Apple has decided to make a good cleaning in the App Store And what better time to do it than the one we are in, in the middle of spring, a time of renewal and dusting off everything that winter has left stiff… and more, because this spring cleaning is not typical.
According to denounce different developers Through social networks, Apple has been sending warnings for days to those who have applications in the App Store that they have not updated in a “significant amount of time”to give you some leeway in which to do so or watch your creations get swept from the store.
“You can keep this app available for new users to discover and download from the App Store by submitting an update for your review in 30 days“, indicates the message that the company is sending to developers, warning that “if no update is sent in 30 days, the application will be withdrawn from sale”.
Of course, the complaints have not been slow to appear, but the truth is that the measure makes a lot of sense: all software is susceptible to vulnerabilities that put the security of the system at risk and an application that is not updated tends to generate this and other problems . However, there are more special exceptions that the company might not have taken into account.
.@apple is removing a few of my old games b/c they have “not been updated in a significant amount of time”
Games can exist as completed objects! These free projects aren’t suitable for updates or a live service model, they’re finished artworks from years ago. pic.twitter.com/iflH70j7q4
— emilia ✨ (@lazerwalker) April 23, 2022
And it is that not all applications are made to connect to the Internet, for example, Los game developers are the ones that are making the most noise in this regard, because there are many cases – mostly very simple games – in which no update is needed… but they will have to have it, if they want to continue being in the App Store.
Be that as it may, Apple does not specify what type of update they should receive, so everything indicates that they only want to verify that there is still someone behind the applications that cares a little about them. Thus, with a mere process update they should have enough.
In any case, it is not the first time that Apple does a deep clean of the App Store. The previous one was in 2016 and the conditions were similar to the current one: the developer of any application that has not received updates for more than three years will have a grace period to resolve it or it will be out of circulation.
In addition to this spring cleaning that has begun in the App Store, Apple has communicated that it is “implementing an ongoing app evaluation process, removing apps that no longer work as intended, do not follow current review guidelines, or are out of date”.