Talkie and Talkie Premium deleted by Google Chrome Web Store
joelpurra opened this issue · 7 comments
The situation has been resolved
- Talkie has been reinstated in CWS.
- Talkie Premium has been removed from CWS due to changes in Google's policy.
Starting with Talkie v6.0.0, Talkie and Talkie Premium have been merged into a single extension. Talkie can now be upgraded to Talkie Premium directly in the extension options.
- Talkie for Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers.
- Talkie for Firefox can also be upgraded.
Current standalone Talkie Premium extension users should switch to Talkie. You can upgrade Talkie to include Talkie Premium features at no extra cost.
Expected behavior
Able to easily install Talkie and Talkie Premium using the Google Chrome Web Store (CWS).
Actual behavior
- Neither Talkie nor Talkie Premium are available on CWS.
- Previously working links to CWS return HTTP status code 404 (error, page not found).
- Current installations may continue to work, at least for some time.
Steps to reproduce behavior
Click on CWS links from, for example, the README.md.
- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enfbcfmmdpdminapkflljhbfeejjhjjk
- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/madmpgibncancdmkjflnifcdakndkngo
Website
System information
- Your browser: Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browers using CWS
- Your browser version: all
- Your operating system: all
- Your operating system version: all
From my perspective, it seems Talkie and Talkie Premium were deleted because of a combination of two issues.
- CWS considers Talkie and Talkie Premium to be "spam"/"repetitive content" extensions, because they are similar in functionality. This is the reason found in the deletion messages. Note that the CWS staff previously confirmed (in a direct support message, as well as by approving the extension updates) that they allowed Talkie and Talkie Premium to co-exist, as Talkie Premium has additional paid features.
- Talkie Premium can no longer use CWS for payments, since Google is shutting down payments for extensions. This would, from CWS perspective, remove the argument that Talkie and Talkie Premium are different, because of the paid premium features. The final CWS payment shutdown date has not yet arrived though.
I have reached out to CWS support for clarification on the deletion, but no reply yet.
Trying to get Talkie and Talkie Premium reinstated as-is is a short-term solution, and will presumably fail once CWS payments are shut down permanently. It seems the way forward is to:
- Implement a custom payment system, and a way to verify that payment has been made.
- Include Talkie Premium features in Talkie, but require payment for them.
- All current free features will remain free. The aim is to not affect this in any way.
- Replace Talkie Premium with a "dummy extension", asking all users to switch to Talkie.
- No new users would be allowed to install the dummy version of Talkie Premium.
- The dummy extension would be required to communicate the change to existing Talkie Premium users. It cannot be "similar" to Talkie, since it would be marked as "spam" again. Hence it cannot read text.
- The extension may optionally help collect license details (at least some identification code and the subscription end date) from individual users, since this cannot be made by bulk transfer from CWS.
- Talkie Premium users will receive all premium features for at least the remainder of their paid subscription period.
- After a grace transition period, Talkie Premium will be deleted.
This hinges on CWS approving the updates to be published. There are no guarantees for that, since it's a proprietary system owned by Google.
The CWS spam policy:
Repetitive Content: We don't allow any developer, related developer accounts, or their affiliates to submit multiple extensions that provide duplicate experiences or functionality on the Chrome Web Store. Extensions should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services.
The CWS payments deprecation timeline.
- Feb 1, 2021 Your existing items and in-app purchases can no longer charge money with Chrome Web Store payments. You can still query license information for previously paid purchases and subscriptions. (The licensing API will accurately reflect the status of active subscriptions, but these subscriptions won't auto-renew.)
- At some future time The licensing API will no longer allow you to determine license status for your users.
An initial version of the "merged" Talkie, which also contains paid/upgradable Talkie Premium features, was submitted to CWS circa one day ago. It is still pending review, and have received no reply in the support message thread. (They say that they have longer response times due to the pandemic.)
Still unsure if the current Talkie Premium will also need to be replaced with a dummy version before Google accepts the new Talkie; hoping they will clarify sooner rather than later. Either way, I will give them some more time then create the dummy version as a fallback.
The "merged" Talkie was denied publishing. Google has clarified that either Talkie or Talkie Premium has to be unpublished (and possibly deleted as well, but by me as a developer rather than the deletion already performed by Google) from CWS, and until then neither can be published.
No response yet to (follow-up) questions regarding:
- How unpublishing affects current users (paying!) Talkie Premium users. I don't want it to just disappear from their browsers. The support pages do not mention if/how this is different to the current deletion.
- How to transition those users to the "merged" Talkie, for example if a "dummy" version can be uploaded during a transition period. This type of simple extension might be in violation of some other policy...
At least there seems to be the option of just going ahead and unpublishing Talkie Premium to get Talkie published again.
By the way, it is noted on the CWS support pages that once an extension has been denied, deleted, or similar, it gets a lower support priority. That is in addition to already mentioned longer response times due to the pandemic.
Received a reply from the CWS support.
Regarding how unpublishing affects (paying) Talkie Premium users, in particular if the extension will be removed from their browsers:
No more information will be disclosed regarding this due to security reasons.
So I guess that's a dead end.
Regarding transitioning users from Talkie Premium to Talkie:
For more information, please refer to this FAQ.
The FAQ says:
https://developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/spam-faq/#consolidation
Developers can only consolidate their user base before enforcement action is taken against their extensions, beginning on August 27, 2020. If you do not remove the repetitive extensions before this policy is enforced against them, you will lose your user base.
These steps were not performed before the deadline to transition users from Talkie Premium to Talkie, since it at that time both extensions had approval from CWS support to co-exist. This approval had been wrongly assumed to extend to at least February 2021.
It seems the next step is just to unpublish (and possibly "delete", both of which which have unclear effects) Talkie Premium, so that at least Talkie can be published again. Sorry in advance to Talkie Premium users, in case you are negatively affected by this.
- Talkie Premium has been unpublished.
- Did not find an actual button to "delete" this particular extension, so let's see if that step is actually required or just another way of saying "unpublish".
- Talkie Premium might disappear from users' browsers. This is out of my control.
- Have submitted Talkie for review again. Let's see if Google finally approves it.
Please note that I have no way of contacting Talkie Premium users to ask them to switch to the merged Talkie. If you are a paying user, do not worry -- you can use all features from Talkie Premium once the updated Talkie v6.0.0 has been approved. Please see the "upgrade" tab in Talkie's options once you have installed Talkie v6.0.0.
Talkie v5.0.3 has been reinstated in CWS.
Note that this is the "old" version, which does not have all Talkie Premium features. I will now attempt to get Talkie v6.0.0 approved as well.
Talkie v6.0.0 has been approved and is now available in CWS. Version upgrades for individual Talkie users happen automatically over time, at a pace set by Google.
This message was received three days after (2021-02-07) Talkie v6.0.0 was approved (2021-03-04).
Thank you for reaching out to us. Upon a subsequent review, we found your extension is compliant with all our policies. The submission is approved and the latest version of the extension will be published in the Chrome Web Store shortly.
A message to current users of the separate Talkie Premium extension
The separate Talkie Premium extension is no longer available from the Chrome Web Store. It is recommended that current users of the separate Talkie Premium extension switch to Talkie v6.0.0, since Talkie Premium features are available to them at no extra cost.
Switching is optional, and you are free to keep using the separate Talkie Premium extension as long as you want. There is no guarantee on how long the separate Talkie Premium extension will continue to work though, since Google has blocked all updates and may forcefully disable/uninstall it at some point (possibly once the paid Talkie Premium subscription has expired).
- Voice options in the separate Talkie Premium extension are not transferred to Talkie v6.0.0.
- Keyboard shortcuts are the same in Talkie v6.0.0, and therefore they may collide with the keyboard shortcuts in the separate Talkie Premium extension.
- Keyboard shortcuts can be customized in Google Chrome's Extensions page.
Steps for current Talkie Premium users:
- Install Talkie v6.0.0.
- Go to Talkie's options.
- Click on "Upgrade".
- Enable the Talkie Premium features.
- Try out and confirm that Talkie Premium features function in Talkie v6.0.0.
- Customize your favorite languages/dialects/voices.
- Try reading text from the clipboard.
- Optionally change the keyboard shortcuts in Google Chrome's Extensions page.
Once Talkie v6.0.0 is confirmed to work with Talkie Premium features:
- Optionally disable the separate Talkie Premium extension in Google Chrome's Extensions page.
- Optionally uninstall the separate Talkie Premium extension. Note that uninstallation most likely is irreversible.