Co-Star accuses Google of 'anti-astrology prejudice' after Play Store pulls horoscope app
Co-Star, the "hyper-personalized" AI astrology app notorious (and beloved) for its ego-bruising push notifications, has gone supernova on Google over its sudden removal from the Play Store.
Just two weeks after the app became available to Android users, it reportedly disappeared from the Play Store on Wednesday evening. A few hours later, the app's official Instagram account posted a furious note on Stories (and reposted on Twitter) in its trademark monochrome, with the header "Don't Be Evil: Google hates astrology".
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“At 8PM EST on February 5, 2020, the Co-Star app for Android devices was unceremoniously removed from the Google Play store citing a ‘Metadata Policy’ violation," the post reads.
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We’ve worked hard to make a useful language for understanding ourselves and others, despite counter claims that it is a "pseudo-science." We are a small company of 12 people. We launched our Android app just two weeks ago. We don't make money off of ads. We don't sell your data. All we ever wanted was to bring you the app you've been asking for, yet we are forced to justify ourselves and our mission to big exploitative companies like Google again and again. This is unacceptable. We won’t tolerate anti-astrology prejudice.
The post ends with a demand that the company reinstate the app, or suffer the spooky wrath of a staff-led protest at Google HQ on Friday afternoon.
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There are currently at least 250 astrology-related apps based in various traditions on the Play Store, and the company's claims of "anti-astrology prejudice" aren't backed up with more concrete information. The metadata issues in question, one Twitter user suggested, may be as simple as the policy's length.
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Co-Star launched in the Apple App Store on October 12, 2017, making the app a Libra. (The app says Libra sun signs are in possession of "always-generous relativism [which] allows you to see both sides of every situation".)
But as is often the case, other signs' horoscopes can be full of useful advice. As the app informed this Leo as I waited for my coffee this morning: "You're due for a reality check. Not everything is out to get you."
Mashable has reached out to Co-Star for comment.
Topics Android
Caitlin is Mashable's Australian Editor. She has written for The Guardian, Junkee, and any number of plucky little music and culture publications that were run on the smell of an oily rag and have since been flushed off the Internet like a dead goldfish by their new owners. She also worked at Choice, Australia's consumer advocacy non-profit and magazine, and as such has surprisingly strong opinions about whitegoods. She enjoys big dumb action movies, big clever action movies, cult Canadian comedies set in small towns, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Replacements, smoky mezcal, revenge bedtime procrastination, and being left the hell alone when she's reading.
