Google Play removing apps built using Expo for us due to including Facebook and Google Analytics ad APIs

Expo SDK
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Please provide the following:

  1. SDK Version: 40
  2. Platforms(Android/iOS/web/all): Android
  3. Add the appropriate “Tag” based on what Expo library you have a question on.

Randomly had multiple android apps taken down…removed from listing…in google play due to violation of Family Policies…they tell us we are serving ads in our apps but we are not. We indicated No and they tell us that we have them…i suppose that this is a violation of the families policy itself.

We found ad SDKs in your app

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  • Version: 11, SDK: GoogleAnalytics
  • Version: 12, SDK: Facebook
  • Version: 12, SDK: Facebook
  • Version: 12, SDK: Facebook

If your app serves ads, you must answer ‘Yes’ to the question below. If you use ad SDKs but your app doesn’t serve ads, you can leave your answer as ‘No’.

How do we review the list of services that get included? We need to rebuild and submit without GoogleAnalytics or Facebook…prob others

We really do not want the apps to show that the apps contain ads…because they dont.

Thanks for what you do…that target is always moving and that is fine…must be tightening of rules due to abuses from the ad companies…cannot blame them.

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if you build using classic build service expo-cli build:android then it creates app from prebuild set of expo libraries, where all native code for expo modules are included. That includes google and facebook stuff, but all those should be disabled, just the code is present.

If you want to include only modules you are using then you should consider migrating to our new build service, EAS Build. EAS Build - Expo Documentation
It will only include modules that you are using, but it adds additional responsibility on you, if you are using OTA updates you need to make sure that you don’t send OTA update that relies on some native code to the app that does not have it.

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Thanks for the prompt reply. Will get on this. Thank you for what you all do!

Using the method you provided would prob also help with speed and performance (less bulky, not having items we don’t use or need). Right?

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apps will be smaller(note that size of aab is not the same as what users downloads), but I wouldn’t expect any performance improvements just from that. EAS supports building with hermes, so that might improve performance depending on the workload.

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