Sources Contact Advanced Search Tutorials

An Interest In:

Web News this Week

Search Archive

Some of Our Sources

View All Sources

Help Webnuz

Referal links:

October 24, 2019 01:00 pm

Google's Play Store Gives a Worse Age Rating To Fleksy, a Gboard Rival

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Do a search on Google's Play Store in Europe and you'll find the company's own Gboard app has an age rating of PEGI 3 -- aka the pan-European game information labelling system which signifies content is suitable for all age groups. PEGI 3 means it may still contain a little cartoon violence. Say, for example, an emoji fist or middle finger. Now do a search on Play for the rival Fleksy keyboard app and you'll find it has a PEGI 12 age rating. This label signifies the rated content can contain slightly more graphic fantasy violence and mild bad language. The discrepancy in labelling suggests there's a material difference between Gboard and Fleksy -- in terms of the content you might encounter. Yet both are pretty similar keyboard apps -- with features like predictive emoji and baked in GIFs. Gboard also lets you create custom emoji. While Fleksy puts mini apps at your fingertips. A more major difference is that Gboard is made by Play Store owner and platform controller, Google. Whereas Fleksy is an indie keyboard that since 2017 has been developed by ThingThing, a startup based out of Spain. Fleksy's keyboard didn't used to carry a 12+ age rating -- this is a new development. Not based on its content changing but based on Google enforcing its Play Store policies differently. The Fleksy app, which has been on the Play Store for around eight years at this point -- and per Play Store install stats has had more than 5M downloads to date -- was PEGI 3 rating until earlier this month. But then Google stepped in and forced the team to up the rating to 12. Which means the Play Store description for Fleksy in Europe now rates it PEGI 12 and specifies it contains "Mild Swearing." According to Google, the reason for the rating is because Fleksy's latest app update contains the middle finger emoji... even though Google's own Gboard app also contains the middle finger emoji. "That's not the end of the saga, though," writes Natasha Lomas via TechCrunch. "Google's Play Store team is still not happy with the regional age rating for Fleksy -- and wants to push the rating even higher -- claiming, in a subsequent email, that 'your app contains mature content (e.g. emoji) and should have higher rating.'" When the Fleksy team pointed out to Google that the middle finger emoji can be found in both keyboard apps -- and asked them to drop Fleksy's rating back to PEGI 3 like Gboard -- the Play team didn't respond.

Slashdot

Slashdot was originally created in September of 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it is owned by Geeknet, Inc..

More About this Source Visit Slashdot