Google’s Play Store is back with its “Repetitive Content” banhammer, this time targeting the icon pack apps.
After the Grabster Studios, we now have Pix Monochrome and Pix Material You Light/Dark apps from PashaPuma Design banned citing the repetitive content policy – even though they’re of different designs. And without understanding much, Google even turned down the appeal of PashaPuma for reinstating its apps.
Taking Down Similar Icon Packs
Google’s Play Store is one of the two major app stores today, housing billions of apps of various kinds. One among them is icon packs, which are often subject to banhammers due to their mistaken similarities. We’ve seen several examples in the past, and the case of Grabster Studios lately.
Now, PashaPuma’s Pix Monochrome and Pix Material You Light/Dark have become the latest victims of Google Play Store’s Repetitive Content banhammer! The two icon packs were pulled down from Play Store on March 7th, citing their internal content being highly similar to PashaPuma’s other icon pack apps.
They were stated to have violated the Play Store’s Repetitive Content policy – which is meant to prevent app farms from polluting the store with the same product over and over again. Though the developer (PashaPuma) immediately filed an appeal – it was denied the next day. Google stated the below reason for the PashaPuma apps removal;
Creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience. If these apps are each small in content volume, developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all the content.
This forces the developer to revise its apps and submit them as new listings – leaving behind all the reviews, ratings, search positioning, and other important metrics of the old listings. This can significantly hit the Belarus-based PashaPuma; which is said to rely heavily on the sales revenue of these apps.
