Hey folks :wave: My app, Bloomeo, suddenly stopped...

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[Vivien Mahé]

Hey folks 👋
My app, Bloomeo, suddenly stopped appearing in Google Play search results when searching for its exact name. I contacted support, and their response was:

We cannot guarantee that every app will display in search results for its name.

As a solution, they suggested that I should pay for ads to fix the issue. 🤯

I wrote a Medium article explaining everything because I don’t think this is fair, and I’d like to spread the word: https://medium.com/@vivienmahe/google-play-search-is-broken-why-my-app-disappeared-how-it-hurts-indie-developers-702969ce0d95

Has anyone else faced something similar? If so, did you manage to solve it? How?
Would love to hear your experiences!

(If this is not the right channel, please let me know! 🙏 )

[Jacob Ras]

Check the channel description, not the right place for this indeed.

About the issue: that looks incredibly annoying! On pc, when I search for "bloomeo" I find it on the second hit, after one with just that as its title.

But on mobile, I don't see the app at all. Makes me wonder if there's another visibility issue (device/OS compatibility perhaps?)

[Vivien Mahé]

I understand it is not Kotlin related. Is there a channel for Google Play related stuff (I couldn't find)? Or even another Slack?
I'm just looking for help about this.

[Jacob Ras]

Btw: when I search for "save & retire early", I get your app immediately. Maybe the issue would be resolved if you rename your app from "[marketing] - [app name]" to [app name] - [marketing]"

[Vivien Mahé]

It was the other way around actually. But this morning I tried to switch it as an attempt to fix it but no luck.

[Vivien Mahé]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions! Also, when you say "PC", you mean the web? Because I can't find it either on the web with just "Bloomeo": https://play.google.com/store/search?q=bloomeo&c=apps

[Jacob Ras]

It could also be a matter of popularity. Play Store says "10+ downloads". I do find your app searching for [app name] exactly, just on position 38 (counted ignoring all ads). Maybe it'll get a bit of a bump after you've reached more downloads, just guessing here. I just helped with one download from the [app name] search 😉

[Vivien Mahé]

Yes, indeed. This could be the issue. But two days ago my app was the 2nd result. I don't know why suddenly it went that low.

[Vivien Mahé]

But then isn't it a vicious circle? I'm supposed to get more downloads to rank higher. But users have to scroll to the 38th position to download it?
That's what makes no sense to me.

[Vivien Mahé]

Anyway, thank you for your time 🙂 I appreciate it! I'll see what I can do.

[Stefan Oltmann]

If no other channel seems to fit you can always post into #C09222272.

[Vivien Mahé]

Ah right, good idea. Thanks!