Careful: There's a very bad copy of Sober Time going around

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I was casually browsing the Google Play store today and I came upon “Sober Time Tracker” (Not to be confused with Sober Time). I checked it out.

It’s made by an Indian Company and it’s basically a very audacious copy of Sober Time. It has a lot of bugs, a lot of grammatical errors and it’s a poor quality app in general. Also lacks a lot of features. If you install it, it’s even called “Sober Time”. I mean look at this screen:

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Screen Shot 2018-09-16 at 11.30.15.jpg922x1632 381 KB

I’m busy investigating it, but so far it looks like they’ve managed to reverse engineer some of Sober Time’s code and basically stole it. The app does immediately hound you for permission to access all your files. And I’m pretty sure it’s abusing some service to get the online backgrounds.

I’ve reported it to Google as “Copycat or impersonation” and I’ve left a review warning people about it. If you’d like to help do the same, here’s the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.srgroup.sobertime

There’s a “flag as inappropriate” button right at the bottom.

Edit: Found another copy, also by an Indian developer. Probably the same guys as the app looks exactly the same:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.punedev.sobertime.tracker

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Flagged both.

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Thanks @Twinkerrbell

Looks like they are only on the Google Play store. I’ve filed a developer complaint against them too. Hopefully Google takes action quickly.

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Flagged them both as well.

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So sorry to hear this!

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Thank you for the help :slight_smile:

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Flagged both.

Although I find this suggestion that came up on the same page rather compelling…

Screaming goat

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Haha new apps aren’t indexed properly yet, and for some reason Indian devs love making apps like that. Also things like farting apps. Don’t ask me why.

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Hope you get a good response from Google… Flagged both…

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@Robin flagged both, have you got copywrite for your app? Specifically the name and way the app is layed out, I’m sure you understand what I’m getting at, obviously to protect your creation

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I flagged them and had friends do it as well.

I would hate for someone to find one of those apps instead of here, hope it all gets sorted out soon and they take them down.

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Flagged both

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Flagged both

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Flagged them

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Flagged both

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Flagged both of them👍

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I will flag them,dont worry

btw,I still can believe how can app like this with a specific niche to help people been copied by some irresponsible developer for some quick bucks.

I wish all the best for you guys,thanks for this awesome app

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Flagged them both

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Thank you everyone for flagging :slight_smile:

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It’s not copyrighted, but Google does have a Impersonation and Intellectual Property policy (https://play.google.com/about/ip-impersonation/) that basically says you can’t just copy another app or brand. This one is a clear and direct copy.

I have thought about getting a copyright for the app, but I’m outside of the US. Not sure how that would work. Anyone know perhaps?

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