Hello all,
This is the latest in a re-occurring issue for me. It’s a longer read but I promise that I won’t be petty or angry about what I am dealing with, I just hope someone can shed some light on this for me because Google certainly is not.
I have been doing this Google Play thing for about a year and have released about 20 faces. After some hiccups, I finally got into a good groove and was submitting and getting faces passed quickly with no issues. About 2 months ago, I submitted a new face as usual when I was rejected with the reason being “Your app does not install or launch without crashing.” I had written a post here about the frustratingly vague reasons given by Google for a rejection as some may recall. This error confounded me because the watch face runs perfectly as advertised on my device and other devices too. I appealed to try to get any info on what specifically the issue was but of course, I got the cookie cutter non-helpful response. The issue was only resolved and the face passed when I simply made a minute change and re-upped it to Google.
Over the next little while, any face new or old that was even in production before an update, was in turn, rejected with this same error (“Your app does not install or launch without crashing.”). Once again, I would just throw anything at the wall in the hopes they would get passed, and they have so far.
This got me wondering what the problem possibly could be, and since Google has been ZERO help, I decided to just release a face in incremental steps to try to pin-point/narrow down what could cause this “crashing”. In all my faces, I use the same functions/ coding for the usual item, small/large complication, themes, etc., etc. I don’t do anything crazy and I am ONLY USING WFS. I do not use a companion app because at the moment, that’s just something I don’t want to tackle at the moment. I would simply put 1 new element in the watch face and then upload it to Google to see if it passed or not. Everything was going just as planned and I would add an element and with no issues, it would get passed. I got up to 7 versions of this face with no problems and then on the final one…the version where I tried to run it through the updated WFS 1.6.10 to meet the new API/SDK requirements my “old friend” showed up (“Your app does not install or launch without crashing.” - so…rejected) The funny part is (it’s not actually funny), is that I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE besides that.
I have documented this process in release notes for each version that I uploaded as you can see below.
Process of stepped release of WIP watch face (WIP= Will It Pass?)
V 1.0.0 basic analogue hands (Passed 06/24)
V 1.0.1 Dynamic analogue hands showing realistic Highlights & Shadows (passed 06/25)
V 1.0.2 Used custom bitmap font for digital/variable using WFS internal coding for 12/24 hrs sync from phone-no code (passed 06/27)
V 1.0.3 added AM/PM/24HRS icon (passes 06/28)
V 1.0.4 Added DOW using Bitmap font and month/date(ttf) (Passed)
V 1.0.5 Added Step Counter, % of step goal which can be entered by user, distance in km and miles can be changed in customize, count calories, graphical step goal using timeline. (Passed)
V1.0.6 Loaded WIP.wfs file into updated version of WFS (1.6.10) in attempt to meet new API requirements of 30+/SDK 33, published .aab file and submitted it to Google Play. I did ABSOLUTLEY nothing else to the file. (REJECTED! For unspecified reasons other than “app fails to launch or crashes)
I just don’t see how my app could not launch or crash as the file sizes are tiny and my graphics files from Illustrator/Photoshop are also tiny, mostly no color (white). In addition, I am not trying to re-invent the wheel buy using some crazy coding or things of that nature. On the Google Play side, I think I am doing all the right things on the publishing side of filling in all fields, privacy policy, adding from factor Wear OS…etc, etc.
So…not only I am dealing with having to update all my faces just like you all to meet the new requirements, I am also dealing with this absolute nightmare of "maybe’ getting my faces passed and I have no direction, reason, or help from Google as to why this is happening. Honestly, I am beginning to think that maybe it’s because I don’t have a companion app? I seem to be getting the same tester each time because when I appeal, it gets replied to by the same person…could it be that they don’t understand that you don’t need a companion app to install the face? Maybe because they can’t figure that out so they just give me this ambiguous rejection that it doesn’t launch OR crashes??? At this point, I am seriously thinking it’s the only feasible explanation!
If you are curious, feel like doing some sleuthing or have the same problem and would like to try to get to the bottom of this issue, I am asking for your professional input and you are free to run the face yourself and see if it fails to launch or crashes on your device.
I think I can post a link to the face on Google Play here right?
Thanks of reading and I look forward to any input.
