If you put software into the wild - you have released it. Just because the cycle has sped up, you didn't document it properly, and your QA failed, does not mean you didn't release it.
I'm not taking sides here, but you have to call a spade a spade.
I'm not taking sides here, but you have to call a spade a spade.
Even by that definition Google never released it. You needed a 3rd party app to access the feature, Google's software alone was not enough. Google didn't fail here, they flat out never released it.
Or perhaps you could argue that they failed by not releasing it (or something similar), but that's different story.
If it's there and it works, then great for you, but you can't expect a whole lot more. It sucks that they didn't actually make it a published feature with an actual means of accessing it, and take on the responsibility of maintaining it, because it seems like something I'd like to use.