I would like to publish an #Android app, but I feel like I've heard stories about people having some kind of issue and their entire Google account gets yanked, which would be... bad.
Do folks worried about this make a separate google account just for this? Does it help at all if you get banned?
I suspect this will not be likely to affect me given that my app is basically just a repackaging of an open source PWA app with no permissions requested, no ads and fully open source, so I am not too worried, but I also feel weird using my personal account for anything else.
@webology I feel like I've also heard of people losing every connected account, but often times when these things break on HN you look into it and it's like, "Google changed the rules, we were totally legitimately using their API to make just one little click farm and then they said that was banned and banned us forever!!11one"
Plus considering I work there (and know a bunch of people who work there even if I leave), I suspect I might be able to avoid *some* of the more Kafka-esque parts of the cycle without resorting to HN.
Still, I might make an extra account just to be safe. Maybe I'll use my work account as the "backup" e-mail so that if I get banned and it propagates they'll just ban my work account 😛
@pganssle The rule of thumbs with google is to get a separate account for all stuff you produce, and then one for consumption.
If you publish videos, one for youtube, if you publish apk, one for the play store, if you send pro emails, one for gmail, and so on.
Then another one for private video consumption, google pay, personal emails, etc.
They will eventually block one of your accounts. It's not an if, it's a when. It happens to everyone one day.
Luckily you can ask colleagues to unblock.
@pganssle I created a second account due to similar fears. But then I decided that I would just self publish the apk and use fdroid. I don't need to use Google play to advertise, scan, legitimize or monetize that app, so I would rather put my money where my mouth is and support the more FOSS friendly options that google allows.
@pganssle These stories have made me set on a Chrome extension I wrote for Django News ~5 years ago and never published out of fear. I read some guidelines that said to create a new Google Account to tie them just in case.
While this isn't exactly Android, I suspect they are relatable.