Does a parenting or news reader need Google Play's Health apps declaration?

Our parenting reader app was recently rejected with "Inaccurate Health Apps Declaration". The app doesn't track anything. It shows articles about raising children, saves favorites and reads text aloud. So why did health come into it?

The Health apps declaration

Every app on Google Play must complete the Health apps declaration under App content. It lists health and medical features in two groups:

• Health and fitness: activity and fitness, nutrition and weight management, period tracking, sleep management, stress management.
• Medical: disease management, clinical decision support, emergency and first aid, medication management, medical reference and education, reproductive health and more.

Or you choose "My app does not have any health features".

What went wrong for us

Two problems, in opposite directions. Our declaration claimed features the app doesn't have: activity tracking, nutrition and period tracking, left over from an earlier category choice. And it didn't declare what reviewers did see: a parenting app whose articles cover children's health, pregnancy and family wellbeing. To Google, that is medical reference and education, even though it's a reader and not a medical tool.

How we fixed it

1. Removed every tracking feature the app doesn't actually have.
2. Declared only Medical reference and education.
3. Added one line to the store description in every language: health articles are general information, not medical advice, and readers should consult a doctor or another qualified professional.
4. Fixed a typo in the description that the review had quoted. Reviewers read every word.

Then we sent the declaration together with the pending release, so it went through one review.

A quick test for your own app

• Does it measure or log anything about the user's body or habits? Declare the matching tracking feature.
• Does it show content about health, medicine, pregnancy or mental wellbeing, even as articles? Consider Medical reference and education, and add a disclaimer.
• Neither? Choose "no health features". Don't tick boxes "just in case": an inaccurate declaration is a policy issue in both directions.

The declaration should describe the app as it is today. Revisit it whenever you change your content or category.