Disclaimer:
Even though the title says “my”, this is not my blogpost.
While that may be just some paperwork and a small expense, the next requirement is more insidious: “a phone number and email address for Google Play users to contact you”. I’m fine showing an email address, but I absolutely do not want my phone number to be available to anyone on the internet. (Even for phone calls. But remember that a phone number is used for much more than phone calls these days.) And that’s just me, a privileged hetero white cis dude who is unlikely to be the target of harassment or doxxing.
Yup. For small developers (FOSS or not) that don’t make money which can insulate them from this kind of stuff, it’s a no-no.
You can get a phone number for a little more than a dollar a month at OVH. You can just redirect all call to voicemail and check once or twice a month and call it the day.
OK, then you’re being really sketchy and screwing over customers.
Not publishing a phone number is perfectly fine. Publishing a phone number that’s a black hole is extremely anti-consumer.
just have the voicemail say “this mailbox is rarely monitored and is here as a requirement for google play services; a better way of getting support is available at X”
It’s also extremely anti-consumer to not offer any support. Which is likely the primary reason that Google is requiring this. There are so many apps out there that don’t have any means of support, it’s one of my primary complaints about google play, so many abandonwares or apps that were clearly put on there as a send and done with no intent to actually use them.
Fuck them for these games. It’s an abuse of their market position.
Does Google offer a phone number for me to contact them about problems with their half-assed products? I’ve tried lots of times to reach a human being, but never raised a response as a private citizen.
I bought a set of pixel phones the other day (for grapheneos)… I COULD reach google store support. Real people. I left the conversation dumber than when I started. I promise you talking to anyone at Google doesn’t matter either. Google is just outright not worth it if you need support for anything… period.
A phone number? Hard fucking pass.
Fuck google. I just want to be able to play minit on my phone, but no, Google says it’s not good enough for me because they haven’t updated the app in a while. You know, like most games. Of course they haven’t updated the app, the game is finished, they’ve moved on from it.
Login from an old phone, then once it’s installed on the old phone with the same Google account, it will appear on the newer phone. Yes, it’s stupid
It would be much more customer and developer friendly to allow linking a service portal instead of providing a phone number. I would go insane if a user called me directly every time one of my projects had a bug or some perceived (non)issue. No, that’s not how this works.
