Late Wednesday, the CyanogenMod team received a notice from the Google Play Store: the CyanogenMod Installer application, which automates the process of replacing an Android device's operating system with the popular CyanogenMod alternative ROM, needed to be removed from the Play Store. Google gave the CyanogenMod team the opportunity to voluntarily take down the application, which it did. Had the team instead chosen to decline, Google would have pulled the application itself.

The reasoning given by Google is that the CyanogenMod Installer violates the Google Play Store's developer terms by actively encouraging Android users to "void [the] warranty" on their devices. As we saw when we took the app for a test drive, the Installer does indeed de-hair the hairy process of unlocking an Android device's bootloader and getting an alternate ROM installed; apparently, though, the Installer made things just a little too easy. As our Android expert Ron Amadeo noted, the CyanogenMod Installer is mostly a "one-way street," without a quick way to return the device to its stock state—it's certainly possible, but not with the same level of ease.

The CyanogenMod Installer application didn't even last a full month on the Play Store, but the CyanogenMod team still says that it has seen "hundreds of thousands of installations of the application." Even if the Google Play Store won't be hosting the Installer anymore, the CyanogenMod team will continue to offer it for direct download and installation. Would-be ROM-swappers will have to first sideload the application to get it ready to go, but that shouldn't be much of a roadblock for the right type of user.