PlayBanWatch

Who it's for

Solo/small Android devs and FOSS maintainers (AnkiDroid-style donation-funded apps, de-Google/sideloading-adjacent tools like AuroraStore) who today just re-read Google's vague policy page or wait for a suspension email and file a canned appeal.

The problem

payment (a Play suspension kills the majority of install base/revenue overnight) and legal (appeals take 2-4 weeks with no specific citation of what triggered removal).

How to build it

Web tool: paste a Play Store listing URL or upload an APK, get a report of flagged strings/screenshot text with a file:line or listing-section reference plus a link to the real enforcement case it matches; weekly email digest of newly reported precedent cases.

How it makes money

Devs pay $19 one-time per pre-release scan or $9/month for continuous monitoring since a suspension email can erase their entire install base overnight; small studios watching multiple apps pay $29/month for up to 10 apps, which a free manual policy re-read can't match because the precedent database updates weekly from live suspension cases.

Why it doesn't exist yet

Google deliberately keeps enforcement policy text generic so no official banned-phrase list exists, and corporate app-compliance consultancies chase million-dollar clients, not $0-revenue FOSS/donation apps, so nobody is scraping GitHub issues/r/androiddev fast enough to build a live precedent library for the long tail.

First users

Post the AnkiDroid donation-link and AuroraStore blocking threads on HN/r/androiddev with a free scan of their own listing as proof, then FOSS maintainers forward it to peers who got hit by similar suspensions.

Build size

2 people x 8 weeks — includes: listing/APK scanner, precedent scraper (GitHub issues, r/androiddev, XDA) feeding a tagged pattern database, weekly digest email; excludes: automated appeal-filing, non-Android platforms, data-safety-form generation.

Biggest risk

If Google publishes an explicit banned-phrase/keyword list in its official Developer Policy Center (something it has resisted so far), the precedent-scraping value collapses overnight.

Conditions for a hit (all 3 required)

• Given a Play Store listing URL, outputs flagged phrases/screenshot elements (e.g. 'F-Droid', 'donate', 'sideload') each linked to a specific past suspension case
• Given an uploaded APK, scans strings.xml/manifest for donation-platform URLs (Open Collective, Patreon, Ko-fi) and third-party store references, reporting file and line
• Sends a weekly digest email listing newly added Play Store suspension precedents scraped from public GitHub issues and forums, dated and sourced

How it's judged (in 6 months)

Product Hunt top 5 daily OR a GitHub repo reaching 300+ stars within 6 months(judgment date 2027-03-05)

AI self-confidence 38/100 — self-reported likelihood of meeting the criterion, not a business success rate