{"id":490900,"date":"2026-06-09T16:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490900\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:19:14","slug":"apple-says-it-may-remove-some-apps-from-the-app-store-if-they-dont-attract-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490900\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple says it may remove some apps from the App Store if they don\u2019t attract users"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apple is warning developers that some of their apps may not be able to call the App Store home forever. In its newly refreshed <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/app-store\/review\/guidelines\/\" target=\"_blank\">App Review Guidelines<\/a> released this week, the tech giant said it may begin removing apps in certain well-established categories if they\u2019re not \u201cupdated, improved, or attracting customers.\u201d This marks a significant shift on Apple\u2019s part, which earlier used to simply reject copycat apps or those in saturated categories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previously, Apple\u2019s guidelines had cautioned developers not to pile on in categories that already had plenty of apps. The line, somewhat hilariously, had read: \u201cThe App Store has enough fart, burp, flashlight, fortune telling, dating, drinking games, and Kama Sutra apps, etc. already. We will reject these apps unless they provide a unique, high-quality experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The updated text, released alongside Apple\u2019s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), warns developers against \u201copportunistically creating variants of existing app categories or popular apps.\u201d The list now includes wallpaper apps, simple timers, and sound effects, in addition to dating apps, flashlight, and fortune-telling apps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe may remove these apps from the App Store going forward if they are not updated, improved, or do not attract customers,\u201d the guidelines state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These apps, Apple explained, are \u201cwell established on the App Store,\u201d and submissions will no longer be accepted unless they offer a \u201cmeaningfully different or improved\u201d experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The change comes as Apple focuses on improving app discovery across its App Store. At WWDC, the company introduced <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/06\/09\/apples-app-store-rolls-out-personalized-recommendations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">personalized app recommendations<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/06\/09\/apple-brings-streaming-style-subscription-bundles-to-the-app-store\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">merchandising tools to help developers<\/a> grow their businesses and re-engage existing users. Removing low-quality apps could help the App Store reduce clutter, making it easier for developers who are putting in the effort to have their apps discovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, Apple called out apps like drinking games, Kama Sutra, fart and burp apps as \u201clow-quality,\u201d \u201cmediocre,\u201d and \u201clow-effort,\u201d warning that developers who repeatedly submit such apps may lose access to the Apple Developer Program entirely.<\/p>\n<p>When you purchase through links in our articles, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple is warning developers that some of their apps may not be able to call the App Store&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17980,936,41614,61,60,80,138342],"class_list":["post-490900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-app-store","tag-apple","tag-developers","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-wwdc-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}