On December 16th, FreeYourMusic was removed from GooglePlay. This has been an incredibly upsetting situation as Google took us down for no valid reason.
No prior issues, no warning, and just like that, the app is gone from the store. On top of that, all our subscriber plans have been cancelled.
Our app has been removed wrongfully and the way Google handled it puts them in a really bad light. Is this yet another removal that could be easily avoided if Google simply cared?
Even though our app is back on the store, the whole situation is very frustrating and disappointing. It’s scary to know this can happen so we’re writing this post today to share our case.
What happened?
Shortly after releasing a new version of the app, we received an email notifying us that FreeYourMusic has been removed from GooglePlay. Apparently we were guilty of violating their policy by showing ads while claiming that we don’t.
Our app DOES NOT contain any ads. We hate ads in general and would rather offer service for free (like we do with GetPassbook) than have crappy ads in the app.
In the case of FreeYourMusic, we only support logging with external services, and some of the services will show information on how to create an account with their service. The screenshot provided by Google Review Team shows exactly this, a webview window from Apple Music login screen:
That’s the first time this is an issue after 4 years being on the Play Store and immediately they removed the whole app. Couldn't their review team simply have rejected the update, instead of deleting the app? How about sending an email, asking for an explanation? Shouldn’t Google's review process be more… sensible?
"If you believe our decision may have been in error, please reach out to our policy support team. We’ll get back to you within 2 business days."
We filed an appeal, but two business days in such cases is a LOT. So we marked that we show ads even if we do not, submitted the app for review and scrambled to prepare self-hosted APK without Google's payments, so at least new users could find us through website.
Meanwhile, the resubmitted app went through the usual review process and FreeYourMusic has been approved. We got another template response that basically said: “We see your app is in the store, it’s all good now”
But is it, really?
GooglePlay doesn’t care about app developers
When contacting the Google Team, their only response were template e-mails stating that we needed to wait. They didn’t take into consideration that the app was removed — and removed because of the mistake ON THEIR END. They didn’t fix the situation and didn’t apologize for the experience we had. They simply didn’t acknowledge it.
Our app has almost 400,000+ users and many paying subscribers. Google Play has shown an absolute lack of care towards developers who have invested time, money and effort into their app.
You are learning the hard way, as we also did, that relying on Google/Apple’s systems creates a huge hazard for your business. Fortunately, we have a web version of the app, so if the mobile app — either on iOS or Android — doesn’t work for some reason, our users can transfer their playlists on the desktop.
We’re glad to be back on the GooglePlay, but it doesn’t change the fact that the whole situation was extremely upsetting. We’re sharing our story in the hope that Google Play improves the way they handle cases like ours.
