Google Play Games Services Alert: "Detected incorrect implementation"

Question

I recently received the following alert for my game in the Google Play Developer Console:

Detected incorrect implementation

Your game has incorrectly implemented the following Play Games services: Achievements.

It provides a link to a help page but the page only provides the following information:

Detected incorrect implementation

This game has implemented invitations but doesn't allow users to join a match from an invitation. This approach is discouraged because it could result in a poor user experience.

This does not help me because it mentions invitations (which my app does not use) instead of achievements.

I find it strange that I am getting the error now as I published the last update in May. I am also able to earn achievements when using the app myself, so the fact that I get this message bugs me.

Can you answer these questions:

1. Are these alerts ever erroneous? Is it possible my app is fine after all, or is there definitely something I did wrong?

2. If there is something wrong with my app, how do I go about fixing this? What are common sources of error that cause this message?

3. Is this message supposed to be a friendly reminder that I am doing something wrong or is it a warning that they will remove my app/terminate my account if I don't do something about it?

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

The most common cause of this alert is when you call unlock or increment and pass an invalid id as per the games alert descriptions. Double check that the ids listed in the developer console match the ids listed in your game - preferably, use the 'Get resources' option in the Developer Console to get an XML file that you can be sure matches Google Play Games exactly.