Google Play Has Created a No-Win Situation For the Creators of Icon Packs

Jules Wang from Android Police reports on the cases of two icon pack artists who had their products taken down from the Play Store for supposedly violating the platform's Repetitive Content policy. Despite both creators' products being reinstated, they revealed that Google's opaque application of its rules has caused frustration and hopelessness among developers. From the report: All this heartache stems from Google Play's Repetitive Content policy. While on its face a well-meaning effort to reduce spammy apps and keep quality up, there's a core problem with compliance when creators find themselves forced to use apps to distribute content: "If these apps are each small in content volume, developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all the content." If you've browsed on the Play Store, you'll immediately know this guidance isn't universally followed: many artists like JustNewDesigns will have multiple designs in their portfolio and each of those designs will come in multiple colorways or shapeways -- whether they're changing out an accent in a line design or are implementing some sort of adaptive element. Not only are there so many apps, but they also look so much alike -- artists, many of whom might not consider coding their strong suit, tend to use open-source templates to create the actual app. You'll likely see them credited to Sarsa Murmu, who runs a GitHub project called CandyBar, or Jahir Fiquitiva, the maintainer of the Blueprint repository. These resources take care of the "packaging" for the assets. They include integration compatibility with various popular launchers, a license scheme to prevent those who sideloaded the app for free from having the icons applied, and all sorts of other functionality. In addition to the icon assets, the apps may also house wallpapers and links to other apps. [...] What is Google's role and what should it be? Wang writes: Artists would have much to gain from a new or revised API. Adding and adapting new icon designs to existing products would be much easier. New designs may be able to take advantage of changes to the Adaptive Icons API as Google lays them out. There would be unease as to how the business model could shift -- should publishers charge by the app, through in-app purchases, or both? But as it stands, the biggest benefit with such a change is that it would presumably get Play's "RoboCops" off their back. Of course, we can't be sure of that with how Google's enforcement apparatus operates, but the notion of unfairness lends credibility to those supporting the status quo unless the company is willing to come to the bargaining table. At the end of the day, Google is certainly within its right to build regulations around apps to respond to emergent scammers and distressing content. Automation is meant to render manageable the sheer volume of content the Play platform sees published on a daily basis. But so long as icon artists sit under threat from a rulebook that can be arbitrarily thrown at them at any time, if nothing changes, we may be on a road leading to the degradation of a core Android tenet that even the most casual tech consumer associates with the platform -- user customizability.

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