Messaging widget reinstated!

This is great news! Not just for “Messaging Widget (Whats App)“, but also for the current state of the Play Store.

On January 5th we received an email from Google informing us that our app had been suspended due to alleged trademark infringement. Once we contacted WhatsApp™ on March 16th, it was a reasonably painless procedure to get the app reinstated. Here’s the timeline of our dealings

March 16th

Contacted WhatsApp™ to find out exactly what infringed on their trademark.

March 22nd

Received a response from WhatsApp™ informing us that we are not allowed to use their trademark in our app name.

March 23rd

We came to agreement with WhatsApp™ as to how the app title could be changed.

April 4th

WhatsApp™ emailed Google (removals@google.com) asked them to reinstate our app.

April 18th

We pinged Google for a status update.

April 22nd

App reinstated!

So after we agreed to a fix, it took WhatsApp™ 12 days to request the app to be reinstated, and it took google 18 days to make it happen. The total resolution time was 37 days; that’s not bad.

This was our second app to be suspended from the Play Store. The first was the pay version of the Contact Widget. After many emails to Google we were never able to learn why it was suspended. We ended up releasing the app again with a new package name and it hasn’t been suspended again. We did change the app description slightly, guessing that Google didn’t like that we made a list of the apps features (?).

The point is that this time we had a path to resolving the issue, previously no one could even tell us the issue. Hopefully this shows an improvement in Google’s app suspension resolution system.

2016/04/22