{"id":35748,"date":"2022-05-02T15:08:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T19:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=35748"},"modified":"2022-05-09T16:20:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T20:20:12","slug":"apples-explanation-for-removing-old-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/02\/apples-explanation-for-removing-old-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple&rsquo;s Explanation for Removing Old Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=gi6npkmf\">Apple<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2022\/04\/29\/apple-outdated-apps-extension\/\">MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=gi6npkmf\"><p>As part of the App Store Improvements process, developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold &mdash; meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period &mdash; receive an email notifying them that their app has been identified for possible removal from the App Store.<\/p><p>Apple always wants to help developers get and keep quality software on the App Store. That&rsquo;s why developers can appeal app removals.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>To learn more, visit the revised <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/support\/app-store-improvements\/\">App Store Improvements Support Page<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Apple&rsquo;s title says that it&rsquo;s &ldquo;clarifying&rdquo; the policy, but this actually raises many more questions:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Is this actually a <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2022\/04\/29\/app-store-clarifying-criteria\">clarification<\/a> or a change of policy? Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/cameron-v-apple-settlement\/\">has a<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/06\/amazon-prime-video-now-allows-in-app-rentals-and-purchases\/\">history<\/a> of announcing changes by saying that it&rsquo;s just restating what everyone already knows. In this case, the <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=09012016a\">2016 announcement<\/a> made it sound like Apple would identify broken apps and remove them. The new announcement sounds like it will target all currently unpopular apps that haven&rsquo;t been updated recently.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>Why does the announcement say &ldquo;apps that have not been updated within the last three years&rdquo; when developers have reported being notified after only <a href=\"https:\/\/appfigures.com\/resources\/insights\/20220429?f=3\">two years<\/a> and change?<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>Why does the <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/support\/app-store-improvements\/\">details page<\/a> say that developers will be asked to make &ldquo;necessary changes&rdquo; &ldquo;if an issue is found&rdquo; when developers have reported their apps being targeted for removal with no issues specified?<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>Why does the policy only apply to apps with a &ldquo;minimal download threshold&rdquo;? Do &ldquo;Security and privacy&rdquo; and &ldquo;User experience&rdquo; only matter for apps that people <em>aren&rsquo;t<\/em> using?<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>What does &ldquo;extremely few times&rdquo; mean? With the scale of the App Store, I have no idea whether that means single digits or thousands or more. This is like when Apple said only &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/23\/apple-launches-keyboard-repair-program-for-macbook-and-macbook-pro\/\">a small percentage<\/a>&rdquo; of butterfly keyboards were having problems. They want you to think it&rsquo;s inconsequential but won&rsquo;t even tell you the order of magnitude.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>Why did Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/linked\/2022\/04\/29\/old-apps-sometimes-die\">not tell<\/a> the developers that it already notified that there was a way to appeal? Keeping this option secret for nearly six years does not seem to be consistent with Apple wanting &ldquo;to help developers get and keep quality software on the App Store.&rdquo;<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>If the SDK&mdash;i.e. being able to remove compatibility workarounds&mdash;is the main thing Apple cares about, as many have speculated, why don&rsquo;t they just have a clear rule&mdash;the same for everyone&mdash;that the App Store only supports the SDK for iOS <em>n-i<\/em>?<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>If you can appeal on the basis that the app still works, doesn&rsquo;t that contradict the stated goal of getting apps to use the latest SDK?<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>If security and privacy are true concerns, and apps that have already been downloaded function as normal, how are those customers supposed to figure out that they are at risk? It doesn&rsquo;t sound like they get notified that the app was removed. There might have been reviews in the App Store warning people of problems, but those will be hidden when the app is removed. It will be like the app never existed. The customer might not even be able to look up the company&rsquo;s Web site from within the app because Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/02\/relaxing-anti-steering-rules-for-reader-apps\/\">banned<\/a> links that could lead to the customer finding non-IAP ways of purchasing.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>Why are the offending apps removed instead of made unlisted, which would be friendlier for customers with <a href=\"https:\/\/pxlnv.com\/blog\/apps-not-busy-being-born-are-busy-getting-killed-off\/\">older devices<\/a> or previous purchases?<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>After writing the above, I saw this post from <a href=\"https:\/\/lapcatsoftware.com\/articles\/AppStoreImprovements.html\">Jeff Johnson<\/a>, which makes some of the same points:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/lapcatsoftware.com\/articles\/AppStoreImprovements.html\"><p>One enormous problem with Apple&rsquo;s publicly stated criteria is that they directly contradict what Apple has said previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2019\/03\/addressing-spotifys-claims\/\" title=\"Addressing Spotify's claims\">in response to accusations of antitrust<\/a>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>Besides the minimal download threshold number, we&rsquo;d like to know how many apps are affected by Apple&rsquo;s criteria &mdash; apps that haven&rsquo;t but updated in 3 years and haven&rsquo;t been downloaded enough &mdash; as well as how many apps are <em>not<\/em> affected by Apple&rsquo;s criteria, by which I mean specifically apps that haven&rsquo;t been updated in 3 years but have met the minimal download threshold. Are there any developers in the latter group? If not, then Apple&rsquo;s announcement feels very much like a cynical ploy to downplay the controversy and how it affects indie devs. On the other hand, if the number of older apps with significant downloads is high, that raises important questions about user privacy, and why those apps are exempt from updating.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>The new policy is basically the exact opposite of what users would want. If an app has been downloaded zero times in the past 12 months, then who cares what its privacy policy is? You can&rsquo;t violate user privacy if you don&rsquo;t have any users. But for some bizarre reason, if an app has enough users to exceed the download threshold, then Apple&rsquo;s App Store &ldquo;Improvement&rdquo; process doesn&rsquo;t help these users at all.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>Finally I should mention that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/4\/15\/23027363\/apple-scammy-apps-mac-app-store-moderation\" title=\"Apple's still not catching scammy apps, and this time they're on the Mac\">the scam artists who plague the crap store<\/a> have no trouble submitting regular pointless updates with uninformative release notes such as &ldquo;Bug fix&rdquo; in order to avoid Apple&rsquo;s threat of removal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/25\/app-store-removing-old-apps-that-still-work\/\">App Store Removing Old Apps That Still Work<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/29\/unlisted-app-distribution\/\">Unlisted App Distribution<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/06\/removing-abandoned-apps-and-shorter-app-names\/\">Removing Abandoned Apps and Shorter App Names<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"apples-explanation-for-removing-old-apps-update-2022-05-09\">Update (2022-05-09): <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lapcatsoftware\/status\/1521207985611100160\">Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lapcatsoftware\/status\/1521207985611100160\">\n<p>IMO it&rsquo;s been framed in the wrong way &mdash; whether developers are right to complain &mdash; rather than whether it&rsquo;s good for users.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atomicbird\/status\/1521225572973694979\">Tom Harrington<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atomicbird\/status\/1521225572973694979\">\n<p>Your app doesn&rsquo;t have enough downloads to interest Apple, and your $99\/year doesn&rsquo;t make it worthwhile to them. Also you&rsquo;re not allowed to distribute your app any other way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple (MacRumors): As part of the App Store Improvements process, developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold &mdash; meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period &mdash; receive an email [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-02T19:08:58Z","apple_news_api_id":"3bc91c4f-af5c-42c0-b6f2-9f1aa5ba5e92","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-09T20:20:20Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AO8kcT69cQsC28p8apbpekg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2085,91,2065,1016,31,2078,26,355,71,48],"class_list":["post-35748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-antitrust","tag-appstore","tag-app-tracking-transparency","tag-datacide","tag-ios","tag-ios-15","tag-iosapp","tag-privacy","tag-programming","tag-security"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35748"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35836,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35748\/revisions\/35836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}