{"id":52330,"date":"2026-06-19T15:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=52330"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:46:26","slug":"apple-clearing-app-store-clutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/19\/apple-clearing-app-store-clutter\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Clearing App Store Clutter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/news\/apple-clears-the-clutter-out-of-the-app-store\">Ed Hardy<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/news\/apple-clears-the-clutter-out-of-the-app-store\">\n<p>Finding useful software in the App Store is about to get easier. Apple is apparently preparing to remove what it describes as &ldquo;opportunistic&rdquo; apps that provide little value to iPhone and iPad users.<\/p>\n<p>It already had a policy of not approving applications that are &ldquo;indistinguishable from what&rsquo;s already widely available.&rdquo; This week, it quietly warned developers that it will start removing low-value software that doesn&rsquo;t attract attention from users.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/app-store\/review\/guidelines\/\">App Review Guidelines<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=a233fmpw\">News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/app-store\/review\/guidelines\/\">\n<p>4.3 (b) Don&rsquo;t submit apps that are indistinguishable from what&rsquo;s already widely available. Opportunistically creating variants of existing app categories or popular apps degrades App Store discovery, reduces overall app quality, and harms both users and developers. Certain kinds of apps, such as dating, flashlight, sound effects, wallpaper, simple timers, and fortune telling, are well established on the App Store and we will not accept new submissions unless they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience. We may remove these apps from the App Store going forward if they are not updated, improved, or do not attract customers. Other kinds of apps, such as drinking games, Kama Sutra, fart, and burp apps, are mediocre, low-quality, or low-effort and do not add value to the App Store. Repeated submissions of this kind may lead to removal from the Apple Developer Program.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/20\/updates-to-vibe-coding-apps-rejected-from-the-app-store\/\">Updates to Vibe Coding Apps Rejected From the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/02\/apples-explanation-for-removing-old-apps\/\">Apple&rsquo;s Explanation for Removing Old Apps<\/a><\/li>\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\/12\/wordle-clones\/\">Wordle Clones<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/30\/app-store-competition\/\">App Store Competition<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/28\/how-to-game-the-app-store\/\">How to Game the App Store<\/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<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/29\/removing-unmaintained-apps-from-the-app-store\/\">Removing Unmaintained Apps from the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"apple-clearing-app-store-clutter-update-2026-07-14\">Update (<a href=\"#apple-clearing-app-store-clutter-update-2026-07-14\">2026-07-14<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/aleck.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy\/post\/3mqa2hml355w2\">Aleksandar Vaci&#x107;<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/aleck.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy\/post\/3mqa2hml355w2\">\n<p>Waiting for Review enters day 3. I don&rsquo;t recall when was the last time this happened for any of the apps I am working for.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>I sent messages to App Review Board and received nothing in response (so far).<\/p>\n<p>It seems that if Apple ever removed your app from App Store for reason of &ldquo;not sending regular updates&rdquo; that app is&#8230;gone. It&rsquo;s not deleted but it seems to dwell in some sort of limbo.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/02\/mac-app-store-review-times-increasing\/\">Mac App Store Review Times Increasing<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ed Hardy: Finding useful software in the App Store is about to get easier. Apple is apparently preparing to remove what it describes as &ldquo;opportunistic&rdquo; apps that provide little value to iPhone and iPad users. It already had a policy of not approving applications that are &ldquo;indistinguishable from what&rsquo;s already widely available.&rdquo; This week, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-06-19T19:43:15Z","apple_news_api_id":"4c9d97df-4ce5-42c2-a77a-1d52117a3de3","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-07-14T14:46:29Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ATJ2X30zlQsKneh1SEXo94w","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":[1846,91,130,1930,31,2741],"class_list":["post-52330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-app-review","tag-appstore","tag-rejection","tag-app-store-review-guidelines","tag-ios","tag-ios-26"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52330","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=52330"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52599,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52330\/revisions\/52599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}