Apple Starts Cleaning Up The App Store

After notifying all the developers about the forthcoming App Store cleaning on September 1, Apple has finally started removing old and outdated apps from the App Store. As revealed by Apple itself, all those apps will be removed from the App Store that haven’t been updated in a long time and no longer follow Apple’s current review guidelines. In addition to that, Apple had given a 30 days time to the developers to submit an updated version of their app and get it approved. In case they fail to do so, their app will be removed from the App Store without any further extension. Besides, the apps with reported issues like frequent crashing will be the first ones to be removed and the process has already been initiated.  

However, Apple assures that the removed apps will remain functional on the devices which have those apps installed even after the removal. Also, the users won’t face any hindrance while using the app post its removal. They can also make In-App purchases in the same way they did before. The users can backup the app, storing it on iCloud or iTunes back and re-install it any time they want to.

2.2 Million Apps On iOS App Store

As a matter of fact, the iOS App Store currently has an outrageously large number of paid and free apps and Apple gets somewhat around 100,000 submissions for new and updated apps each week. But the thing is, a large number of apps available on the App Store haven’t been updated in a long time. Some of these apps haven’t been updated since 2012 and many have less than even 500 downloads.

As of June 2016, the iOS App Store had 2.2 million apps. Not so long ago; in 2013, this number used to be even less than 1 million. This shows more than 100% growth in the last three years. So clearly, there was an inevitable need to percolate the App store and remove all the unnecessary apps. That’s what Apple is doing right now.

Apple’s Notice To The App Developers

On September 1, Apple released a notice to all the developers telling them to submit an updated version of their apps within 30 days to keep them alive on App Store. Also, Apple is going to review each and every submission before giving its final approval. So the updated version must also be free from bugs and malicious content in order to get approval and remain on the iOS App Store.  

Also, Apple isn’t approving any app submission with name exceeding 50 characters. This is because some developers are trying to leverage the app store results by using exceedingly large names for the apps.