Google screwed our startup because of the faceless systems they use to deal with app developers
There are no hearings. The faceless algorithms hand down their pre-programmed verdicts, and all developers can do is howl into the void.
Building a product in a startup is hard work.
You pour your heart into getting your product out to market over countless late night caffeine-fuelled coding sessions. You go up against a tidal wave of challenges with the odds stacked against you.
You risk your time and savings, hiring staff and building out the business, with nothing but the faith that no matter what is thrown at you, you will find a way to solve it.
Then one day, Google’s faceless system flashes their robotic middle finger at you and spits on the 7 years you spent developing for Android.
Now I know that, unless you are a large company with an army of lawyers, you are invisible to Google. Trip one of their automated alarms and one strike you’re out. There are no hearings. The faceless algorithms hand down their pre-programmed verdicts. All you can do is howl into the void of the automated machines.
Credits
Thanks goes out to Mark Dodson and Pablo A. Martinez whose articles inspired me to come forward with my own experience.
Our problems began in the fall. We were almost ready to roll out new features for our app that we spent the past few months working on. In preparation for launch, we updated our Google play store listing, adding the word “Plus” to our app name to reflect the upcoming features.
Automated app removals
Shortly after, we received a notice from Google that our app had been removed from the US store because someone had filed a complaint alleging our revised app name infringed on their trademark.
We were shocked. The US is our primary market and our app had been on the app store for 7 years with a perfectly clean record.
Examining the complaint, we learnt that it came from a China-based developer who publishes a number ad-ridden generic flash light type apps.
More ludicrously, the trademark we were accused of infringing was different from our app name.
Where are the humans?
Our guess was that Google’s system received the complaint via a web form and automatically responded by removing us, without noticing that we weren’t using the trademarked name and that the complaint was at best flimsy.
Surely this was a simple mix up that any human would catch. We thought naively that this was a small hiccup we could resolve. We rolled back our app name as requested in the complaint as a sign of good faith and filed an appeal against the removal using the appropriate web form, describing the mix up as well as our remedial actions.
Think you have a chance at an appeal?
Imagine our exasperation when we received the result of the appeal the very next day.
A boilerplate rejection. No acknowledgement that the trademarked name and our app name were different. No acknowledgement that we had rolled back our app name as requested in the complaint.
Had anyone looked at our appeal?
It is painful to recall the exasperation we experienced. After the 7 years we dedicated to developing for Android, Google can’t take a second to acknowledge us.
We reached out to everyone we could, including the individual who filed the complaint, but it was dead end after dead end.
We concluded we were not going to be able to get through to a human decision maker without spending a bucket load of money on lawyers — money we did not have.
Because of the way our app was integrated, relaunching as a different app was not viable. It would have the same as restarting from scratch and discarding the years of work we spent growing our user base and taking care of our community.
We eventually gave up. We could not go on paying our staff without knowing if our app would ever be reinstated to the play store. It was the end of the road for us.
End of the line
Four months on, the update that our team had lovingly toiled on for months remains unlaunched. We had no choice but to lay off staff and to move into maintenance mode in preparation of the app’s eventual demise. My illusion that Google is a reliable partner has been shattered.
By sharing my story, I hope that I can get some closure for the profound distress that Google’s callous actions have caused us. I also write this as a cautionary tale for everyone who puts their livelihood on the line in the play store.
It may be too late for us to turn things around, but for the soldiers still fighting the good fight: demand more. Android was built on the back of developers. Divided and isolated we are powerless, but together we have a chance at some basic accountability.
Share our story
Please like, share and comment on this story. Developers need to be warned of Google’s over-reliance on automated systems and lack of transparency, and how this has real consequences on our livelihoods.
If you have your own stories I encourage you to come forward as well.
📝 Read this story later in Journal.
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