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The original was posted on /r/androiddev by /u/Ok_Bat_7334 on 2024-04-09 01:57:22.

Have developers noticed any recent shifts in the Google review process?

Over the past decade, I’ve been consistently deploying apps without any major hurdles until around late last year. All my apps are native to Android, and each one has a corresponding counterpart developed in Swift for iOS.

When I first started developing, I rarely encountered issues with Google, whereas Apple’s review process was often more challenging. However, there seems to have been a reversal in this dynamic recently, and since last year, I’ve been facing significant struggles.

Many of my apps are now suspended, and those that aren’t face obstacles when attempting to update them. Each time I try to release an update, there’s always an issue - typically with the app description - even when that aspect hasn’t changed. It’s become increasingly frustrating, as even minor bug fixes result in rejections due to description-related problems. Have others in the developer community noticed this trend?

My apps were rejected in January because “Your app doesn’t provide a clear source of government information or its description lacks an easy-to-see disclaimer stating that the app doesn’t represent a government entity.”

I did some research and added a disclaimer in the description to address this. It seemed to work until yesterday when I had to fix a bug affecting thousands of users. The new rejection reason is the same as before: ‘Your app doesn’t provide a clear source of government information, or its description lacks an easy-to-see disclaimer stating that the app doesn’t represent a government entity.’ The affected area is the disclaimer text I added in January

I want to point out that the app already has a disclaimer and privacy policy with all the details of the data sources."