Policy Declarations

Policy declarations are the answers Google's app review requires for every app distributed on Aptoide Games in the US through Google Play. They cover how the app behaves — ads, data, audience, regulated content — and Google checks them against the app itself during review.

You fill them in once, in the Policy Declarations tab of the app's page in the Developer Console, and every later submission reuses them. The same section appears as a card in the submission form, so a new app can be completed without leaving the flow.

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The programme is rolling out in phases and Aptoide enables it per app. If you don't see the Policy Declarations tab, your app is not part of the current phase and nothing is required from you.

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The declarations, their wording, and their accepted answers come from Google's App Store Review requirements. Aptoide collects and validates them ahead of time, so problems surface in the console instead of as a review rejection.

How the section works

• Everything is validated live. Every choice you click and every field you leave revalidates the draft against the rules Google applies. Blocking problems appear in red at the top of the affected section; advisories appear in orange.
• Each section shows its status. Complete means every required answer is in place. Incomplete means something is missing, and the section messages say what. Needs reconfirmation means a new APK changed permissions your answers were confirmed against.
• Save enables when the profile is clean. While a change revalidates, the buttons briefly disable and a validating note appears next to them.
• Answers can be cleared. Clicking a selected option unselects it. Follow-up answers that depended on it, including picked licence files, are discarded with it, so hidden follow-ups are never saved.
• Some sections only appear when they apply. Child Safety appears for social and dating apps; News & Magazines appears for news apps. Everything else is always shown.

The declarations

Ads

Whether the app contains ads, counting ads served by third-party SDKs, not only ads you sell. Answering yes adds an extra certification later when the app also targets children.

Advertising ID

Whether the app collects the Android advertising ID and, if it does, every purpose it is used for. An SDK such as Google Mobile Ads can collect it and merge the AD_ID permission into your manifest without you declaring it, so check the merged manifest before answering no. If your APK requests AD_ID and the declaration says the ID is not used, the console warns you about the contradiction.

Apps targeting Android 13 or above that use the ID without requesting the permission are asked to acknowledge the AD_ID permission requirement.

Target audience and content

The age groups the app targets. The selected groups must be consecutive: 9–12 together with 16–17 but without 13–15 is rejected. When your app already has an age rating, the console suggests matching groups.

• Targeting anyone 12 or under adds the children's requirements: a certification that the app complies with COPPA, GDPR, and other children's laws; a certification that only Google Play certified ad networks serve ads (when the app has ads); and the choice of whether to join Google's Teacher Approved programme.
• Targeting only 18 and over offers an optional declaration that the app takes steps to restrict access by minors.

App access

Whether any part of the app is restricted: behind a login or account creation, a purchase, a PIN, biometrics, a referral or QR code, or an action that has to start on another device. If it is, provide one to five sets of testing credentials so the review can reach that content.

• Each set needs a name, either a username and password or written access instructions, and a confirmation that the credentials give full access to all features and content, including paid content.
• Secrets are stored encrypted and never shown again. When editing, blank fields keep the stored values.
• You also consent to the credentials being used to access and test the app on Android devices during review.

Health

The health categories the app belongs to, or a declaration that it is not a health app. The two cannot be combined; picking one clears the other. If your APK requests health permissions, such as ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION, BODY_SENSORS, or any Health Connect permission, each detected permission asks for a written justification of why the app needs it.

Financial features

The financial products the app offers, or no financial products, which clears everything else. Most games are none; in-app purchases do not count. Two product families open follow-up questions:

• Loans (direct lending, loan facilitation, payday loans, lines of credit, earned wage advances, microfinance, buy now pay later): list every institution that lends through the app with its relationship to you, and certify compliance with the applicable laws and Google Play's personal loans policy.
• Cryptocurrency (exchanges, wallets, NFT trading): confirm you have accepted Google's cryptocurrency terms. US-regulated products (exchanges and wallets) then declare how they operate in the United States, as a single choice: the features are geo-restricted and unavailable in the US, the wallet is non-custodial in the US (wallet-only apps), or the product operates in the US. The first two end the questions there. Operating in the US opens the licensing details: name the legal institution and declare its licences — a FinCEN money services registration and/or a federal or state charter — each with its number and a PDF of the licence document (up to 20 MB). Picked files stay in your browser and upload when you save.

Government apps

Whether the app is developed by or on behalf of a government entity. Every app answers this. A yes opens the follow-up: which levels of government (national, state, city, or other), the official website of each entity or its Wikipedia page when the entity has no website, and, for other, the app's goal and your relationship with the entity.

Child safety standards

Required for social and dating apps: the public page where your child safety standards are published (an https page, not a PDF), who Google should contact about child safety concerns, and confirmations that the app has an in-app mechanism to report concerns and complies with child safety laws.

News and magazines

Required for news apps: who is submitting and for which legal entity, a public page with the entity's contact details, and what kind of entity publishes the app. Aggregators stop there.

Publishers of their own content also declare the content types and their editorial credentials, each with its URL: a YouTube channel, published editorial guidelines, journalistic standards, and journalistic recognition. Commercial outlets add their industry association memberships; public media add their public service media alliances (ABU, AUB, EBU, PMA, TAL, or others).

Cross-checks with your APK

The console reads the merged manifest of your latest version and compares it with your answers:

• Health permissions in the APK generate the per-permission justification questions in the Health section.
• An APK that requests AD_ID while the declaration says the advertising ID is unused produces a warning. Google does not reject it automatically, but reviews the coherence, and the answer is your responsibility.
• When a new version changes the relevant permissions after the profile was completed, the status becomes Needs reconfirmation until you review and save again.

The validation also checks that every store listing language has a title, a description, and at least one screenshot, because Google rejects submissions with partial listings. These appear under Other requirements at the bottom of the section.

Submission

The Policy Declarations card in the submission form must be complete before the app can be submitted. The card carries the same live validation as the tab: fill in what is missing, press Done to save, and the submission can proceed.