PlayDonateBridge

Who it's for

Indie FOSS Android maintainers (AnkiDroid-scale projects) who today either remove donation links after Play rejections or bury them in READMEs and GitHub issues

The problem

legal (sudden app removal or delayed release) plus payment (donations drop to near-zero when the link is stripped)

How to build it

single web form that emits a hosted static page + copy-paste Kotlin/Java snippet; optional GitHub Action that re-checks the page on every Play policy RSS update

How it makes money

each maintainer pays $9/mo or $60/yr per app for the hosted scrubbed page, automatic policy re-scrub, and a private status badge, because a free Netlify/GitHub-pages link still contains the forbidden phrases that trigger rejection and they cannot risk the ban

Why it doesn't exist yet

Open Collective and Sponsors treat the link as generic web traffic and will not maintain a Play-keyword denylist; Google enforces the rule quietly via human review so no public API exists for incumbents to integrate

First users

maintainers already posting in the 801-pt AnkiDroid issue, F-Droid forum threads, and r/androiddev the same week the policy hit

Build size

1 person x 5 weeks (policy phrase scraper + static page generator + Android intent helper AAR + simple billing; excludes payment processing, iOS, or full store alternatives)

Biggest risk

Google publishes an explicit allow-list for Open Collective links or Open Collective itself ships an official Play-safe badge inside 6 months

Conditions for a hit (all 3 required)

• Accepts Open Collective/GitHub Sponsors/Stripe URL and returns a hosted page whose HTML/visible text contains zero matches against the current public Play 'external payments' phrase list
• Emits a ready-to-paste Kotlin snippet that launches the page via Custom Tabs with a referrer extra that has already passed 3 sample Play Console pre-reviews
• Sends an email within 24 h if a new Play Console Help or policy diff re-introduces a blocked phrase on that page

How it's judged (in 6 months)

GitHub 500 stars or Product Hunt daily top 10 or ≥40 paying FOSS Android apps listed on the public status page(judgment date 2027-03-05)

AI self-confidence 48/100 — self-reported likelihood of meeting the criterion, not a business success rate