The Google Play Store Developer Experience Is Shit
I'm a software developer with decades of experience and apps in both stores and I can tell you that the Google Play Store developer experience is shit.
Here's a recent experience:
- My paid developer account was closed because I did not periodically update my bug-free app, which people were buying weekly; the account cannot be recovered and the associated email can never be used for a developer account again
- I signed up for a new account, paid the developer fee (again), established bank and personal info (again), shared driver's license (again)
- I deployed a new app only to find out that I need 20 testers to actively test it for 14 consecutive days, even though it's already in the iOS App Store
- Since I don't know 20 people with Android phones who can test my app for 14 consecutive days I had to pay a service to do the testing
- After 14 days Google made me answer a demeaning survey that is essentially me begging for access to production; someone at Google has to review and approve my answers before I am deemed worthy of production access
- I later learned that organization developer accounts do not have the testing requirements, which seems like a huge loophole and an inverted policy
I wonder how a 12-year-old version of me would be able to publish his first app given this nonsense. It seems like a horrible (and cheap) way to try and improve app quality. It will more likely reduce app quality through attrition. It feels like Google resents their developer community. And as a developer I can say that the feeling is mutual.
