I stand by my original assertion. Lots of old apps track people and the only way to avoid listing a privacy policy is to not update the app. The outrage is now they will have to stop or admit it.
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Apple Seemingly Removing 'Outdated' Apps From the App Store
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Depends where you live I guess. Here, it seems CL has been overtaken by spammers and businesses promoting phone repair.
Perfectly reasonable. If a developer doesn’t want to develop anymore, remove the app. Not being available on the App Store is the clearest indication that the developer no longer desires the burdens of development.
They DON’T have to update. If a developer doesn’t do anything, those that are happy with the app keep the app.
I found the app of one of the developers that complained on twitter. I was wondering if I should download the app to leave a helpful 1 star review.
When you think that apps that are still pulling user data are the rarity, those developers may be getting a nice chunk of change from advertisers! No wonder they wouldn’t want to update the app and lose a revenue stream.If the app works as expected and what I want, I absolutely have no problem with it not being updated for years, decades even. (I'm actually a developer too, but most of my development is on IBM Midrange machines) I doubt many independent developers make enough off of updating apps to make it worth their time.
I can understand how Apple could set a deadline of 10 years or so, but 2 years without updates, nah, that's just not realistic. I'm a registered iOS developer too and I can tell you this does not make me want to release any new apps.
That's certainly an interesting point and worthwhile, but I really think Apple should state it as such, rather than pretending that's not it.
There’s no benefit in stating that. Those affected developers know what they are doing.
Why tar all developers with the same brush when there are surely some that haven’t updated for reasons other than attempting to maintain a sketchy revenue stream?
How would they do that if it's targeted to run on iOS devices? Should they release it as open source that requires jailbreaking the device first, so you can install it? If they want to port it to Android or another platform, that's obviously an option too but requires a lot more work, which they apparently have no time or motivation to do.
Klocki from 5 years ago
apps.apple.com
Updated three weeks ago with bug fixes and again today with cloud saves. Can’t say I don’t like it
"Klocki"
"Klocki" is a relaxing puzzle game in which your task is to connect all the lines on the board.... But not only! I designed the game so that you can play it without any pressure or stress. No ads, time limits or scoring. Calm gameplay is accompanied by meditative soundtrack created by...
apps.apple.com
The thing is that the app continues to be on sale. Which means new customers who purchase the app, only to find it is not optimised for their devices.
I can share with you my personal experience with a game called “Battleheart legacy” which I first purchased in 2016. Great game, and I played tons of it on my ipad and have gotten my money’s worth many times over.
However, one AFI I have for the developer is that their solution to the new 2018 iPad Pro form factor was to apparently stretch out the app to fill the sides, resulting in a more zoomed in view that has resulted in me getting less playable screen space than I was used to.
The game still plays magnificently on my iphone 13 pro max, which seems to have been properly updated to account for the new form factor (giving it extra width instead of stretching out the game).
I have reached out to the developer on this issue a few times, to no reply. Perhaps one can make the case that I am not owed any more updates, but the app continues to be on sale, and people will continue to purchase the game, and it is my opinion that ipad users continue to be saddled with a worse user experience than they otherwise would have. The game was last updated in 2019 to resolve a minor gameplay bug. Since then, nothing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyone that has the games will keep the games. Anyone that looks for apps thirty days from somewhere around now will not find them on the App Store.With my Apple TV HD most of the games are at least 6 years old and haven't been updated. Does this mean they’re going to remove all the gaming apps for the Apple TV?
So, a 2016 game that you paid $5 for, got two years of good use out of, works perfectly on the latest iPhone and also works on your 2018 iPad - just not quite the way you’d like - should be removed from the store so nobody can use it?
…and if they do a token update (which may not even fix your issues) that’s ok, it can stay?
This looks more like Apple wanting to change their T&Cs after the fact but spinning it to look like quality assurance. There are plenty of brand shiny new apps in the store with far worse bugs in them.
Yeah, OkCupid does this almost weekly, and yet not a single bug is ever fixed. It’s obviously only to get people to pay attention to it again.
Until they can’t. One game I liked years ago disappeared from the App Store and also became unavailable to install again later on my next device (before everything went 64-bit). I owned it, and has a compatible OS, but that didn’t matter.
On a Mac or PC, we can archive downloads and reinstall stuff so long as we have a compatible machine and OS. On iOS devices, however…
Digital goods are apt to disappear, regardless of claims made by digital storefront marketing. If this was how things worked back in the early days, I suspect there would be a LOT less software archived and still available to users today. Some of it is junk, but much of it is valuable from an historical/cultural preservation stance.
I’m not generally all for breaking open the platform to endless third-party marketplaces, but things like this DO make me feel like there’s some good argument for opening it. Apple could solve these issues, but they have zero profit incentive to do it, so they’re probably going to eventually end up getting forced to open up.
So Apple should address them individually. Apple allowed/created this mess. They shouldn’t be punishing good developers in a “solution” that arbitrarily bludgeons everyone. I’m not usually a developer apologist, but this situation is abusive.
Planned obsolescence is a disease in the computer industry. If the developer isn’t doing it to their own products, someone else will do it to them.
Yes but when apps unload because of lack of space will apps download again? Probably not.
The one developer mentioned in the article stated (on twitter) that making a new submission of his threatened app would require changing a lot of stuff because of how Apple demands current versions of APIs and Xcode, etc.
The more this kind of crap goes on, the more I agree with opening the platform to user-installed options.