I suppose I am not the only one with this kind of problem.
Personally, I never let these kind of websites get away with it, I give them 2 choices:
Remove the app
When the Download button is clicked, redirect the user to the Google Play Store.
Some developers wouldn’t mind, but I personally always take action. The apps are my property and you must ask for permission. I always give them a deadline.
Some stores also put a virus APK, which is scummy. That’s why I take action, I don’t want to be responsible for any damage.
What’s even more ridiculous is that I put a paid app on the Play Store, and somehow the same app was published on one of the app stores (without my permission) for FREE! How did they get the APK, I don’t know, since I had 0 sales. I tested the app on an emulator and it was the real deal!
Please voice your opinion and let me know if you would do the same and what do you think about this situation.
Also, I advise developers to search on google something like “{your app name} APK”, you will most likely find all websites that put your app for downloading and you may take action on them.
CC @popovicstudios, be aware of this if you do buy a Developer account on
Voice your opinion doesn’t mean to choose one of 2 options, it’s more to say in detail what do you think, what would you do, would you let them stay etc.
in the device utilities component. You get a true if the app is installed from Google Play Store. If that is not the case you can make it that your app displays a message and doesn’t go any further.
True, but that’s not the point. The point here is that these kind of stores MUST ask for permission.
What if I want to publish the app to the Amazon Store, or Aptoide, or things like that? That block wouldn’t work.
I know, and you are right, but fighting against it will be hard and i wonder if it helps. They use your apk on a page with a lot of ads and want to make money this way.
Yup, I’ve seen some examples where they modify the APK. Let me tell that story:
So I’ve found an APK like this on some very sketchy store, I downloaded it and opened up the emulator.
When I click on the APK it shows the app name, icon and permissions the app needs and there are two buttons: install and cancel. I’m sure everyone knows what screen I am talking about.
Something was weird and definitely not like my app.
The icon was a transparent PNG (there was literally no icon)
The app name was blank
The app required a lot of dangerous permissions (SMS send, calls, location etc.)
I, of course, didn’t install the app and quickly started thinking about What their goal is?
This is the same story about “You can’t monetize web browsers”. And it’s true, they are making money off of someone else’s work without permission. I still wonder how they get accepted for showing ads in the first place.
Now, this is something very irritating, how do they get the apk? There are several stores which get the latest apk as it is updated on the play store? even if the developer has no account on that store??
