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Ask HN: I'm cloning my own app into 10x new apps. Is it allowed on Google Play?

5 points by makuchaku ↗ HN
Hi everyone,

I have made a decently fine app in my free travel time : Memes for Whatsapp - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.makulabs.chat.memes.pro.for.whatsapp&referrer=hn

App lets you search memes, share them on various chat apps, etc. I've also added a bit of Facebook audience network for Ads.

I am now building a script which will make copies of the source, replace string files & some selected assets to generate a brand new app (with a new package ID) which does something brand new but on same lines as of the original app.

ORIGINAL App : search and share memes

NEW CLONE Apps : [search and share inspirational quotes, search and share devotional pictures of gods, search and share pictures of new clothing styles, search and share hollywood actress pics, etc]

All of these cloned apps will have separate ID's, tracking, etc - but will be based on my original source code.

Objective is not to repeat myself. Bug fixes are easier, generating new APK's for all is like just running a script, etc.

*BIG question : Are apps produced from such a process acceptable on Google Play (specially since the manual screening has started)?

Thanks in advance!

14 comments

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CmonDev
And are you worried about ethics?
makuchaku
Not ethics - but I am just trying not to trip any Google Play Guidelines & get my app banned :)
caspercrf
I'm not sure about the cloning, but having the names Whatsapp and Twitter in your app name could get the app banned.
makuchaku
As per the Google Play Guidelines, having a brand word in a formation like "Foo for [Brand]" is valid. See last section on this help page https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...
caspercrf
That's good to know. I have 6 apps out that are all made from the same source code, but each one has a couple of changes and all have different icons and images. People used to make cloans of live wallpaper apps, but most of them got the developer banned, so I don't really know what the line is for duplicate apps.
makuchaku
Would you mind sharing links to your apps? It'll be awesome. Thanks
feld
don't fill up app stores with this cruft
makuchaku
What you think is "cruft" might be of important usage to others. Please don't be so fast to judge. You don't know content usage patterns around the world.
cweagans
Just keep it in one app and do in-app purchases for different content packs. Much easier.
makuchaku
Thanks for the idea.

But what if the ideas don't have a common audience? Like devotional apps need a different audience than funny pictures app.

cweagans
Religious people don't like funny pictures?
alain94040
Nice touch, putting a referrer tag for HN in your URL.
makuchaku
Everything should be measured. No? :)
makuchaku
Update - so I wrote scripts to do this and now I have 5 apps live which are "generated" from the same code base.