Apple may be tightening down on programs that haven’t received any upgrades in a long time. Apple tells impacted developers in an email titled “App Improvement Notice” that it will delete apps from the App Store if they haven’t been “updated in a considerable length of time” and gives them only 30 days to do so.
“By submitting an update for review in 30 days, you may keep this app available for new people to find and download from the App Store,”
Apple adds in the email. “The app will be withdrawn from sale if no update is provided in 30 days.” While Apple will delete old apps from the App Store, consumers’ devices will retain any previously downloaded apps.
A number of software developers, including Robert Kabwe of Protopop Games, have expressed their displeasure with the shift. Kabwe claims on Twitter that Apple is threatening to delete Motivoto, a fully working game that hasn’t been updated since March 2019.
Meanwhile, Kosta Eleftheriou, the creator of the FlickType Apple Watch keyboard, claims that Apple removed a version of his app designed for the visually impaired because it had not been updated in two years.
The once-super-popular Pocket God app, as Eleftheriou points out in his tweet, is still available on the App Store, despite the fact that it was last updated in 2015. Apple is also deleting “a couple” of Emilia Lazer-previous Walker’s games from the App Store, according to the developer.
Several other developers have expressed similar frustrations, stating that they just do not have the time to update their products.
“We are establishing a continuous process of assessing apps, eliminating apps that no longer perform as intended, don’t follow current review rules, or are obsolete,” Apple writes on its App Store Improvements website.
Because the website lacks a time stamp, it’s impossible to tell when Apple published or last updated the post. Apple did not react to The Verge’s request for comment right away.
Apple said in 2016 that it will begin deleting abandoned apps from the App Store. It also said at the time that developers would have 30 days to update their app before it was taken down.
However, it’s unclear if Apple has consistently enforced this restriction throughout time, or if it has only lately begun to do so.
Apple also doesn’t specify what constitutes “outdated” software, whether it’s based on the amount of time since an app was last updated or compatibility with the most recent version of iOS.
To read our blog on “Atlanta’s Apple store became the first to file a petition for union elections” click here.
