In short: Google Play allows full-screen notifications for alarms and incoming calls, but rejects SOS / emergency panic button apps, claiming they are “not critical enough”.

Google Play currently allows developers to request the USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission when an application reasonably requires high-priority interruption for urgent events. According to the published policy, this includes cases where immediate user attention is necessary.

"To ensure that this permission is limited to the appropriate high-priority use cases", "Limiting notifications in this way helps ensure a better experience for users."

However, in practice, Google Play moderation is rejecting personal safety and SOS applications even when their sole purpose is emergency alerting.

Developers are receiving responses such as:
“We understand your concern however, your application continues to violate the Google Play policy regarding the USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission. We cannot grant permission for this feature because your app's main function is not considered a high-priority notification service, such as those required by an alarm, video call, or phone call app.”
This creates a contradiction between the written policy and actual enforcement.

An SOS app exists specifically to help a user call for help during dangerous situations: assault, medical emergencies, accidents, or other personal safety threats. By any reasonable interpretation, such situations are at least as urgent as an incoming phone call and often significantly more critical.

Yet moderation decisions currently exclude this entire category of applications without any clear justification beyond subjective interpretation of reviewers. This effectively destroys the whole class of legitimate SOS safety apps on Google Play, because an emergency alert app cannot fulfill its core purpose if it is limited to a standard notification that may be missed, delayed, or silently dismissed.

If a standard incoming call is considered “high-priority,” but an emergency SOS alert is not, this contradicts common sense and the real-world purpose of emergency software.

We ask Google Play to update its policy and explicitly recognize personal safety / SOS applications as eligible use cases for USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT, alongside alarms and calls.

Android users should not lose access to personal safety tools because of inconsistent moderation practices that contradict the stated policy.