ROM Manager pulled from the Google Play Store

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Published 20 Dec 2013

If you like to flash your Android phone with a custom ROM, there’s a 99% chance you have ROM Manager installed. It’s an app coded by the famous Koushik Dutta, one of the guys responsible for CyanogenMod. Unfortunately, the app is no longer in Google’s Play Store, for reasons that are totally trivial.

First thing’s first, Google, Apple, and everyone else that runs an app store, likes to have control. That means if you make an app available in the Play Store or the Apple App Store or the Amazon Store, all in-app payments need to happen through whoever is running said respective store. ROM Manager has a set of premium features that you can only get if you pay, and Koushik has always asked for money using PayPal.

Despite Google warning him about his app violating their terms of service, and despite Google warning all their developers over a year ago about the updated Play Store terms of service, Koushik didn’t have enough time in his busy day to make the changes necessary to prevent his app from getting pulled.

So what’s going to happen now? ROM Manager has been officially suspended, which means it’s not going to come back to the Play Store. Koushik can re-submit ROM Manager to the Play Store with the correct in-app payment method baked in, but it’s going to be considered a brand new application with zero downloads and zero ratings.

That sucks, but hey, rules are there for a reason.

[Via: Pocket-now]