A few months ago I published an AI Chat app on Google Play which was performing pretty well.
Last week, after 500k downloads, the app got suspended due to violating Google’s impersonation policy, more specifically because of the app name:
"OpenChat - AI Chat Bot”
After a few back and forth emails with Google and submitting an appeal form, Google responded that the app was suspended due to it falsely impersonating ChatGPT.
There is absolutely no mention of GPT in the app title, screenshots, app description or app logo but our app was still taken down.
At the moment, over 80% of the AI Chat apps on Google Play use the word ChatGPT or GPT in their titles. These apps are still available on Google Play Store.
We’ve formulated an email where we have asked Google to specifically tell us how we are misleading users and have sent comparisons of existing apps and our app but still to no avail. They simply return the same response over and over again that we are impersonating ChatGPT without any further explanation.
We’ve tried to contact OpenAI directly but have had no success in getting a response so far.
For context, screenshots of the suspended app and the dozens of apps which mention GPT in their titles:
https://imgur.com/a/FmhQHOU
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Change the name of your app to something more unique (I came up with "MobotChat" in a few seconds of brainstorming, you can likely find something better) and tell them you rectified the issue.
Pointing to other apps in the store is pointless, since reviewers aren't bound by precedent. Maybe those other apps got lucky with their reviewers, or maybe they'll get taken down soon as well.
Last week, after 500k downloads, the app got suspended due to violating Google’s impersonation policy, more specifically because of the app name:
"OpenChat - AI Chat Bot”
After a few back and forth emails with Google and submitting an appeal form, Google responded that the app was suspended due to it falsely impersonating ChatGPT.
There is absolutely no mention of GPT in the app title, screenshots, app description or app logo but our app was still taken down.
At the moment, over 80% of the AI Chat apps on Google Play use the word ChatGPT or GPT in their titles. These apps are still available on Google Play Store.
We’ve formulated an email where we have asked Google to specifically tell us how we are misleading users and have sent comparisons of existing apps and our app but still to no avail. They simply return the same response over and over again that we are impersonating ChatGPT without any further explanation.
We’ve tried to contact OpenAI directly but have had no success in getting a response so far.
For context, screenshots of the suspended app and the dozens of apps which mention GPT in their titles: https://imgur.com/a/FmhQHOU
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.