Unfortunately, I had to remove Registro Elettronico from the Google Play Store.

Google recently introduced a new policy that requires developers to show a full address and phone number on their app’s public listing. For a solo developer like me, that’s a privacy concern I’m not comfortable with.

Another option would have been to create a company account, but that requires a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy that I simply don’t have the time and money for right now.

So even though the app had over 50,000 downloads, about 5000 active users, and a 4.5-star rating, I had to make the tough decision to remove it from the Play Store.

Google and their policies against solo developers

In the last few years, Google has made it increasingly difficult for solo developers to maintain their apps on the Play Store. The new requirements for displaying personal information are just one example of how they are not considering individual developers.

The app is still alive on GitHub

You can still find Registro Elettronico on GitHub. It’s open-source, free to use, and can be built and installed manually.

How it all started

Back in 2019, I started building Registro Elettronico. It started as class project for the app development afternoon course in my 3rd year of high school. I wanted to create something useful for students, and I also wanted to learn a new technology. Flutter was just starting to gain popularity, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn it while building a real app.

Like most schools in Italy we used an online system called Classeviva. It tracks things like grades, lessons, attendance, and homework. The official application was lacking features and had a poor user experience. They offered public APIs, but they were not well documented.

I officialy published the app on the Play Store in 2020, and it quickly gained popularity. When I removed it, it had over 50,000 downloads and about 5,000 active users. It was a great experience that taught me a lot about app development, user feedback, and maintaining an open-source project.

This project taught me a lot, both technically and personally:

1. Start simple, improve fast

The first version was very basic. But by listening to users feedback and pushing frequent updates, it quickly became more polished and useful. Releasing early helped a lot.

A lot of people contacted me with suggestions, bug reports, and feature requests

2. Handle scale early

Once you have a few thousand users, every bug report matters. One small crash can affect hundreds of people. I learned to monitor logs, handle edge cases, and test more than I ever thought I needed to. One time Classeviva changed their API without warning, and my app broke for everyone. I had to update it quickly to avoid losing users.

3. Dealing with support and feedback

Even though the app was free, I got emails almost every day. Some were bug reports, others were just people saying thanks. But either way, support takes time. It taught me how important good UX and clear instructions are. I added a FAQ section and a link to report issues directly in the app.

4. Open-source opens doors

Because it was open-source, a few developers contributed to bug fixes and translations. But more than that, the project helped me get a lot freelance work.

Final thoughts

Taking Registro Elettronico off the Play Store was disappointing, but unfortunately, it was necessary. I hope that in the future, Google will reconsider its policies and make it easier for solo developers to maintain their apps.

I’m proud of what I built, and I’m grateful it helped so many people.