So disappointed with Samsung theme process right now….
With the new version of the GTS tool for Android 11, Samsung tells us to update our best selling themes first, so I updated 14 as a first run. Seven passed and seven rejected, even though after seeing the rejections, they should have rejected all 14 because the tool really created a mess!
So I waited for the updated tool supposed to be released 10/28 but got it 10/29. I updated two of the accepted themes with this latest version yesterday because I knew they would have to be fixed anyway, and I updated several of the rejected themes as a test.
Overnight, Samsung SUSPENDED all seven of those previously accepted top selling themes! So my top selling themes are no longer available on the store, for any Android version!
Absolutely ridiculous to me, because no one has Android 11 except beta testers, and it’s not likely they will be impacted by my seven themes! And I have to suffer a loss of revenue from my best selling themes all weekend, because Samsung is not available to test those themes till next week! And if they find rejections in those, which is likely, I’m screwed for an even longer period.
Please, someone explain to me why they had to suspend my top selling themes because they messed up? I am paying the price for bad tool development, and bad testing that passed those themes! Unbelievable!
This is a major issue, one we had experience with last year where our #1 Winter theme and #1 Christmas themes were suspended early December. Samsung’s policy to suspend content like this, which effectively kills sales for that content on every device, is unacceptable. Improvements need to be made to both the tool quality upon initial release, as well as how situations like this are handled.
For example, if the tool issues are for R OS Beta only, why not just hide the themes from the R OS store until the issue is resolved with a new tool? Surely this is a better alternative than suspending the themes on all OS versions? If hiding isn’t an option on an OS-basis, then HQ can batch remove the R apks from any themes that were mistakenly approved.
Suspending content IDs for live themes is very detrimental for sellers, especially if the theme is a top seller. We luckily did not have any themes get approved with the buggy tools this year, but I feel for all the developers who had their themes suspended through no fault of their own. Last year we lost a substantial amount of potential sales due to this happening to our top sellers, and I truly hope this policy can be improved going forward.
After been through two OS themes updates , I’m noticing that initial release of new OS Themes Editor is always buggy. That is understandable, updating OS is a major task where many unseen bugs can’t be detected until they have been tested through a large quantity of themes.
Themes developers are beta testers during the initial release period. There must be a better way to address how to retract passed themes made with buggy editor. Suspend the entire theme due to no faults of developers is not only unfair, but it’s been seeing as penalizing the beta testers.
If this issue doesn’t get addressed, then many developers will likely wait for other developers to get their themes tested and suspended in the next OS update. Then many bugs won’t be found until later, which prolong the beta testing period. That will translate to many unhappy end users.
I see two solutions to this issue:
Have a group of seasoned themes developers participate early alpha testing for new OS theme update. This will iron out many bugs before the editor is released to the public. This will also reduce the backlog at the validation process.
Notify sellers to retract themes in question before suspending them.
I totally agree with all that was said above. These suspensions only make a lot of harm while adding ZERO value! It’s even hard to believe, how such a pointless and mindless policy can ever exist. And it’s all when Android 11 is not even on the market yet!
So basically, what happened: we have been suggested to update our best selling themes first. And all we got in return is their temporary REMOVAL out of the store. What is followed by a financial loss, as we are talking about exactly best selling and seasonal themes, right? And on Friday, of course, as Friday is the “best” time for suspension to add two idle days when validation team is off work.
So, the lesson learned - next time I will ignore such advises. It’s better to lose just a small part of happy customers (those who just got their brand new Android OS) than to lose ALL of them.
And honestly, I have no idea why it’s so hard to simply send a request to all Theme Developers to delete their buggy R binary themselves instead of suspending the whole product without any prior notification. Same way as they did with IP compromising content a year ago - they said remove it by certain date or we gonna do it ourselves. One may think we don’t have enough time for doing that before the actual Android R release!
Exactly, They just only clarified or mail to all designers to update the pass themes first and test them as first priority when we resubmit them . That’s enough. No need to suspend or rejected it.
I agree with all points. It’s really unhappy about this policy. Android 11 (R OS) has only a public beta yet, so it won’t affect if there are issue or not, but the Theme Developer Team must fix the errors in advance before releasing the tool for a new Android version. Errors found afterwards should be corrected by the app developer within the respective app and not with a new tool version, where we have to update our themes again.
Thatcosts a lot of time and is not a good eco system for Theme Developers. There should be the opportunity to take part in an internal pre-alpha test phase for the next Android version with the latest two Flagships, likely next year the Galaxy S21/30 and Note 21/30.
With a beta version with the Galaxy Themes Studio, where everyone probably 5 themes to update. So we can find and resolve issues together, before the public Beta Test Phase for next Android Version starts.
At the moment it’s every year the same. The Public Beta starts for next Android Version and they release a new Version of Galaxy Themes Studio, mostly within 2-4 weeks, they release 2-3 new Versions with Bug Fixes for the new Android Version and we must update our Themes 1-5 times again and agian.
Also the validation process, the themes go through the visibility check without problems, then after that the Validatio Team will rejected, about Issue in the Firmware / Apps in 98 % cases.
Day 6 and still no response as to why the apps had to be suspended… And there are still known bugs in the tool, so my updates will probably be rejected!!! Is it taking so long to test because Samsung does not like public questions? Other developers who had content suspended have had their themes tested!
Not really. I have 4 top selling themes suspended. Day SEVEN and zero response. And weekend is coming again, so my chances to get these themes approved anytime soon are getting slimmer…
