need to use a programming language with your solution or is it more like drag & drop?
However, I still think than Android market is the best, because after talking to a few people and reading the forums, getting noticed on iOS with simple apps/games is getting extremely difficult. On GP you can still publish a "simple" app and if its good, it will take off with no promotion whatsoever. Not so on iOS. At least so I'm told.
@turbomike If I were you I would take that app off of Google Play and rebuild it from scratch. Man am I glad I never used Pingjam in any of my apps. What a mess!
[sorry, posted this on another thread, but seems more relevant here]
Hi all,
On 2 November, 13 of my apps were 'suspended' due to the 'system interference' that we're all assuming was caused by Pingjam. The email from Google said that I could add the apps again as new apps if they complied with their policies. I went about rebuilding my 4 most popular apps from scratch with Andromo, and only using Admob (before the package name change feature was available), and published to Google Play on 4 and 5 November. When the package name change feature became available in Andromo on 5 November, I used it to rename my other apps and published to Google Play on 6 November. On 7 November, i received the same email as admin786, saying my developer account has been terminated, due to:
"Multiple violations of the Content Policy and Developer Distribution Agreement as outlined in previous emails sent to the registered email address of your Publisher account".
The only previous emails I received were for the "system interference" suspension (by Pingjam?), and I've never received content policy or other violation warnings. It is odd that when I rebuilt the 4 apps from scratch (exactly the same as the original apps), that Google was ok with them, and when. I renamed the package name through Andromo, Google didn't like those apps....
This is really disappointing, as I was earning $300 - $400 / day with my apps, and now Google have terminated my account and warned me to not try to register a new developer account...
Whynot, if Google is that important of a money maker then create an LLC and register a new account under that business. Legally that is a separate entity and by law is treated as one. (This is not legal advice,of course you should always talk to attorney... blaa blaa blaa)
It sounds like you just lost approx $4000 a month, what I am about to recommend could cost you up to $2k to do, but after that its fairly cheap yearly fees.
If it was me and I wanted back an account here is what I would do (and it's 100% legal BTW)
Get a Vanilla Visa gift card preloaded with $50 or more on it at your local connivence store, this allows you to put any name /address you want on it. I would keep my name as my real name, but thats me. This is important because from what I understand Google tracks credit cards and can connect them between accounts, so using this card will not get you flagged because it never has been used before.
Get a mail forwarding service with a real street address
Get a prepaid phone or voip phone number for your business
Register a new or get a shelf LLC (means you can be in business in a day)
Get an EIN with the IRS for the LLC
Now legally you are a business and get to have business banking, business Paypal account and can create a new Google Play account for the business.
I would also recommend using a VPN service with a browser only used for your business so no cookies are on it from your past.
I have done all this and it's not as hard as you think. Some states are better to get an LLC in and you can get a LLC in a different state than you reside. I recommend NM,SD,WY LLC's personally.
At this point I think I would also advise against republishing any apps that got banned until we understand exactly what is happening on Google Play right now. If you are concerned about the status of your developer account I would wait.
I've been looking into this for most of the week here and in other locations and so far the information is to piecemeal to get a good look at the complete picture. Hopefully we can get a clearer picture soon.
It appears that Google isn't playing straight here. They seem to be intent on suspending any app that ever had Pingjam in it at any time in the past. At this moment, I would recommend that if you have any apps that ever had Pingjam in it, you take them down off of Google Play immediately. It's not worth getting your account terminated.
Google is swinging their ban hammer really wide right now. It doesn't seem to be limited to Pingjam either. Lots of threads from Android developers all over the place:
Thank you for the advice, it's much appreciated - I'm quite new to the developer world! The last couple of months I've made $9-$10K/month, so what you suggest sounds quite feasible. I'm not based in the USA, and we don't have LLC's in my country or vanilla Visa gift cards, so it will have to be a Pty (Ltd) and a credit card with the company name. The costs are similar to what you mentioned. Hopefully the Google bots don't patrol these forums :-)
Does anyone know if Admob still pays out the revenue already earned if your developer account has been terminated?
Comments
Just received refusal fro google to reactivate my apps:
If your account is still in good standing and the nature of your apps
allow for republishing you may consider releasing new, policy compliant
versions of your apps to Google Play under new package names
So I would much appreciate if this feature would be available sooner than later... thanks
You can upgrade from a monthly to a professional at any time; it involves cancelling your existing subscription and then signing up for the new one (full details here). The plans aren't set up to handle downgrading very easily, but it's pretty rare. I believe what happens when you cancel an annual subscription is that you keep all the time you had left (whatever remains of the subscription you purchased), and any new subscription you purchased after that would get added to the time you have left.
Note that when you cancel a subscription, you don't get a refund, you just stop the subscription from automatically renewing at the end of the current term.
More info here: http://blog.andromo.com/2013/andromo-app-maker-for-android-v3-2-8-released/ and here: http://support.andromo.com/kb/application-settings/app-info
At this point I don't think anyone has the answer to that question, and it may never come from Google either. They're the king of their house... When they change the rules and say 'jump', app developers have no choice but to jump - or don't play. Should they decide in the future that apps on Google Play can only contain ads from their own company, AdMob, then that's what they'll enforce. Definitely not fun when it affects you directly, but we'll keep doing our best to help all our users adapt as needed.
Best,
Colin
As mentioned earlier in the thread, we released an update yesterday to allow you to build your app using an alternate package name. You can find that setting in the "Package Name" setting on the App Info tab of your project.
Hi xxx,
It’s
taken us a lot of time and effort to try and talk with the right people
at Google and we now have unofficial confirmation that the bans where
due to our service. It seems that someone at Google changed their minds
about our service and has initiated this ban.
First, I want to personally apologize for this mess. You are suffering due to a service that we ran and we are really sorry.
Second,
we are continuing to work as hard as we can to get you reinstated. To
date, we have ran into a brick wall and all of our requests that you be
given 7 days to remove the SDK and reinstate your apps have been
refused. It seems that Google isn’t interested in providing any relief
to you. We know that for other ad networks 7 days warning has been
granted so this is especially surprising.
We
will continue to push our contacts at Google to try and get you
reinstated, but frankly - I don’t know if we will be successful.
If you still have apps with our SDK I’d strongly encourage you to remove the jar files from your app and republish.
Apologies again and I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Elnor
To be clear, this is not an all new build. I caught it just before it was suspended, removed pingjam ads and updated the .apk.
However, I still think than Android market is the best, because after talking to a few people and reading the forums, getting noticed on iOS with simple apps/games is getting extremely difficult. On GP you can still publish a "simple" app and if its good, it will take off with no promotion whatsoever. Not so on iOS. At least so I'm told.
also got a WARNING today, with 7 days time to fix.
anyhow i REMOVED PingJAM already 6 Days ago... before i got any notice from Google?
So, what can be done.... makes no sense
I've been looking into this for most of the week here and in other locations and so far the information is to piecemeal to get a good look at the complete picture. Hopefully we can get a clearer picture soon.
intent on suspending any app that ever had Pingjam in it at any time in
the past. At this moment, I would recommend that if you have any apps
that ever had Pingjam in it, you take them down off of Google Play
immediately. It's not worth getting your account terminated.
Google
is swinging their ban hammer really wide right now. It doesn't seem to
be limited to Pingjam either. Lots of threads from Android developers
all over the place:
http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/advertising-networks/3307-ads-associated-your-app-must-not-interfere-other-apps-their-ads.html