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Ask HN: Is it possible to ditch Google Play as a solo mobile app dev?

19 points appsDev | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 20:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.196s | source

Hey everyone! I need some advice..

I am a student and solo app dev, and I recently made a game on iOS that reached the top of the front page on Hacker News. I want to bring the game to Android, but am struggling with Google Play's policies for solo devs.

The one that is bothering me most is having to display my physical, home address on the play store for paid apps. I personally think this would be a pretty big security and privacy hazard, but there isn't any way around it that I have seen. There are also other things like requiring solo devs to test any new app with 20 testers for 2 weeks.

My Point Is: If I launch the app instead on the Epic Game Store / Amazon App Store, or even both, do you think the app can still be successful? Is it really possible to get good reach without the Play store, or will users just ignore the app if it's not on Google Play?

I am on iOS and don't know too much about the Android stores / user behavior, so any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Link to app for reference: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6720712299

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ldx1024 ◴[18 Oct 24 00:26 UTC] No.41875206[source]▶
I know next to nothing on the subject, but I won't let that stop me :) If this has been sitting here for three hours with no response I might as well pipe in...

Reddit link discussing topic:

https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/17w3pgz/google_...

If you think the app might make some real money you might want to think about registering an account with a business name and virtual mailbox address. I didn't read the whole thread above, but that comes up early in the thread as one option.

replies(2): >>41882040 #>>41882235 #
1. appsDev ◴[18 Oct 24 18:39 UTC] No.41882235[source]▶
Lol thanks for the response. I have unfortunately gone over this thread and others a ton, and also reached out to google, and they seem to not allow PO Boxes. There is a way to buy a physical mailbox that some people have mentioned and may try that.. they pull the address from the payment profile section or ur account though so don't know if they will allow using a mailbox address there..