App industry news roundup – 23 August, 2019

There were lots of reports emerging earlier this week which claimed that Google had secretly deployed a new app review process for Android developers. It was thought that Google had extended its review process for new apps submitted to the Play store in order to better fight spam, malware and copycat apps.

Google says these reports are untrue and it hasn’t secretly changed its app review process without notifying developers – but it has extended the amount of time it spends reviewing new apps from newer and not yet established Android developers without a presence on the Play store.

The rumours stemmed from a blog post published by text-based games developer, Choice of Games. It claimed Google had confirmed to it that all Android app submissions would require a minimum of three days for approval moving forwards, something Google has now denied.

The games developer said Google had told it:

·It was taking more time to thoroughly review each app

·That app launches could no longer be scheduled with new apps going live automatically after approval

·That there was no way to expedite the review process and that

·Developers hadn’t been told in advance of the changes

While Choice of Games had this info recorded in a chat transcript with Google Support, it turns out, the support tech had her wires crossed, with the subsequent rumours swirling by mistake. The support assistant it turned out was citing a policy announced back in April, when Google said app submissions from new developers would take more time to process.

It appears Support hadn’t realised that Choice of Games was already an established presence on the App Store, meaning it was exempt from that policy.

Windows says Samsung Galaxy Note 10 best for its Your Phone app

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 users received some good news this week from Windows – it says to get the most out of its Your Phone app, you need to be using that handset. While all phones can download and use the app, it appears some of the features are exclusive to the latest Samsung smartphone.

Windows says for example that the Phone Screen feature will work without Bluetooth connectivity on the Note 10 – but requires Bluetooth to operate on all other devices.

Tesla app disappears, reappears

If you drive a Tesla you might have found yourself at a bit of a loss earlier this week as the app disappeared from Google Play for a while. The app is an essential part of the Tesla owner experience as it can be used as a key to lock and unlock the vehicle, check the battery life and change the car’s settings. It was removed from the Play store for a short while, returning an ‘item not found’ error for those searching for it from the main menu.

The app appeared back yesterday – no news on why it was removed but a new version is now available for download.