Apple Updates App Store Rules to Remove Copycat Apps

Apple may remove apps from its App Store if they are too similar to other, widely available apps.

The company told developers about this policy in updated terms that were announced Monday (June 8) for the App Review Guidelines it uses when considering apps for inclusion in its App Store.

“Opportunistically creating variants of existing app categories or popular apps degrades App Store discovery, reduces overall app quality, and harms both users and developers,” Apple said in its App Review Guidelines.

The company highlighted apps having to do with dating, flashlight, sound effects, wallpaper, simple timers and fortune-telling, saying that these categories are already well established on the App Store, that developers should not submit them if they are too similar to what’s already available, and that Apple will not accept the apps unless they are meaningfully different or better.

“We may remove these apps from the App Store going forward if they are not updated, improved or do not attract customers,” the company said in the App Review Guidelines.

TechCrunch reported on these changes Tuesday (June 9) and said that Apple’s potential removal of apps is a new policy, as the company used to only reject apps that were copycats of others or landed in categories that are already saturated.

Vitaly Davydov, founder of app-focused revenue management platform provider Adapty, wrote in a Tuesday post on X that because Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to redefine “spam” apps and to allow it remove some of them that are already in the App Store, developers should check if their category is affected.

In another post, Davydov added: “The bigger change: Apple formalized its right to remove apps in saturated categories if they go stale or stop attracting customers. That means both new and existing apps in these categories need to offer ‘a meaningfully different’ experience to be listed on the App Store.”

PYMNTS reported June 4 that Apple’s App Store facilitated more than $1.4 trillion in developer sales/billings last year and that more than 40% of the top 100 apps featured consumer-facing artificial intelligence capabilities.

“Developers are the heartbeat of the App Store, and this year’s incredible milestone is a testament to their boundless creativity,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said when announcing these figures.