Google wants some content on this website, so here goes.
Let me start at the beginning. My current job is going through a bit of a rough spell, and after working almost double the amount of hours a week for a few years, now things are in a bit of a slow spell, so my hours are back to a more “normal” amount, leaving me with some additional free time I was not counting on.
Back in the early days of Android, I worked as a software developer and built a few apps for release in Google Play for my then employer, so I decided to start building apps again in my free time.
It has been over 10 years since I last spent a proper amount of time on coding, and quite a few things have changed since then. I made an attempt a few times in the past years, but when work picked up, my time for coding diminished, and that makes it hard to get anything substantial done. Now it is a bit different, and I have been able to dedicate more time to it, and got back into my groove.
There are a few ideas I have on my todo list that I would like to build, but I decided I start with a simple video player app. I work as a machinist / quality inspector and usually have videos playing on my phone in the background, and while I don’t spent much time actually watching them, I use them more for background noise, it is nice to be able to turn it on in the (very early) morning and it will keep running until the end of my shift without having to intervene.
So that is where I started.
Since I was using my creation on a daily basis myself, I kept adding new features and functionality that I find useful and that would make things easier for me to use. Earbud support for play/pause, tap on screen to pause, rather than hitting the button, switching videos quickly while they are playing and of course remember where I left off at on each video. There are more things I’d like to add, but right now, I find it a dream to use for my needs, and believe that other people would find it useful as well.
So the dilemma, put a price tag on it or run the app with ads?
I’m not much of a fan of ads myself, but I do have quite a few free apps installed on my phone that include advertising of some sort, and some of those are not used enough to warrant a purchase or a subscription service, so I put up with it.
Free and free of ads would be awesome of course, but with my work hours cut in half, it would be nice to have a little additional income to pay for my time, so I started working on implementing some minor advertising into simple video player. Not as atrocious as some apps and games do, but just some here and there, enough to be there, but not enough to be a big annoyance. Google has some nice code examples, and I believe I came up with a nice compromise of a small advertising video to play before a reasonably long video is played, ruling out most personal recorded videos so your personal memories will play without.
With that working with Google’s sample advertising code and with the actual video player app completely working, I started working on the Google Play Store submission process.
It has changed A LOT in these last 10 years.
Still the $25 entry fee, but then a full identity verification, tax info etc. All to be expected. App signing is a bit different, but that wasn’t too bad to figure out. Adding images and app description stuff, all needs to be verified by Google.
Then, the best of all, as a new developer, I need to setup a test of my app to run with at least 20 people for 2 weeks, to make sure my app functions properly and doesn’t cause issues. I can’t even set it up as a public beta and have to manually invite people after I manually add their email address into the Google Play process. That is just crazy.
I can understand that Google is trying to keep bad apps from its play store but at least let me setup a public link that people can simply click on to be included in a beta test.
So, I am trying to get through that; Fun times !
It gets better though.
I did not want to build a website. I just want to build an app, and when done, work out another idea and build another app. Simple enough I initially thought.
So in order to be able to display ads in an app on Google Play, I need a Privacy Policy. So I had to create a simple web page that would be accessible for that. Then, I have connect a Google Account to Google Ad Manager, a new(ish?) platform from Google to manage advertising.
But in order for that to happen, I need a Google Adsense account because it needs that for some reason.
Google Adsense is mainly used to display advertising on a website, and I did not even want to create a website, but now I have to continue to work on this website so I can submit it for review to Google so it is approved to display advertising on my website.
For a few weeks, I have been working on this on and off, trying to make it look nice, create a nice privacy policy, include the cookie warning where required, make sure it does not look like it is under construction, and to make sure that there is more than 100 words on the website only for Google to send me an email in the morning that it did not pass review and include the generic information that I need to review (again) the “Get Your Site Approved” videos on YouTube.
I did that, a few times, and I complied with all that was mentioned, yet I am still fighting with passing this stuff so I can go through (hopefully not) something similar with the next step again.
Anyway, I worked on the website again today for a few hours and typed this out, and am now sending this on its way to the Adsense Review team, hoping that this time it will pass. If not, I guess I will be adding another text wall tomorrow.
If you read this, don’t forget to send me an email from your gmail to tuxedocatdev@gmail.com if you want to test the (currently advertising free) Simple video Player beta.