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Updated April 30th, 2022 at 20:09 IST

Apple clarifies criteria for App Store Improvement process; Check details here

Apple has published a new press release clarifying its stance on removing applications from the Apple App Store. Check more details about the company's take.

Reported by: Shikhar Mehrotra
Apple clarifies the criteria for App Store Improvement process: Check details here
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Over the last week, several app developers have received an App Store Improvement Notice from Apple. The notice says that if developers do not submit an update for review, their application will be removed from the Apple App Store. However, several developers took to social media platforms to complain about the inconsistency of app removal by Apple. For instance, the developer of FlickType Apple Watch Keyboard, Kosa Eleftheriou highlights that Pocket God, an application that has not received any updates since 2015 is still available on the App Store, but one of her applications was removed. 

Apple has published a new press release clarifying its stance on removing applications from the Apple App Store. The page reads "as a 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 - meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period - receive an email notifying them that their app has been identified for possible removal from the App store."

This means that Apple is taking into account the number of downloads of an application. It implies that an old application with a significant number of downloads will stay on the App Store, even though the app has not received an update in a long while. However, relatively newer apps with less or no downloads will be removed from the App Store in the coming days, after giving developers a notice about the app. 

Apple sends App Store Improvement Notice

The Verge cites a tweet from Potopop Games that contains the "App Store Improvement Notice." The mail is addressed to the developer of a game and says that "this app has not been updated in a significant amount of time and is scheduled to be removed from sale in 30 days." Adding to it, the mail reads "you can keep this app available for new users to discover and download from the App Store by submitting an update for review within 30 days." 

The mail also says that developers do not need to take any action for the application to remain available to existing users, who have already downloaded the app. Another Twitter user @nickjsheriff highlights that applications that developers who have not updated their applications for the past three years or more are getting the notice. The same users also mention that over 70% of the applications on the Apple Play Store have not been updated in the last three to five years, which is a long time. 

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Published April 30th, 2022 at 20:09 IST

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