T-Mobile: We asked YouMail to fix its app before Android Market removal

T-Mobile USA is disputing claims that it never contacted visual voicemail solutions developer YouMail prior to complaining to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) about the YouMail app for Android, which Google unceremoniously removed from its Android Market storefront earlier this week.

An email sent from the Android Market support team to YouMail CEO Alex Quilici states that YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus was expelled due to a violation of Android Market developer terms. "It has come to our attention that this application could be used in a way that is harmful to devices, networks or users," the message reads. "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."

On a YouMail blog post published Thursday, Quilici states that T-Mobile USA never contacted the developer to address the issue, and adds that rival operators Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), AT&T (NYSE:T) and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) have never expressed similar concerns about network issues.

In a statement supplied to GigaOM, T-Mobile USA denies Quilici's assertion. "We reached out to YouMail in early November and asked them to address issues with their application that were negatively impacting our customers' experience," T-Mobile says. "We're in contact with YouMail and they are working to resolve these issues. Once they do, we'll be glad to once again support their application."

The incident appears likely to fuel renewed debate over Google's role in policing Android Market, which does not apply the same stringent editorial protocols present in Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) rival App Store. It is unknown what actions if any Google took to resolve the YouMail/T-Mobile USA spat, nor is it clear whether Google can and will restore YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus for download to Android smartphones on networks on than T-Mobile's.

In addition to visual voicemail solutions, YouMail's cloud-based communications apps and services include voice-to-text transcriptions, caller blocking and voicemail sharing. Along with its Android app--which remains available for download via Amazon.com's Appstore for Android--YouMail also supports Apple's iOS, Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone, and it touts more than 3 million downloads and 2 million users.

UPDATE: Friday afternoon, YouMail announced that the app will imminently return to Android Market. "A subset of the YouMail Android applications have a real problem," Quilici admits. "It looks like 15,000 users who went straight from 1.8.3 (an old version) to 2.0.45 (the one that was in the market and was taken down) got into a situation where the app is polling our servers continuously (the polling time got set to zero). Of course, this leads to a host of issues for those clients, such as bad battery life, and a boatload of transactions, eating up network bandwidth. T-Mobile saying that we disrupted their network is fair, though we were unknowingly causing that."

Quilici also confirms that T-Mobile did attempt to reach out to YouMail via email, adding "Unfortunately, it was in way that was almost guaranteed to be ineffective, and is probably not how businesses should communicate."

For more:
- read this GigaOM article

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