[Android General] chinarabbit:
Freeware isnt something you really find much in the Android community.

You hear the term thrown around quite a bit, but even alot of what is termed as freeware, actually isnt.

The Lion's Share of Android apps are not Freeware at all, and the Vast majority of the so-called 'freeware' apps that are available for us to download & use daily are not truly freeware at all

I would like to draft a set of guidelines for what would ideally become a certification standard for the ethical creation & development of free apps

Apps adhering to this standard could be classified under this genre of apps, and even bear a symbol within the app, overlaid on its logo, showing users it belongs and mentioned in the app's description, showing users how it was developed, and stating that it adheres to the guidelines and fulfills the requirements of the new standard.

I would also like to compile a list of any existing apps which already meet these criteria

and all Apps filling these requirements will fall under the realm of this Guild.

Please feel free to offer your own ideas & input as to what you feel would be best for the end user, and any rules or criteria you feel are relevant to forming a framework of guidelines & prerequisites needed for apps to be called under this name, and be brought under the umbrella of this guild.

Please feel free to offer suggestions for the certification & class name and/or Guild name as well

this is all preliminary work, and I'm looking for anyone interested in helping to build this community and standard & promote its use.

There could be 2 classes of apps, Freeware & Benefit-Ware

Or there could just be one set of rules for each, stating "IF.. such and such, THEN... such and such"

If you are an App User, please mention anything you find annoying, bothersome, or troublesome.

If you are an App Developer who knows about or is displeased with the ethics and developments of certain apps which gives other apps and developers bad names, please mention anything you can that might assist us in reigning in the cowboys of the App Wild West.

Also, if somethings are simply & 100% "Not Possible" because of the Android OS, these would be issues the Guild will work to make Individual Device Manufacturers as well as the Android team at Google aware of

So, it could start something like this:

- An app should not contain ads nor promotions which cannot be closed or disabled

- An app should not contain any full-screen ads nor any ads which limit or effect user interaction with the app

- An app should not give reminders which pop up and ask the user for money, ratings, or to download additional apps

- All requests for financial support, ratings, and downloading of additional apps should be contained in the 'About' Section of the Apps Settings

- All apps which produce sound of any sort must include its Volume Controls, including in-app Mute

- All apps with services which wish to run at start up must include their own settings option to enable or disable "Start when Android Starts"

- An app must not Auto-start unless the User has specifically selected it to, nor shall it be kept running if it has not been manually Launched by a User since the last Boot time.

- An app must allow users to manually select the installation directory upon installation

- An app must have its own internal Uninstall button in the "About" Menu Settings

- An app must install 'portably', that is, without adding data to the internal phone storage

- All apps which save data must have a User-Selectable Save Location which can be used to replace the App Default Save Location

- All Apps must Uninstall completely and leave no folder behind, asking users whether or not to uninstall specific items which might contain important user data

I hope other people can add to this list

thanks