Policies for App Actions

This policy is designed to provide guidance to developers building App Actions for Google ("App Actions"), including App Actions that will be published. Some partners may have access to additional APIs and be subject to varying policies.

For the purposes of this policy, the term "App Action" applies to either the App Action project or individual App Actions within that project. This policy applies to all aspects of App Actions, including their content, advertising content (where permitted), behavior, and listing information. Note that all App Actions must comply with Google Play developer policies. In the event of any conflict between these App Actions Policies and others, these App Actions Policies will apply.

Avoiding a policy violation is always better than managing one, but when violations do occur, we're committed to ensuring developers understand how they can bring their App Action into compliance. If your App Action violates our policy, you will receive a notification with a specific reason for removal or rejection. Repeated or serious violations of the policy may result in termination of individual, related or partner accounts. We may take action based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, a pattern of harmful behavior or high risk of abuse. We identify risk of abuse based on factors including, but not limited to, previous violation history, user feedback, and use of popular brands, characters, and other assets. We may also limit the discoverability of your App Action if it is low quality (such as failing to gracefully handle user queries), unhealthy (such as crashing or exiting unexpectedly), limited in purpose (only useful to a small set of users), or contains content that is inappropriate for most audiences. See Assistant policies for more information about our enforcement process.

Health

We don't allow App Actions that involve transmission of information that could be considered protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Google is not able to commit that the App Actions on Google platform can meet the requirements of HIPAA or other similar medical data regulations.

We also don't allow App Actions that provide, collect, or store personal medical information, including data that could be considered data concerning health under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

App Actions providing fitness functionality, including activity monitoring (calories burned, steps taken, etc.), weight data, and BMI are permitted, so long as they don't involve the transmission of information that could be considered PHI under HIPAA or data concerning health under GDPR.

Emergency Services

We don't allow App Actions that enable users to contact emergency responders, such as 911 or 999 services.

Language support

For each language your App Action supports, the listing information (descriptions, privacy policy, etc.), grammars, and text-to-speech-read text must predominantly be in the same language.

Misleading claims

We don't allow App Actions that contain false or misleading information or claims, including pronunciation, description, display name, or icon. Don't try to imply an endorsement or relationship with another entity where none exists.

Examples of misleading claims include:

• Misrepresenting or not accurately and clearly describing App Action functionality, for example:
  • An App Action that claims to be a food delivery service in its description or pronunciation, but is actually a ride-sharing service.
  • An App Action that claims to be a restaurant reservation service, but only contains restaurant reviews.
  • An App Action that uses a display name related to coffee, but is actually a pizza delivery service.
  • An App Action that claims to provide animal fun facts, but can only provide facts about cats rather than animals generally.
• Misrepresenting the current status or performance in the listing (e.g. "Editor's Choice," "Number 1 App Action").
• Featuring deceptive content that may interfere with engagement in civic events such as census participation or public voting procedures.
• Falsely claiming affiliation with a government entity or facilitating government services for which they are not properly authorized.
• Featuring deceptive content that may interfere with public voting procedures.
• Featuring medical or health-related functionality or content that is misleading or potentially harmful.
• Claiming functionality that is impossible to implement.
• App Actions that are improperly categorized in the listing.
• Misleading a user as to the content or destination of a link.

App Actions must comply with specific policies to help ensure that the users who trigger them receive the intended experience. For example:

• Direct users to user-intended content - App Action built-in intents (BIIs) and/or parameters must only direct users to the relevant and user-intended action.
• Direct users to relevant web content - If users are redirected to a web page content, the website must be relevant to the user-intended action and owned by the brand.
• Implement relevant App Actions BIIs - Implemented BIIs must be directly related to the app's content and functionality.
• Implement relevant custom intents - Defined queries for custom intents relate to the app's content and functionality.
• Further guidance on these concepts can be found here.

Unauthorized use or imitation of system functionality

We don't allow App Actions that mimic or interfere with device or Assistant functionality, such as lights, notifications or warnings.

Examples of prohibited behavior include:

• Using a voice for your App Action that mimics the Google Assistant's voice.
• Mimicking system notifications or warnings.
• Pretending to be Google.

Privacy and Security

User data

You must be transparent in how you handle user data (e.g., information provided by a user, collected about a user, and collected about a user's use of the App Action or device). Google Play developer policies establish the minimum privacy requirements; you or your App Action may need to comply with additional restrictions or procedures if required by an applicable law.

Security vulnerabilities

If your App Action is associated with a security vulnerability that could be exploited to compromise another App Action, application, device, or service, we may remove it to protect users.

Data feeds

If you provide us with catalogs, menus, or other data via a data feed, web inventory or other mechanism, the data must comply with these policies, including the sections on Prohibited content and Intellectual property. You must correctly implement all technical requirements and provide content for all required fields. The data provided must be relevant to the use case of feed and accurate. We may disable the feed (or a portion of it), disable use of the data, or remove any related App Actions for violations of these policies or if they create a poor user experience.

User Experience

To ensure a great user experience, your App Actions must operate as described, provide a high-quality user experience, and take advantage of the platform's features. App Actions that significantly deviate from the user-interface design guidance or have poor user experiences may be disabled from specific surfaces, or be rejected, including for:

• Failing to function properly on all Assistant-enabled devices that the App supports where the App Actions's required capabilities are supported.
  • For example, if the App Actions functions on Wear OS, but not on mobile devices.
• Playing a silent sound file without a clear purpose.
  • For example, if the App Actions opens and plays a silent sound file with no explanation.
• Continuously playing text-to-speech or recorded audio for longer than 240 seconds. Having broken links or images.
• Branding or labeling your App Action during the user interaction with terminology associated with a non-Google developer platform.
• Audio not matching visual text and via text-to-speech in graphical interfaces.
• Registering or creating misleading or irrelevant intents to your App Action.
  • For example, selecting a built-in intent for Order a Taxi when your App Action provides weather information.
• Including unnecessary descriptive words, such as adjectives, adverbs, or ambiguous terminology in suggestion chips.
  • For example, Buy Best Pizza or Try your luck.

Conflicting terms

These policies don't limit or amend any terms of service or other agreements that apply to the user's use of the applicable Google products or services, unless the policies expressly state that they are amending specific terms of service or agreements.

Enforcement

If your App Action has violated any of our policies, we may take one or more enforcement App Actions against your App Action or your developer account, as outlined below. In addition, we'll notify you with relevant information about the enforcement action we've taken, along with instructions on how to appeal if you believe we've taken enforcement action in error.

Please note that removal or administrative notices may not indicate each and every policy violation present in your App Action. Developers are responsible for addressing any policy issue and conducting extra due diligence to ensure that the remainder of their App Action is fully policy compliant. Failure to address policy violations in all of your App Actions may result in additional enforcement App Actions, including permanent removal of your App Action or account termination.

Repeated or serious violations (such as malware, fraud, and App Actions that may cause user or device harm) of the terms of service or policies for App Actions on Google may result in termination of individual or related App Actions on Google developer accounts.

Rejection

• Rejections don't impact your access to a rejected App Action's existing user installs, statistics, and ratings.
• Rejections don't impact the standing of your Google Play developer account.
• If your App Action is multi-locale, a rejection in one of the locales will result in the rejection of the App Action in any locale.

Note: Don't attempt to resubmit a rejected App Action until you've fixed all policy violations.

Removal

• The App Action, along with any previous versions of that App Action, are removed from Google Assistant and will no longer be available to users in any locale.
• Removals don't immediately impact the standing of your Google Play Developer account.

Note: Don't attempt to republish a removed App Action until you've fixed all policy violations.

Appealing an enforcement action

We will reinstate App Actions if an error was made and we find that your App Action does not violate the terms of service and policies for App Actions on Google. If you've reviewed the policies carefully and feel that our enforcement action may have been in error, please follow the instructions provided in our notice to you to appeal our decision. You can also contact Google Assistant Support.