Snapchat Planning to Launch 'Internal App Store' for Games This Fall

[MacRumors]

Snapchat is looking to build its own "internal app store" of gaming titles, according to a new report out today from The Information.

The platform is set for a tentative launch sometime this fall, and will allow outside developers to build games that Snapchat then distributes for users to play within the Snapchat app.

People familiar with the company's plans claim that Snapchat has already lined up one gaming publisher to make a new game for Snapchat's app store.

Unless every game is completely free, it's unclear how the company plans to succeed when Apple has strict App Store guidelines that prevent companies from selling apps, games, and other content in their apps that aren't designated in-app purchases.

The company is preparing to launch a platform this fall that will let outside developers create games to be played through the Snapchat app, according to two people familiar with the matter.

It is relying on outside developers to build the games that could be downloaded in an internal app-store of titles. The gaming platform has been in the works for at least a year as the company has worked on the platform's technology, according to a person familiar with the effort.

Recently, Valve had trouble with Apple's policies in this regard, after trying to get its Steam Link app on the App Store, which would have let users purchase games within the app. After Apple rejected the app, Valve removed game purchasing as an option from Steam Link and has resubmitted it for approval to Apple. Now, when users see a game in the app Valve points them toward a Mac or PC as places to make their purchases.

For Snapchat, the deeper foray into gaming is believed to be an attempt to further distance itself from rival Instagram, which has copied a few of its features over the years and eventually became more successful than Snapchat in regards to the 24-hour "stories" feature. However, one source reportedly suggested that the gaming platform is still "more experimental" at this point than a central business effort by the company.

Earlier this year, the company expressed interest in gaming on a small scale with the launch of "Snappables," Snapchat Lenses that are interactive and let users play AR games with friends. Many social-focused apps have tried out gaming experiences in the past, including Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Apple's own iMessage through the launch of the Messages App Store in iOS 10.

Article Link: Snapchat Planning to Launch 'Internal App Store' for Games This Fall

 

[nexu]

Good luck honey

 

[Apple blogger]

Good luck honey

But Apple doesn’t allow apps to have their own app stores in their apps?

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Does anyone want this? What are they thinking!?

 

[Sharkoneau]

I really hate this company. More reinforcement.

 

[Defthand]

I don’t use Snapchat but I hope they successfully challenge Apple’s control of iOS apps.

I was traveling recently and my phone required me to re-enter my iTunes Store (App Store) account password in order to use any of the third party apps that were installed. Firstly, I resent that my purchased apps aren’t available to me unless I have an active connection to the app store.

Now imagine this. I have a strong password for my Apple ID and iTunes Store accounts. It was generated by my password manager, 1Password. It’s not one I can memorize. The rub is, I couldn’t retrieve my store password because 1Password is an app that also requires me to be logged into the app store! Motherf****r! I had to call Apple Support and change my password in order to use my apps. Afterwards, I had to save my password in a Note to avoid this inconvenience, defeating the purpose of a password manager.

 

[nexu]

But Apple doesn’t allow apps to have their own app stores in their apps?

Did I say that, honey?

 

[ikir]

I don’t use Snapchat but I hope they successfully challenge Apple’s control of iOS apps.

I was traveling recently and my phone required me to re-enter my iTunes Store (App Store) account password in order to use any of the third party apps that were installed. Firstly, I resent that my purchased apps aren’t available to me unless I have an active connection to the app store.

Now imagine this. I have a strong password for my Apple ID and iTunes Store accounts. It was generated by my password manager, 1Password. It’s not one I can memorize. The rub is, I couldn’t retrieve my store password because 1Password is an app that also requires me to be logged into the app store! Motherf****r! I had to call Apple Support and change my password in order to use my apps. Afterwards, I had to save my password in a Note to avoid this inconvenience, defeating the purpose of a password manager.

Sorry no sense

 

[mariusignorello]

I don’t use Snapchat but I hope they successfully challenge Apple’s control of iOS apps.

I was traveling recently and my phone required me to re-enter my iTunes Store (App Store) account password in order to use any of the third party apps that were installed. Firstly, I resent that my purchased apps aren’t available to me unless I have an active connection to the app store.

Now imagine this. I have a strong password for my Apple ID and iTunes Store accounts. It was generated by my password manager, 1Password. It’s not one I can memorize. The rub is, I couldn’t retrieve my store password because 1Password is an app that also requires me to be logged into the app store! Motherf****r! I had to call Apple Support and change my password in order to use my apps. Afterwards, I had to save my password in a Note to avoid this inconvenience, defeating the purpose of a password manager.

Log in to the web version of 1Password if you have the subscription.

 

[iMerik]

I don’t use Snapchat but I hope they successfully challenge Apple’s control of iOS apps.

I was traveling recently and my phone required me to re-enter my iTunes Store (App Store) account password in order to use any of the third party apps that were installed. Firstly, I resent that my purchased apps aren’t available to me unless I have an active connection to the app store.

Now imagine this. I have a strong password for my Apple ID and iTunes Store accounts. It was generated by my password manager, 1Password. It’s not one I can memorize. The rub is, I couldn’t retrieve my store password because 1Password is an app that also requires me to be logged into the app store! Motherf****r! I had to call Apple Support and change my password in order to use my apps. Afterwards, I had to save my password in a Note to avoid this inconvenience, defeating the purpose of a password manager.

Did you have "Offload Unused Apps" enabled and then tried to run one that then needed to be reloaded?

 

[farewelwilliams]

I don’t use Snapchat but I hope they successfully challenge Apple’s control of iOS apps.

I was traveling recently and my phone required me to re-enter my iTunes Store (App Store) account password in order to use any of the third party apps that were installed. Firstly, I resent that my purchased apps aren’t available to me unless I have an active connection to the app store.

Now imagine this. I have a strong password for my Apple ID and iTunes Store accounts. It was generated by my password manager, 1Password. It’s not one I can memorize. The rub is, I couldn’t retrieve my store password because 1Password is an app that also requires me to be logged into the app store! Motherf****r! I had to call Apple Support and change my password in order to use my apps. Afterwards, I had to save my password in a Note to avoid this inconvenience, defeating the purpose of a password manager.

don't save a generated password inside a password manager that you need to access using the same password. this is much more common problem than you think. lots of people i know that use 1password generated a password for their dropbox account (where their vault is) which is a BIG NO.

 

[macduke]

Does anyone want this? What are they thinking!?

They're thinking "Let's throw everything into the water to see what floats because this ship is sinking fast."

 

[-BigMac-]

LOL good luck getting iOS App Store approval xx

 

[fairuz]

They're thinking "Let's throw everything into the water to see what floats because this ship is sinking fast."

And they're still worth $13Bn. And they're bleeding money, mostly going to the CEO's salary. They're worth at most $1Bn, and that's if someone buys them later. I want to short sell the **** out of it but don't have an account set up for that.

 

[Ries]

The second something starts to add something screwed up to a core functionality, you know usage peaked and it's down hill from that point.

People move to new "message" app's because they clutter it with unrelated stuff like "games/stickers/gifs/apps". Want to send a message, how about you go though the app store in your message app to get there.

 

[Defthand]

Sorry no sense

Apologies, Ikir. I was sharing an example of how Apple’s control of third party iOS apps is unreasonable. In my example, my apps became unresponsive simply because I was logged out of my iTunes Store/App Store account.

To me, Apple should allow the same freedoms on iOS as it does on MacOS. I should be able to purchase apps and content directly from devs if I prefer. Apple’s arbitrary control of apps shouldn’t be mandatory. Fortunately, my freedom existed on MacOS before Apple could con customers into accepting Apple’s monopolistic conditions. Unfortunately, I’m concerned that Apple will eventually impose their Will on MacOS apps as well, especially as iOS apps are ported to the desktop.

Log in to the web version of 1Password if you have the subscription.

I tried but mine is not the subscription product.

Did you have "Offload Unused Apps" enabled and then tried to run one that then needed to be reloaded?

That feature was off. None of my apps were offloaded.

don't save a generated password inside a password manager that you need to access using the same password. this is much more common problem than you think. lots of people i know that use 1password generated a password for their dropbox account (where their vault is) which is a BIG NO.

Normally, I’d have access to my iPad or Mac where I also have 1Password installed. I could have used one of those to retrieve my iTunes Store password for my phone. In this case, I was traveling.

One’s Apple ID and iTunes Store passwords (Now Apple encourages those to be the same) are critical to conceal. They allow control of a person’s entire Apple playground. It’s ironic that I can’t store that password in a secure password manager for the reason I experienced.

I encourage everyone reading this thread to confirm my discovery. Log out of your iTunes Store account within your phone’s settings. Then try to use a third party app (Curiously, Apple apps continue to work). Ask yourself, why does Apple disable these apps when you disconnect?

 

[farewelwilliams]

One’s Apple ID and iTunes Store passwords (Now Apple encourages those to be the same) are critical to conceal. They allow control of a person’s entire Apple playground. It’s ironic that I can’t store that password in a secure password manager for the reason I experienced.

If you have two factor authentication enabled, a reasonably difficult + rememberable + typable Apple ID password is enough. Having to reach your 1Password every time you need to login to your Apple ID is ridiculous.

you're essentially locking a key to the safe inside that safe

if you can remember your complex 1Password master password, you can make room in your brain to create a second master password for your Apple ID

 

[Defthand]

If you have two factor authentication enabled, a reasonably difficult + rememberable + typable Apple ID password is enough. Having to reach your 1Password every time you need to login to your Apple ID is ridiculous.

you're essentially locking a key to the safe inside that safe

if you can remember your complex 1Password master password, you can make room in your brain to create a second master password for your Apple ID

I seldom need my Apple ID password, so memorizing it isn’t as easy as memorizing one I use frequently.

Your point about two factor authorization is valid but it wouldn’t have helped me when I had only one device available to me. Correct?

More ridiculous to me is that my third party apps are disabled if I’m not logged into the iTunes/App store. What is Apple’s reason for that?

 

[farewelwilliams]

I seldom need my Apple ID password, so memorizing it isn’t as easy as memorizing one I use frequently.

If you rarely type your Apple password, why not re-use the 1Password master password? If someone stole your 1Password master password, they'll still need to bypass two factor authentication to access your Apple account which requires your iPhone and the iPhone's 6-digit pin, so even if you saved your 1Password vault on iCloud, it'll still be safe.

I mean, I would rather have you remember a separate Apple password, but...yeah....

Your point about two factor authorization is valid but it wouldn’t have helped me when I had only one device available to me. Correct?

I'm saying that if you chose a simple password and someone stole it, two factor authorization will protect you because the person that stole your password would also need to unlock your phone (which is protected by Touch ID/Face ID) to access your account

More ridiculous to me is that my third party apps are disabled if I’m not logged into the iTunes/App store. What is Apple’s reason for that?

it's not ridiculous. obviously, piracy is a concern if you're sharing accounts among several friends and downloading each other's paid apps (i'm not talking about family sharing). but also, apps that have in-app purchases need to contact itunes/app store servers to check if there are any additional downloads. sometimes developers can edit an in-app purchase to include more items/features. for example: if you bought a level in a game and the developer shipped a buggy level, the app will need to check for updates to re-download the level. only way to do this is to stay logged in so that the app can check what in-app purchases you've done and redownload the content.