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"Blocked by Play Protect" problem for Android games

A topic by HH Richards created Aug 24, 2020 Views: 1,284 Replies: 6

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I'm making an Android game for Itch.io & for Patron supporters. It won't be on the Google Play store (because it's 18+ & NSFW). I've been uploading the direct apk file to my itch.io page, but the most recent file for some reason gets caught by "Play Protect" which says "Blocked by Play Protect", and I can't install. This was a warning before, but pressing "Install anyway" always ignored it. But lately it says "App not installed".

Any idea what I can do to distribute my APK file without it getting caught by Play Protect?

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Afloof.devModerator4 years ago(+2)

I’ve noticed on android, if you try to manually install an app that is already installed, android will put the message “App is not installed”. This can happen if the app you are trying to install is an older or the same version as the already installed one.

Did you try uninstalling any the existing app, assuming there is one and that’s what you experience? If that’s what the issue was, then keep reading for the right long-term solution. If not, maybe it’s something else I’m not familiar with.

Android has a variable called “versionCode”, that tracks if that build is newer/current/older than other builds of the same app. If your app is already installed with a “versionCode” of 5 (for example), and you try to install a new build of the same app with “versionCode” 6, then android will understand the new build is an update, and will update the app.

If however the new build has “versionCode” of 5, or lower, android will not change the already installed app, and display the message “App not installed”. I find that a bit misleading, as it would be better if it displayed the reason it’s not installed, but I’m sure there is a reason behind it.

For more information you can read Android Developers - Version your app.

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HH Richards4 years ago

Oh! Yes I have noticed that if I uninstall the original, it will allow me to upload the new version. This is not ideal however, because I wanted to release my story-based game in chapters - but this means the player has to start from the beginning each time. Although, maybe this isn't so bad.

I'll look into what you mean about the versionCode. I increment the attribute called "version", but have always ignored "versionCode", I assumed that was for apps distributed by Google Play.

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Afloof.devModerator4 years ago(+2)

The “versionCode” is for anything android related (not just Play Store). The “version” value is a human-readable string, which is for you and potentially for users to understand what version is currently installed. “versionCode” is simply an integer to help the operating system track versioning of the build (as it can’t understand the “version” string).

If you simply increment the “versionCode” every time you make a release of your game, users downloading that build will get the option to upgrade the app, which will keep all saved data of your app, so users won’t have to start over with each release.

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HH Richards4 years ago

Thanks so much for your reply. I haven't tried this yet but it makes a lot of sense.

I can see that you only have 1 android game listed on your profile, but it's free. Do you think you'll ever charge for this game through itch.io? I'm hoping to make this project profitable, & wondered if you'd looked into this being viable? I know not everyone has an Android device, but I can't see a way to make money from it being a free web/browser game.

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Afloof.devModerator4 years ago(+2)

You can absolutely profit from android games. Just remember that you need to have a game people are willing to pay for.

I assume you are talking about my game called “Blemish”. That was always meant to be a simple game, and an experiment to see how small can a game be for android (the result apk is ~150kb). Unfortunately when I made it (a good few years ago) I was living in a country where I couldn’t monetize it easily (for law reasons), so I decided to make it available for free.

I’m not sure what are the download numbers of android games on Itch, but you can publish on both Itch and other Android marketplaces, to increase the number of potential users.

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HH Richards4 years ago

My game is lewd, so I doubt it'd get through the content checks on Google Play tbh, even if I try to filter the nipples. So I'm hedging my bets on itch.io

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