Why there are few innovative applications on Google Play or why sometimes programming is magic

Many runners in the morning measure the pulse of rest. If in the morning it is elevated, then you gave a dashing - overtrained. I am not a runner, but I also measure. The app has a convenient program for measuring heart rate in the face, which suits me perfectly.



But about a year ago, I put my iPhone aside, taking the android. The next morning, I suddenly realized - I can no longer measure the pulse on the face without getting out of bed. I searched the entire Google Play, but did not find anything similar. Why are there no such applications on android?



I also asked this question, the topic seemed rather interesting to me and decided to write my application, at the same time I will try development for android.



Getting a pulse in the face is not an easy task. The signal-to-noise ratio is simply terrible: if the color resolution of the camera has 256 gradations per color, then the amplitude of the useful signal will be less than 1 (minimum step): 0.08 - 0.30. It is clear that the measurement results will strongly depend on the hardware: the camera, built-in image post-processing algorithms and processing power.



By the beginning of summer, I wrote an application and tested on all available devices - it turned out acceptable. The time has come for tests on people and then an article about a new feature of Google Play - internal testing track - came into my view. I decided to give it a try.

How it looked in my head

1. I upload the application, give the link to the testers, find out if the application works at all
2. I go to Google moderators, I offer featured (a selection from the editors of the Russian Google Play section "New Programs")
3. I am guided by the circumstances

Perhaps getting into the recommendations looks a bit arrogant. But before that, I did a little research: applications with less than 1000 downloads fall into Russian collections. At that moment in the compilation was the application "cat sounds." I had machine learning, measuring the heart rate in the face, and they play "meow" if you click on the screen. You can fight.

How it really was

I downloaded the app on Google Play. Clicked "publish", but nothing happened. Then I very quickly moved from the first point to the third, but not in the way I wanted to. It turns out that for internal testing for 2 people you need:

• Fill in the listing of the application, which, in addition to the description and screenshots, includes the 512 * 512 icon and branded backdrop (since I do not have a designer - the graphics took me a lot of time)
• Create and host an application’s privacy policy (these are longreads that users usually never read)
• Go through the profile and approve the age rating
• Configure application distribution (select countries and prices)

Without suspecting it, I “invented” the Ecquire privacy policy. Which, according to my subjective feelings, also influenced further events.





Apparently, all these preparations were simply necessary to test the prototype with a couple of friends (“Internal test: Quickly distribute your app for internal testing and quality assurance checks.”). In the Apple App Store, as far as I know, to test the prototype, you can do only the item about downloading the application to the server.



After submitting, I was denied publishing an application for an internal test. It was a bit unexpected, but not unprofitable - I corrected the flaws in the description as I saw fit. Resent - it was quickly accepted. Sent links to testers, the work began to boil.

Unexpected obstacles

In the evening of the same day I received an anonymous letter with threats:

Your application is paused.

Suspended - not banned, I thought. And he was right. “Suspended” means not just banned, but cut out of the store along with all the users, ratings, descriptions that you composed, and the graphics you saved. Your account is also flagged as unfair for future audits.



Hopes for phishing abruptly subsided. We read the letter further

If this happens again, we will delete your and all related Google accounts that we find.

It shocked me. Google, chill. I just want to send my application to friends so that they can test it. This is an internal test for 2 people. Do you want to delete my accounts? I linked the developer account to the main mail, I use gmail, disk, youtube, many services are tied to this mail - you would at least warn when creating a developer account.

About checking medical applications

I began to carefully read.









Apparently, for medical applications, very strict moderation (a good category I chose).



No, on Google Play there are more than 100 heart rate monitors, some of which do not work at all, and some offer to put a finger on the screen to measure heart rate and pressure.



For example, the application Blood Pressure Check: Scan Test or Blood Pressure Recorder . The latter is also advertised on Google Play. Below is a screenshot of the first program, when you click on “Save”, the pressure and pulse are saved in the diary.











Need to contact support.

Support Communication

Through a special form, I sent the question: “what, in fact, is the problem?” The Google employee who answered me for some reason decided that the question is an appeal and said that the problem is still present.









It would be strange to expect another, because with a lock, the developer loses any access to the application, including the ability to upload new versions.



He further said that I had violated the honor of the platform by posting my application. Namely:



The application simulates the operation of system applications android or other









Well, this is my puncture, the design really turned out to be very similar to the android system utilities.









Application tricks user









What was hidden behind the “user deception” clause was decidedly incomprehensible. Here it should be noted that support often answers with common phrases of the form “problems with metadata”, leaving the developer the opportunity to guess for himself what is wrong with the application.



Attempts to find out came across “I can’t help”. My ideas on how to make the application comply with the rules were met with the same. The dialogue was not built.



I thought the quality of the application was too low for an internal test. If for the internal test production-ready policies and a page in the store are needed, it is logical to assume that the application itself should also be production-ready at this point.



In any case, the support did not respond, and I began testing on my own. He ruled minor bugs, improved performance. Added “ not for medical use ” to the page in the store and to the unopenable first screen of the application.

We publish the "second" application

A month passed for correspondence by mail and development. Taking into account all the previous errors, I sent a new version for the internal test on Google Play. According to Google’s recommendations, I had to come up with a new name and pretend that I was uploading another application, because the first was blocked forever.









After a couple of hours, the ban came to me again. Now I have 2 blocked applications in the developer console. One step closer to deleting my accounts. Then I thought about how I had a wonderful past six months, meditatingly driving code into the IDE and doing a ton of other interesting things related to application development.



I asked support: “for what?” This time, a Google employee wrote something other than general words. He said that it is impossible to measure the pulse on the face. I was delighted - finally I realized what the problem was.



I prepared a mini-article for him with scientific research on this topic and pictures, and they immediately unblocked me , but only one application. The second is still hanging dead weight in the developer's console, they simply stopped responding to letters on it.

We are looking for users

Another month passed. I released the first version in production. And, here’s an opportunity, the application is not searched by keywords at all. And on the periphery of the Google Play Console, a whisper is heard: “No one can find your page? Grow your user base with Google Ads. ”









Looks like you left me no choice.



I am creating a new campaign.

Place an ad.

Reject

General message (based on my research):









This article could be completed, but I can not leave you without an answer to the thesis given in the title.

Why is programming sometimes magic?

I decided to advertise on the alternative platforms myTarget and the Vkontakte Market platform, in the hope of stumbling upon an understanding.



In contact with



There is probably a type of people for whom everything that goes beyond their way of life is magic. That is how they took my advertisement on Vkontakte.









They rejected the ad, accusing me of extrasensory perception, healing and clairvoyance. Do not forget to take before this 500 rubles, so that the ad is accepted for moderation.



When I sent them extracts from scientific articles and a demonstration of work with comparison with reference methods, they replied:



“This is all, of course, good, but”









The deposit was later returned through support.



Mytarget



He distinguished himself in a good way by the fact that he did not take a deposit. And the bad one, because he cheated on me with edits, directly promising to publish. Edits ended, but the announcement did not go through. When I sent the moderators a popular science rationale, MyTarget summed up:

findings

Do not do magic. Make applications with cats, everyone loves them.



UPD. Many thanks to the community for their support, I honestly did not expect it.











UPD2. As requested in the comments. If the app isn’t available in your area of ​​Google Play, but you’re still curious,