Spinterest App pulled from Google Play… for now.

We were notified by Google today that the Spinterest for Pinterest and Spinterest for Pinterest Free have been removed from the Google Play app store. They pretty much yanked all of the Pinterest apps. Since our application is much more than just a way to use Pinterest (and we don’t pretend to be just a Pinterest app), we were the last one for several hours yesterday.

We haven’t received confirmation yet from Google, but we believe their biggest beef is with the name “Spinterest” or maybe “Spinterest for Pinterest” and they are giving us a chance to correct it. We are hoping that is the case because we are fully prepared to re-name, re-brand, and re-submit at a moment’s notice.

Since the removal only prevents new installs, we still have thousands of new users running our application on their Android devices (and don’t forget the web application!). While we wait to hear back from someone at Google, we are going to keep on working to improve our features and quality of service.

For the curious, this is the response we sent to Google today…

Hello,

This is in response to both com.spinterest.mobile and com.spinterest.mobile.free.

We understand and respect your position on removing our application from Google Play. We have put a great deal of effort in making a premium quality Android application. In our peak usage yesterday of several thousand users, there were no crash reports. As we have been experiencing extremely positive response with our product, we would like to revise our app as you suggest. We have a couple of questions regarding this and we would greatly appreciate your response…

Our assumption is the problem lies with our name “Spinterest for Pinterest.”  Our application does not pretend to be a dedicated or official Pinterest app and we have no malicious intent of infringement. Would it be sufficient to change all of the Spinterest text and branding to “SpinPicks” in the application and in our description text?

Secondly, once we have an updated APK that meets your requirements, how do we submit it for your review and (hopefully) reinstatement?

We thank you for the opportunity to resolve this matter as we have invested a great deal of time into the Android platform. We sincerely appreciate your prompt response so we can plot our next steps accordingly.

Thank you,

Paul Reynolds