A statement to our users

dataDex was removed from the Google Play Store on April 20, 2026. If the app is already installed on your device, it still works exactly as before — your data and settings are safe. New users can't download the app, and existing users can't update it. Unfortunately, we're unsure whether your PRO purchases are still valid, and have no visibility on the matter.

What happened

The app was suspended over an ad that ran inside the app — a casino ad we didn't choose, didn't approve, and didn't know was running until Google flagged it. The ad came in through Google's own ad service, AdMob. Google's filters categorized it as a regular game ad, not a casino ad, so the safety controls we already had in place to block casino content never had a chance to apply.

It wasn't a one-off. We've now documented at least eleven different variants of the same casino-ad scheme that slipped through the same way — all dressed up to look like ads for other games, which is how they got past the filters.

So the situation is this: dataDex was suspended over an ad that Google's own systems served, and that those same systems failed to recognize as a casino ad.

What we're doing

We've filed our appeal with Google Play and we're working every channel available to us. We've published the full evidence — every variant we documented, our ad settings, and the back-and-forth with Google support — for anyone who wants to read the technical detail:

We've also turned off all ads inside the app while we try to resolve the situation.

Your dataDex account is safe

Nothing's changed for you. Everything dataDex stores is on your device locally, or saved in your cloud-based dataDex account — nothing got deleted by the suspension. You can keep using the app as you always have. While suspended, you won't be able to update the app from the Play Store. We are working on an alternative way to download and update the app for users who want it.

How can you help?

We appreciate your support. Here is what you can do:

• Comment, like and repost our pinned post on X (Twitter): @dataDex_talzz
• Upvote our posts on Reddit: r/androiddev, r/GooglePlayDeveloper — please don't comment unless you have substantive context to add.
• Be respectful. Please don't harass anyone over this — not on social, not in support tickets, not anywhere. We want a fair resolution, not a pile-on, and angry messaging actively hurts that.

The future of dataDex

There's something we've been keeping to ourselves until it was ready to share. For a long time now, we've been building a complete overhaul of dataDex — rebuilt from the ground up, drawing on everything we've learned over the past decade, including many new features and improvements. The official release was just around the corner when the suspension happened, which makes the situation particularly frustrating.

We're not abandoning it. The path to release looks different now than it did a few weeks ago, but the new version is coming, in one way or another (wink wink). Here's a glimpse of what we've been working on:

Contact

If you're a journalist, a Google employee, or someone with substantive context to share, you can reach us at support@datadex.app.

Thank you for sticking with us — for some of you, that's been ten years. We don't take it for granted.

— The dataDex team