this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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Sync for Lemmy
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Yep, losing a sale from me for this
I can live with it being closed source, but I want an app without trackers built in (even if they're not used)
Google doesn't allow it, nothing the dev can do
I didn't find anything against having both a paid app and a free app in the Google's Policy Center.
While you can't have two apps called the same thing, e.g., both apps called 'your app name', you can have one app called 'your app name' and another app called 'your app name pro'.
I found advice going back years saying one just needs to create a separate project like this. And here is the most recent source I found saying the same thing and it goes further and lists apps that are on the store with both paid and free versions. I also did my own search and found this example: My Lightning Tracker & Alerts is free and My Lightning Tracker Pro is a paid app.
And regardless the dev saying they won't use the data from paid users -- that doesn't matter to me when legally by using the app I signed away permission for that data to be collected.
This goes way back to when Google first introduced IAP. They were pushing to remove dupes from the store because it caused separate reviews and ratings. It could be that they just temporarily enforced it and now it's not a concern for them anymore.
I remember when this happened to Sync for Reddit. Unfortunately Google Play Store, like most of these app stores, can enforce almost anything they want even if it's outside of their policy because some stuff is so vague. And it's usually hard to get clear information from anyone when your app gets pulled or whatever.