Hello! I'm zm soft, a developer who registered in late 2023 and started releasing apps. I'm also planning to release a developer app to help developers work through closed testing together — check it out if you're interested.
Publishing on Google Play requires passing Google's review. Today I want to share what I learned from getting rejected, and how to avoid it — or handle it when it happens.
Privacy Policy
This is probably the most common rejection reason for new developers. Here's what a rejection notification looked like:
The main things you need to do:
- Write your privacy policy
- Publish it on a website (see caveats below)
- Register the URL in Play Console
- Make it accessible from within the app
Writing and Publishing Your Policy
First, you need to decide what to include and where to put it. If you've never done this before, it's hard to know what to write. I was in the same boat — but it's easier than it looks.
Flycricket lets you answer a few questions and automatically generates the content your privacy policy needs to include.
Specifically, use Flycricket's AppPrivacyPolicyGenerator. When you open it, you'll see a screen like this — just answer the questions:
The key field is Personally Identifiable Information. Beyond usernames, passwords, and email addresses, things like user IDs and location data can also identify individuals — include anything that applies to your app. After filling in a few more required fields, you'll reach a completion screen:
Click [Privacy Policy] to generate your policy text. Then click [Deploy to Flycricket] and create an account — your policy gets a URL. The generated policy can be edited, and the URL is available via [Get Link]:
The great part is that the generated content can be published directly as a website. Registration is required, but up to four policies can be generated and hosted for free.
Important Caveat
Flycricket works fine as-is, but here's a warning about hosting your own privacy policy. Partway through developing multiple apps, I moved my privacy policy to WordPress. I created it as a blog post instead of a page — which added a comment section. Google rejected the app, flagging the policy as a document that could be "modified" (because comments could change it). Always use a static page format with no comment functionality for your privacy policy.
Registering the URL in Play Console
Register the URL as part of your app information. In Play Console, go to [Policy and programs] → [App content] → [Privacy policy]. If it's your first time, it'll also appear on your dashboard.
Making It Accessible from the App
Inside your app, do one of the following:
- Add a link to the policy URL
- Display the policy text directly in the app
I embedded the policy text into the app itself, stored as a text file in the assets folder and loaded on demand.
Can You Slip Through Without Full Compliance?
Even within Google's review process, reviewers are human — things get missed. I've seen apps pass review without fully meeting policy requirements. My very first app was one of them. This is actually riskier than being rejected, because policy violations can be flagged later and your app could be removed. Here's what a notification like that looks like in Play Console:
There's a grace period, but don't miss the notification — you don't want your app removed.
Misleading Claims: Watch Your App Name and Description
This one doesn't come up as often, but one of my apps got rejected for this reason, so I'm including it.
The problem was the app name. I wanted to publish something simple, so I made an app that plays bear-deterrent sounds for hiking. I named it "BearRepellent." That got rejected. Apps like mosquito repellent (or bear repellent) — where the effect is not guaranteed, just hoped for — are interpreted as "claiming functionality that cannot be delivered." The fix was just renaming it to "BearBell."
What made this frustrating was that Google's rejections don't pinpoint the specific problem — they just quote the relevant policy section and flag it as "misleading." I thought "bear repellent" was a common term and didn't realize it constituted an overclaim. I revised the description, added a subtitle thinking the category wasn't clear enough, but kept "Repellent" in the name — so of course it kept getting rejected. Worth knowing this pattern exists.
In-App Purchase Rejections
In-app purchases — especially subscriptions — require additional attention. Things like localizing period labels and including specific terms for purchases can get flagged. I'll cover this in detail in a separate article. => Update: That article is here
Closing
I hope this helps with your app submission. If there are other things to watch out for that I haven't covered, feel free to share them in the comments.