NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] YouMail returns to the Android Market
YouMail returns to the Android Market In a blog posting a couple of days ago ( http://j.mp/v65izx ), I noted with considerable disdain that YouMail's voicemail Android app, that I use constantly, had been pulled from Google's Android Market on demand of T-Mobile. While YouMail is graciously taking part of the blame (there was a bug affecting a relatively small percentage of users, that already been fixed in the code but not yet pushed out), I personally would still lay most of the blame on T-Mobile (and to a lessor extent, Google's Android Market policies). Executive Summary: A bug in the app caused a small percentage of the installed app base to poll the YouMail servers pretty much continuously. While this apparently didn't bother any other carriers (at least they never complained) it did upset T-Mobile. Perhaps they're taking "upset lessons" from would-be, might-have-been owner AT&T (no, wait, AT&T apparently didn't complain either). Anyway, a month ago or so, an engineer at T-Mobile sent an email message to YouMail about this, but they sent it to the ordinary free customer service address, where vast numbers of other queries of all types are received. YouMail replied that it was fixed in the next release, and marked the matter resolved. There was seemingly nothing to indicate an urgent problem. So a month goes by. YouMail doesn't get other complaints from T-Mobile about this. The other carriers haven't complained at all. T-Mobile reportedly doesn't bother to followup, or to contact YouMail corporate. T-Mobile just sits on the issue for weeks. Then after a month, T-Mobile goes to Google and demands the app be pulled for causing interference. Does Google contact YouMail first to ask them about the issue or warn them that they're about to be pulled? After all, YouMail has an Android Market merchant account and related direct contact info. Apparently Google just pulled the plug without prior notification (based at least on what I've learned so far). And they pulled the app for *all* carriers, not just for T-Mobile users (apparently Market doesn't have the capability at this point for anything other than a total flush). Obviously YouMail bears some fault for having a bug. But the "comedy" of communications errors that occurred after that seems to largely fall on the other players, who appear to have had a remarkably cavalier attitude regarding cutting off access to apps that millions of people depend on. Perhaps the main lesson here is that such actions should only take place *after* common sense escalation and notification of relevant parties -- something for YouMail, T-Mobile, Google, and the rest of us to remember. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com