The YouMail app for Android has been removed from the Android Market after a complaint from T-Mobile was sent to Google, YouMail says. This could set a bad precedent for the Android Market.
YouMail is a visual voicemail app to easily browse through, listen to, and even read voicemail messages. It recently passed three million downloads and received funding from Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund.
Google sent a message to YouMail CEO Alex Quilici explaining why the app was pulled from the Android Market:
“It has come to our attention that this application could be used in a way that is harmful to devices, networks or users. Specifically, we have received a complaint from T-Mobile that this application is causing adverse network disruption. We encourage you to contact T-Mobile to negotiate a revision and/or agreement to republish this application and update your existing users.”
It’s odd that T-Mobile would complain about the app, since no other carriers had anything to say about it. In addition, there are apps that provide similar functionality to YouMail like Google Voice that didn’t receive any complaints and are therefore still in the Android Market. YouMail is clearly frustrated with the situation, and took to its blog for a healthy venting session:
“We hate to think this is simply anti-competitive behavior on T-Mobile’s part- simply because we’ve produced an innovative and dramatically better voicemail product than they offer, and that’s free on top of it.”
Ouch.
YouMail is still available for iPhone and BlackBerry, so be sure to check it out in their respectable app stores. In the mean time, YouMail has some kinks to work out with Google and T-Mobile. More news to come, I’m sure.
Update 12/9: YouMail is back in the Android Market. On its blog, YouMail says there was a bug in the app for users upgrading to the new version that was unknowingly bogging down their servers and T-Mobile’s network. The problem is now “is effectively getting resolved, and … users are being pushed to upgrade as fast as possible.”