Google certainly doesn’t make it easy for anyone. I don’t use a companion app and my sales are nothing to write home about due to that. I dont know enough about companion apps to risk my account over one (if that’s even why we are seeing so many account terminations). However, mysteriously and through no effort on my own, I have managed to get two of my watch faces featured on Google Play. One is in “For Gamers”, and one is in “New and Trending”. Wouldn’t you know it? These 2 are my best sellers. I don’t understand why Google cannot make this better for all of us and give us a place where watches can be featured, searched for, found, and installed by average users? It’s Google man…they can do freaking anything!
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Hi @ozan Please send to this mail address nobel.mixed@gmail.com
Many thanks. No issue, i will check and try to compare to sort out at my end.
Hey everyone, I have been keeping a close eye on this topic because it concerns all of us. I have also spent the last month and a half searching for and reading over every little bit of Google policy I could find that is related to Play Store apps, watch faces, etc. The most useful information I found came from the Google Play Academy website - specifically the Google Play Policy learning path found here: Google Play Policy : Google Play Academy
Though it was certainly time consuming to trudge through all of that policy stuff, it helped me a lot and I suggest everyone do it too, on their own time, and as soon as possible so you can learn for yourself what Google expects from us.
If you don’t read any further than this, please know this – I did learn that suspensions and rejections not addressed quickly DO count against us, so please do your very best to follow all policies and best practices before uploading anything to the Play Store prevent this from potentially turning into a problem for you. Having several suspensions on your account could very easily lead to account termination.
Below, I’m quoting a few things I personally found important in this topic so far. I’ve replied to each quote based on what I’ve recently learned about policy and just to be clear, some of it is my opinion. I hope the following information can help at least a few people:
To be VERY clear for anyone still unsure, according to Google Policy, copyright infringement is most definitely going to get your account terminated if they catch you. So don’t do it on purpose for sure. Accidental infringement can happen, but Google still holds us responsible for that too and will not be lenient just because we “didn’t know we did it.”
While I personally have not found anything yet in Google Policy specifically stating not to connect to your Google account through VPN, other people have stated they did read this. Additionally, “bad actors” may use a VPN as a way to “keep Google guessing” where they are actually located, which goes against Google’s policy of being transparent about where you are and who you are (as a developer uploading things to the Play Store.) So, it stands to reason they may incorrectly mark anyone connecting via VPN as a possible “bad actor” and start taking a harder look at your developer account activity as a whole.
Regarding what your organization told you about “only work apps connecting via VPN” while you are connected to it… I have worked as a Network Administrator in the past and though it’s certainly possible they are correct, in my personal experience with VPN setup for remote workers, the web browser would also connect through the VPN. So, if that is the case and you were logged into your Google account in your browser while also connected to the VPN, Google may have registered that as a VPN connection and flagged your account.
I agree with ozan here, everyone needs to pay attention to these things. I also have a little to say about each item based on what I’ve learned:
- Google definitely does not want you to include unrelated images in your companion app (this potentially violates the deceptive behavior policy)
- They also frown on self promotion in your descriptions and probably within your app text too, so I would suggest you not try to advertise for other watch faces you’ve made in a companion app for any watch face.
- Having a privacy policy available on a separate website you control is a policy requirement, not a suggestion. Because it requires an external link to comply with that policy, I don’t think having external links is outright “bad” for your companion app, but I think you had better explain to the user why it is there to avoid possibly triggering the deceptive behavior policy.
- Aside from making sure you target at least the minimum API level Google requires for the current year, keeping safe and up-to-date libraries in your companion app(s) may or may not help, but it is still best practice and should be done if at all possible.
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@nobel.mixed, since this is a publicly visible forum, for your own mailbox sanity I would suggest editing your post and removing your email address. Leaving it here is just asking for it to get scraped by a bot (if it hasn’t been already) and then you’ll never see the end of spam/junk mail. 
I would also suggest that you all go through this learning path too, if you can find the time: Google Play Store Listing certificate study guide : Google Play Academy
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I won’t ever sink to using the lowest hanging fruit and make crappy knock off faces to sell on Google Play. Those who do in my opinion are the lowest of the low and hopefully DO get terminated at the end of the day. I just wonder how these faces get on the Top paid apps list or even get featured in Google Play? Just the other day, some new faces were added to the “New and Trending” section and there’s at least one Tag Heuer face there. I guess we are to assume that a human does not even select watch faces for the Top Paid list and the feature lists?
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@MergeLabs, I hope that quote didn’t come across as me calling you out. If so, I’m sorry, it was not my intention and I don’t think you or anyone else here would intentionally duplicate someone else’s work. I just wanted to make sure anyone reading through all of this in the future knew without any doubt that Google does not tolerate copyright infringement.
I’ve wondered the same thing myself. Policies are changing this year according to what I’ve read, but maybe in the past they could not do anything about it until someone reported it? Going forward, I read that we will have to provide Google with official documentation proving we have permission from the copyright holder before we upload the application/watch face to Google Play, or we risk getting in trouble.
No no, of course I didn’t think that. I have read that the only person or entity that can initiate action is the copyright/intellectual property owner themselves. I hope Google has more power to stop these bad actors with no moral compass in the watch face making community. It’s so frustrating to see the amount of downloads these guys are getting for these paid faces just for slapping a logo on an otherwise mediocre watch face. Any one of us are capable to do this but we don’t and it’s even worse when you see Google actually promoting these faces. All the while, developers have to jump through whatever hoop/policy change Google wants us to. If they want to clean up the store, start with the most obvious things.
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Hello,
I have a bad situation with Play, today one of my wf is suspended.
It was never published, I get few rejection previous.
Copy
App Status: Rejected
Issue found: Violation of Misleading Claims policy
Your app contains content that doesn’t comply with the Misleading Claims policy.
The app’s icon or title when installed on the device differs from what is displayed in the Play Store
We found an issue in the following area(s):
Hi-res icon (en-US): Please see attached screenshot HI_RES_ICON-1559.jpeg
And it was different, meaning- icon contain look with Weather on WF and when you install it you must first choose weather complication, so first I send the same for review- rejected, then I remove complication app - it was rejected, next was to change WF app - rejected, and finally I send it with clean icon, without weather and that was last it is suspended.
Now I am not sure what was the reason, WF icon with complication is regular thing on my WF’s, and even last was without that.
I sent apel for this app, and they rejected it with same answer few days ago, before last try.
Name of the wf was Harmony watch face, it was not the name problem, I think.
Now, I have 2 apps suspended… First was for one app few years ago, no wf, and it was misunderstanding, clone of that app is online since then.
I am afraid of the account termination, can you advice what should I do?
- Should I just ignore, and continue as before?
- Should I make apel on suspended WF, and try to remove suspension, because with two suspended app I am closer to termination?
What do you think?
I have no advice for you but I also have a couple of apps that were rejected because they “failed to load upon installation or crash”. I could never figure out the problem so I just gave up. The thing is, now they are just sitting there “unpublished”. Who knows? …am I going to get some kind of suspension for not being able to figure out what the problem was because Google famously can’t tell you any specifics? Why can’t we just simply delete these legacy “learning curve” apps that we all most likely have? It’s so stupid to me.
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dont work on the watch face which already rejected. if you appeal on the same watch face, google will reject again and the result will leads you anything by google.
so copy the watch face apps, edit name, edit some function or change some font, change main color to a new color, and resubmit as new face.
dont quarrel with a barking dogs - who will just give you pain.
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It is no meter what to do with this wf, I am wondering should I contact support and explain or ask what was the problem.
App is not only rejected, it is suspended, and I am scared that this can lead to account termination.
It is done with watch face studio, it is not copy wf, I am not sure what was the problem.
If I just leave it like this, I will have 2 suspended app’s. Maybe I should try to remove suspension, if it is possible…
I don’t think it’s possible to communicate with Google. You might try reading and maybe posting here, to see if any other devs have suggestions.
Hi,
I think its this same problem I was facing few weeks ago…
In my situation was diffrent name for app in a few places. Let me explain and then check at yours watch face:
Each of my watch face’s name is: “[69D] Name”
So Google wants this name is exacly this same everywhere:
- when you install watch face on your watch → you should see “[69D] Name”
- name of application in google store → “[69D] Name”
- if you use companion app, name of application should be exact this same under app icon → “[69D] Name”
I even started to rename my watch faces’ name in google play store by deleting “watch face” from the name.
Frankly speaking I understand this policy → name should be this same in every place where your app appears.
Let me know if your name of watch face is this same everywhere.
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@Club, if I am correctly understanding everything you wrote here, it sounds like the watch face in question has been suspended. It looks like you are already aware that this is a permanent action and you will not be able to update it any longer. I believe you could try to upload the watch face again as a different project name, but you really need to fix the problem they told you about first, or it will be suspended again.
If you don’t read any further than this, please do not try to appeal the suspension at this point because that may end up backfiring. At this point, you should not ignore this unfortunate experience. Instead, try to learn as much as you can from the experience and if you decide to resubmit the watch face under another name, make sure your Play Store and watch face and companion app icons all match. 
Further analysis and advice:
When you get a rejection you need to be VERY careful to do everything possible to understand and fix the problem before resubmitting. Don’t resubmit rejected apps/watch faces to the Play Store without changing anything because it makes it look like you didn’t listen to them. While rejections don’t immediately hurt you as long as you work on fixing them, too many of them can definitely lead to app suspension. And don’t forget (or if you didn’t know) every suspension counts as a bad mark against your account and brings you a little bit closer to a possible account termination situation.
With that warning out of the way, lets take a look at what you told us… So, they initially told you the icon when installed did not match the icon in the Play Store listing.
This would be a relatively easy fix, but it appears you either accidentally missed or just ignored this information and just resubmitted the whole thing again without making changes. This undoubtedly would be rejected again because you didn’t fix anything.
Next, you said you removed the companion app and resubmitted. I can’t tell from the information you’ve provided whether or not they are talking about the watch face icon versus the companion app icon, but I don’t think complete removal of the companion app really did you any good in this case because even if it was the companion app icon that was the problem, removing the app is essentially just avoiding the problem instead of fixing it.
I can only guess why they chose to suspend it after your final re-submission with the “clean icon,” because that sounds like you were trying to fix the problem they told you about, but maybe the icons in question still didn’t match after your third submission?
Lastly, @adrianrogalski pointed out that mismatched title text could also be an issue. While the information you posted appears to indicate that you had an issue with an icon, it would be a good idea to make sure you didn’t also have mismatched title text.
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Same situation, installed it was without prefix, I did not aware of it before your post.
I think all of my wf have shorten name when installed.
Thank you
Thank you for detailed reply.
I understand you but it was not ignoring them, I just did not understand what is wrong. I was thinking that there was Icon problem, so first thing was to remove companion app. Without comp app I was thinking everything will be fine…
After next rejection, I was thinking that they did not review it correctly, and finally, I just removed complication from Icon and send it like that.
Now I think that problem can be the name difference, as 69 pointed.
I am aware that it look like there was avoiding problem resolving, but why should I do that, at the best, I would only postpone release. I just did not understand it. Even now I am not sure.
@BloodDragon @adrianrogalski what do you think - Should I contact support, try to explain and remove this suspension?
I am in problem now for next app’s, and not sure what to do.
There’s some great info in this thread. It’s a shame we can’t make a ‘sticky post’ or wiki listing common reasons for suspension/termination. I know there are lists re Google Play, but a concise list specific to WFF/WFS could be valuable.
It is OK if you did not understand. From what I’ve seen Google’s rejection messages are pretty vague most of the time, almost like they couldn’t be bothered to provide anything but the most basic of reasons for the rejection. Then they expect all of us to be able to figure out how to fix the problems without much, if any, information about the issue.
I honestly don’t know if trying to appeal again would help or hurt your case. Letting them know that previously you didn’t understand the cause of the rejection and asking for another chance to fix it could potentially work in your favor. But, I think that would only work if a human is reading the appeal. But, if Google has some kind of bot reading through and responding to appeals then I would assume that probably nothing you could say would work to get the decision reversed.
You might try searching this forum for other people talking about their efforts to appeal in situations like yours. If any of those people were successful you could try asking them what they did or did not say in their appeals.
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whoa…I have done this with every watch face I have made! In Google Play Console when I Create new app, I always use (Merge labs) Name, but the ID_LABEL will just be the Name only.
Example:
On Google Play Console App Name: Merge Labs NRW2
WFS: ID_LABEL_NRW2 ~ ‘NRW2’ will appear on watch when you install.
I have not received any warnings or rejections yet? Is this going to be an issue?
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