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Google Play Store blocks app using Accessibility API for automation

🧭 worksocial problemSingle report ●●●●● severity 4/5

The developers of an Android AI agent app report that Google Play rejected their application because it uses the Accessibility API to perform UI automation, despite the app providing functionality that native assistants like Gemini fail to execute.

Who's affected: Independent Android developers building automation or agentic software and possibly others in the same situation.

⚠️ Single report. This is one person's account. We mark it so until more voices confirm it.

What people do today

🔧 Fix this

Ideas a builder, maker or community group could start on:

  1. A developer advocacy group that lobbies Google to create a specific, safe API for agentic UI automation.
  2. A decentralized app store platform specifically for power-user tools that are restricted by mainstream app store policies.
  3. A standardized 'Automation Permission' framework that allows users to explicitly grant UI control to third-party apps without triggering blanket bans.
I want to build this

Real voices

“Because we use the Accessibility API for universal automation (literally mapping and clicking other apps), Google Play rejected our submission.”

Source: Hacker News

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