The App Store is a panoply of apps that cover just about everything you can do with that little supercomputer in your pocket. But Apple keeps an iron hand on what developers can offer to the public. If they step out of line, the hammer of Jobs comes down and deletes them unceremoniously. In 2021 alone, Apple removed or blocked a staggering 1.6 million apps and updates. Here are 11 tales of iPhone apps that went too far and got banned.
I Am Rich
One of the most inexplicable flexes(Opens in a new window) of all time, Armin Heinrich’s “I Am Rich” was programmatically very simple. When it was booted up, it displayed an image of a glowing red gem which, when tapped, showed an affirmational mantra about wealth and success. Sounds pretty innocent, right? Here’s the twist: Its retail price was $999.99. The whole point of the app was showing off that you could drop a G on something completely useless and not sweat it. Apple yanked it the day after it was released with no explanation.
Slash
Low-effort apps have often been a way for people to make a quick buck off of controversy, but the big brains behind the “Slash” app maybe didn’t think it through. All this thing did was display a photograph of a knife on your phone’s screen and play the Psycho theme by Bernard Herrmann when the accelerometer detected a “rapid stabbing motion.” Basically harmless, but releasing it in the midst of some brutal knife crime incidents in the UK didn’t play well, and the app was pulled down(Opens in a new window) after just a few days on sale.
Fortnite
Would Apple really ban one of the most popular games in the world? If it had to, yes. Two giants butted heads in 2020 ahead of the release of season 4 of Fortnite. The issue, as always, was money. You see, Apple charges a 30% royalty on apps and in-app purchases, and Fortnite—as a free game—makes a lot of money through battle passes and the like. Epic wanted to do an end run around Apple’s payment processor or convince the company to take less of a cut, so it uploaded a version with its own purchasing options and cheaper prices. Apple wasn’t having it, and it deleted the game, leaving mobile players Victory Royale-less and kicking off a hellacious series of lawsuits.
Apple obviously wants your iPhone to be an escape from the real world, without any intrusive reminders of bad times sneaking in. So when programmer and digital artist Josh Begley released Metadata+ to draw attention to US acts of warfare by sending users a push notification whenever a drone strike was launched in Pakistan, Somalia, or Yemen, it didn’t last long(Opens in a new window) (even though Apple approved it after several previous rejections and a name change from Drones+). Apple’s stated reason was the go-to “crude or objectionable content,” but really it’s the drone strikes that are objectionable, not making people aware of them. It briefly re-emerged(Opens in a new window) in 2017, but didn’t even last(Opens in a new window) one day the second time around.
Sexy Bikini Fart
Fart sound apps have been a thing since as long …….
Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/iphone-apps-that-got-banned-and-why