Piracy doesn't just affect paid apps on Android, as we discovered when we found unauthorized copies of our free game on various Chinese app stores the same day it launched. These extra copies were destroying the reliability of our analytics data, and worse, lowering our eCPM performance for some ad networks since Google Play isn't available on many of those devices. This made it hard to compare the performance of the networks to optimize revenue and increased the chances that advertisers would drop and further reduce our monetization efforts. Not to mention that we have no way of knowing what malware might have been added to our APKs and harming our brand.
Android Protector was developed to minimze the effect of piracy. Although nothing can stop dedicated pirates, the random and automated attacks that make it so easy to hijack an APK on Android and release it on competing stores can be minimized. It provides three simple checks, that you can use and respond to individually, to verify that your app is the official version.
Package Name Verification - This allows you to verify that the package name of the running APK matches the one that you set in Unity. There were 6 unauthorized package names showing up in our Applovin developer account just a day after release.
Store Presence Verification - This lets you detect whether the store that you submitted your game to is present on the user's device. If it isn't, then you know that you cannot monetize them, or that they likely didn't purchase your paid app from that store.
Installer Verification - This lets you verify that your game was actually installed via the store that you submitted it to.
Android Protector works with Google Play, Amazon, or Samsung Apps and you choose how to respond to failed verifications. While we just shut down the ads, in-app purchaes and any analytics we may be gathering that could be skewed by customers that can't be monetized, you can be as heavy handed, or as leniant as you wish.
For help or information you can visit the official forum thread: HERE
