The App Store on iOS has millions of apps, but not all of them are active. Whether it is dead or outdated apps, some of the content is just clutter on the store. Apple is now clamping down on these offending apps and sending developers “App Store Improvement” notices.
According to angry iOS developers who have received the pushy messages, Apple is giving them 30 days to update apps. Specifically, this is for dev's whose apps have “not been updated in a significant amount of time”.
It seems Apple will remove apps that are out of date and do not meet this deadline. Many developers are complaining about Apple's stance and feel the company has surprised them with this tactic. They also point to very popular apps that have not been updated for years but are not getting Apple's threats.
Of course, Apple spring cleaning the app store isn't anything new. In fact, Google is doing a similar takedown program on the Play Store by focusing on having apps dated “within two years of the latest major Android release version,” or the app will be taken down.
Gone but not Forgotten
While Apple is threatening to take down apps, it will not remove them. So, if a developer does miss the deadline, the company will make the app invisible. Users can still download the app and install it if they have it in their history.
Apple confirms the changes on its App Store Improvements page:
“Implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps, removing apps that no longer function as intended, don't follow current review guidelines, or are outdated.”
The company says functionality if the key and only outdated apps that crash on launch will be taken down from the App Store entirely.
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