Apple appears to be removing outdated apps from the App Store

Apple appears to be cracking down and removing outdated apps from their crowded App Store, as developers are being sent harsh “App Store Improvement” notices. 

As spotted by a number of disgruntled iOS developers on Twitter, Apple is only giving developers 30 days in order to update their apps that have “not been updated in a significant amount of time”.

With supposedly out of date apps being removed from sale in the App Store if they do not comply with Apple’s demands, many developers are understandably upset that they’re being blindsided by this change, especially while other popular apps and games, such as Pocket God, are seemingly unaffected by this change, despite having not been updated in years. 

Despite receiving the brunt of the criticism from developers, Apple isn’t the only one planning to remove out of date apps from storefronts. Google has also recently announced that apps on its own Play Store must be targeting “an API level within two years of the latest major Android release version,” or the app’s visibility will be limited. 

Thankfully for users, apps that are deemed to be outdated and subsequently removed from sale in the App Store by Apple won’t disappear entirely, as you’ll still be able to download and access the app via your purchase history tab.

I feel sick. Apple just sent me an email saying they're removing my free game Motivoto because its more than 2 years old.

It's part of their App improvement system.

This is not cool. Console games from 2000 are still available for sale.

This is an unfair barrier to indie devs. pic.twitter.com/7XNcLfiEcR

— Protopop Games (@protopop) April 23, 2022

On Apple’s own App Store Improvements page, the company plainly states that they are “implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps, removing apps that no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines, or are outdated.”

According to Apple, only apps that crash on launch will be immediately removed from the App Store without warning, with all other apps being given some form of notice from the App Store team in order to make the necessary changes to the app.