How to orevent someone from ripping off my app?

Question

Now I've been working for almost 2 years on a 2d frighting game on android and I added it to the store a few months back but while I was looking on the play store today I found out that someone has released the same exact game with the same assets and music, sound effects, same user interface and even with the same bugs that the game used to have, and I don't know what to do, how can I prevent this from happening again do I code in a specific way that would prevent that and how do I stop the copy that is on the play store? Thanks

Are you using proguard/something similiar about compact and/or obfuscation? — statosdotcom, Feb 18 '18 at 00:49
@statosdotcom I'm using Android studio doesn't it automatically uses proguard? — user3879781, Feb 18 '18 at 00:51
Not automatically... it has to be expressly invoked. Search a bit about it and give it a try if your (new) apps aren't enabled. — statosdotcom, Feb 18 '18 at 00:52
Read: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10585961/way-to-protect-from-lucky-patcher-play-licensing — Morrison Chang, Feb 18 '18 at 00:57
@user3879781 many thanks for you consideration and I will stay here to help you on these matters. To run proguard it can be sometimes a tricky operation, cause it fights with external libraries and resources you can be using. Se be brave and I am sure you will be successful guarding you intellectual properties. Wish you the best. — statosdotcom, Feb 18 '18 at 01:08

statosdotcom · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-18T04:43:48.277

Certify if you are using the default obfuscation code method and recycling from Android Studio. It is called ProGuard and have to be explicitly invoked on release time. It also remove unneeded resources optimizing the whole app.

Also it is always recommended to rely on official documentation to guide you to the correct resolution of your matters: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/build-variants.html

A nice discussion about the topic was done here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13854693/5885018

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 18 '18 at 00:56

You should use proguard on production module of your app. It will obfuscate code and remove unnecessary code. Also use shrinkResources(works alon gwith proguard) to remove unneeded resources. You should have a debug and release build variant for your app and have proguard only on release. Read configure build variants: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/build-variants.html

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 19 '18 at 09:03

I'm really sorry this has happened to you.

First you should know that Google actively has technology to try to prevent this from happening, but like all attempts to stop abuse it isn't foolproof. You should report this problem by flagging the other app, and also contacting Google Play developer support via the Play console. They should be able to get the other app reviewed, and then Google can use this data to improve our anti-abuse mechanisms.

Secondly, what can you do yourself?

the existing answer about using pro-guard to obfuscate your code will help.
you can check the package name of the running app in your own code, as another user has to change both the package name to upload to Google Play.
you can check the signing key. This will also help you if the copier decides to upload to other app stores besides Google Play.
there are a number of commercial obfuscation and protection technologies. I can't personally recommend any of them, but you might want to try them. Eg DexProtector.

How to orevent someone from ripping off my app?

3 Answers3