Last night, the Google Play notified us that the Developer Program Policy received a sizable overhaul, outlining a future for Android and apps that looks much more polished and a lot less "spammy." The email provided four bullet points for topics that garnered the most attention, and are as follows:
- 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.
If we dive into the policy a bit deeper to see some of these changes, I have a feeling that you will enjoy what they have to say. Let's start first with their stance on spam, spam apps, and anything that takes away from the "great user experience" in Google Play.
