Apple approves email app HEY, a temporary move giving Basecamp more time to adhere to Apple's rules; HEY will offer some free functionality but still lack IAPs

What does it mean for an app to ‘work’ at launch? — After rejecting an update last week, Apple has approved a new version of the subscription email app Hey.

The Verge 2020-06-22 Nilay Patel

Context & Ripple Effects

Basecamp's HEY has spent the past week in a public collision with Apple: the update was rejected right after the email service launched because Apple wasn't taking its cut of subscriptions, and the appeal was denied on the grounds that email apps must work without a paid subscription. Jason Fried then escalated the fight publicly, [[a:954903|arguing the dispute is not about money but about Apple inserting itself between developers and their customers]].

Today's approval is a conditional truce, not a capitulation by either side: HEY gets back into the App Store by adding free functionality so the app 'works' at launch, while still refusing to add in-app purchases. The follow-up coverage shows the deal held — HEY opened to everyone with Apple's approval of the proposed changes — making this the template moment for how subscription apps navigate Apple's rules.

First-order effects

Basecamp gets its iOS update approved and HEY users regain access, but only by shipping a free tier that satisfies Apple's requirement that the app function without a paid subscription.
Apple keeps its App Store rules intact — no IAP requirement enforced in this instance — while retaining the leverage of a 'temporary' approval that can be revoked if Basecamp doesn't fully adhere.

Second-order effects

Other subscription developers facing the same rejection logic now have a worked example: add free functionality to pass review, keep web-based billing, and absorb the App Store dispute as a public-relations fight rather than a revenue one.
Apple's suggestion that HEY could reconfigure as an IMAP/POP client shows the escape hatch it offers developers — but taking it means rebuilding the product around Apple's constraints, a cost that pressures smaller developers in ways Basecamp can absorb.

Third-order effects

If 'temporary approval pending compliance' becomes the standard resolution, Apple preserves its 30% IAP framework while developers learn that public pressure and press coverage are a viable negotiation channel — an equilibrium that invites regulatory scrutiny of App Store gatekeeping.
The dispute hardens a structural question for every platform owner: whether distribution gatekeepers can mandate payment rails, or whether subscription businesses will increasingly route billing outside the app and treat the store as pure distribution.

The trend: Platform gatekeepers and subscription developers are testing the limits of mandatory in-app purchase rules, with public developer pushback becoming a recurring lever against App Store terms.

Discussion

@dhh @dhh on x
Apple has approved HEY for iOS 1.0.2 without IAP!! We've submitted 1.0.3 for final, definitive approval with a new free option and HEY for Work. SO NOW WE WAIT. CAN THIS STAND-OFF END IN A TRUCE? https://hey.com/...
@ow @ow on x
Whoa - Hey figured out a way around the iOS App Store mess. It will offer a way to sign up for a ‘free trial’ and people will have to figure out that they need to pay on the web once that ends https://hey.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x
Make Hey while the sun shines, I guess? https://twitter.com/...
@benthompson Ben Thompson on x
The most unreliable App Store rule of all: “If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.” (Yes, this seriously used to be in the App Store guidelines)
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Hey wins battle with Apple. Now the war with Gmail begins. Tech giant gauntlet. https://twitter.com/...
@jasonfried Jason Fried on x
NEWS: Late Friday night, Apple surprised us with an uncharacteristically casual note. Here's what they said, and here's what we did —> https://hey.com/...
@tapbot_paul Paul Haddad on x
This is your yearly reminder that if you run to the press and trash Apple, it never helps! https://twitter.com/...
@wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x
Trying to put out fire on Apple Antitrust ahead of WWDC I see https://twitter.com/...
@pierce David Pierce on x
This fight gets weirder and prettier every day, and I love it https://twitter.com/...
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
Good that they found a way through this, but hilarious that the solution is unfriendly to consumers who discover it on the App Store, the very thing Apple purportedly was worried about. https://twitter.com/...
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
WOW: “The company has submitted a new version of Hey that meets the strict letter of Apple's rules but defies their spirit: the company will now offer iOS users a free temporary Hey email account with a randomized address, just so the app is functional when it is first opened.” h…
@reckless Nilay Patel on x
New from me: Apple has approved an update to the Hey app in an effort to cool things down ahead of WWDC, but @DHH and company still have to make changes. And they've got some wild ideas on what those changes will be. https://www.theverge.com/...
@jackerhack Kiran Jonnalagadda on x
This blow up over Basecamp's Hey is a reminder that in any walled garden ecosystem, you are only as safe as your ability to raise a stink. For every Hey app there an unknown number that got snuffed out. Beware of any walled garden that claims to be an open ecosystem. https://twit…
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
Debate/discussion/rants about app stores (or perhaps The App Store) have rapidly polarized to the point where it seems difficult to have a rational discussion. Even trying to discuss is viewed as a defense. A discussion without defending. The situations are similar, really. 1/
@tonycamilli Tony Cam on x
@stevesi Great thread. Brought back memories of countless “OPKFests” in Redmond. 1st 8 years at Compaq/HP I was on the OS Engineering team, adapting the OPK to our factory preinstall environment. Now I'm an iOS developer seeing the same cat-and-mouse I had to play with Microsoft.
@dsilverman Dwight Silverman on x
.@stevesi has compiled his excellent Twitter thread comparing the situation involving Windows, crapware, and the user experience to smartphones an app stores. Regardless of where you are on this debate, it's worth your time to read. https://twitter.com/...
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
@jezell Yes. A big motivator for the thread is to point out two things. First that the reason app stores matter so much is because of the history demonstrated. Second, there is a complex relationship between partners in an ecosystem involving platforms and APIs.
@reckless Nilay Patel on x
@reneritchie There's only one thing: would it be different if there were competition for distribution apps to the iPhone. Everything is just an expression of that argument through a different lens
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Steven's written a great history lesson on the value the App Store provides compared to the Wild West of Windows PC ecosystem. That said there's a big difference between the App Store providing genuine value & Apple being entitled to 30% of revenue if the customer owns an iPhone …
@benthompson Ben Thompson on x
@Carnage4Life There is a Grand Canyon between anyone can install anything and multi-platform service has to install a parallel monetization system to support their customers on the iPhone.
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
A hill I would die on: curated app stores have been hugely, unambiguously good for users and software developers, and especially for user security and privacy. 1/
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
/PS Rolled this up and annotated with new content including: the rationality of ecosystem actors, ecosystem optimization, most favored nation status, and what's a fair “take” & more. Let's keep discussing here. The App Store Debate: A Story of Ecosystems https://medium.learningby…
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
There is a quite widespread idea that you can retain the safety, privacy and trust benefits of the sandboxed app model while solving the question of Apple's policies if you let people install multiple app stores. I think this is it completely wrong 1/
@capiche @capiche on x
Think the App Store's 30% cut is expensive? Try the Kindle store, where Amazon may charge as much as 65% of your book sale price. And even that might look cheap compared to physical retail. https://capiche.com/...
@waltmossberg Walt Mossberg on x
@stevesi puts the App Store debate into the historical context surrounding Windows and shows why curated app stores make sense for users, even if developers don't like them. It's a long thread, but well documented and worth reading. https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
The funny thing about this App Store thing is that absolutely nobody has said anything that people didn't say a decade ago. The only thing that's changed is that Apple is now big enough to be firmly in the anti-trust crosshairs
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
We've been arguing about Apple's payment rules since the app store began. From day 1, there has been stuff that should clearly use IAP, stuff that obviously can't, and a huge grey area in the middle where Apple's rules are fuzzy, arbitrary & often look like pure rent-seeking 1/
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
I think Apple should rewrite the rules from zero. But I also think dumping the store, let alone sandboxing, would be catastrophic. Who looks at the last few years and thinks it should be easier for any random developer to do whatever they want with your data? Who wants backdoors?
@gruber John Gruber on x
In the long run, the most powerful lock-in is when people like your stuff so much that they insist on it (and perhaps badmouth competitors), not when people feel they have no choice (and perhaps badmouth you).
@donmacaskill Don MacAskill on x
“Apple needs to decide if it wants to be “right,” or if it wants to be happy.” Amen. https://twitter.com/...
@nathanblawrence Nathan Lawrence on x
I have now seen a lot of people I would sort of consider “big deal” indies saying App Store positioning does not really matter. I'm sure that's true for them. It is not, however, true for all of us. And these remarks hurt in many of the same ways Apple's free apps remark did. htt…
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
Most people (and certainly most iPhone developers) understand that the phone was a generational change in computing. But we tend to focus on the multitouch UI, where actually there were actually two generational changes: the UI and the software model.
@marcoarment Marco Arment on x
I bet they come to a compromise where neither side has to lose face and “back down”, such as Hey adding some free functionality such that the app can do something without a purchase but also without adding IAP. (Apple's letter effectively invited them to do this.) https://twitter…
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
@stevesi I love Brent's product but I don't understand the idea that installing software was easy before the App Store. it was easy for people know what a third party RSS reader is, but that is not the same thing.
@johnwilson John Wilson on x
This doesn't speak to why consumers love using the App Store though. And too often developers don't consider that side of the equation. https://twitter.com/...
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
inessential: The iOS App Store Brings Users Only Because It's the Only Choice // “no one goes there anymore because it is too crowded” or “the food is terrible and the portions are too small”. https://inessential.com/...
@mattbirchler Matt Birchler on x
Not even is Apple's own Dark Sky immune from this. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x
🙅‍♂️ The app is only crippled on the App Store because that's what they had to do to fit Apple's written and unwritten rules. By the book. It's not ‘an email app’, it's the Hey app; Apple's framing is BS, and it's disappointing to see people fall for it https://t.co/ONJjr0uzTA
@marcoarment Marco Arment on x
Anyone arguing that the App Store graces developers with incredible distribution and promotion should read this: https://inessential.com/... My experience matches @brentsimmons's. Today's crowded App Store is merely a (bad) search engine you send people to from your own marketing…
@marcoarment Marco Arment on x
What a beautiful, elegant, and utterly damning website about Apple's arbitrary, inconsistent, ever-shifting enforcement of the IAP rules to accommodate strategically important companies like Netflix while pretending to enforce the same rules for everyone: https://youdownloadtheap…
@dylanmcd8 @dylanmcd8 on x
On this topic, my app “School Assistant - Planner” does not show up, at all, when searching “school assistant.” https://twitter.com/...
@ahmed Ahmed Al Omran on x
“This is a misconception that many people have — they think the App Store brings some kind of exceptional distribution and marketing that developers wouldn't have on their own. It's just not true. It lacks even a grain of truth.” https://inessential.com/...
@stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x
This ‘the App Store is a business, they can do what they want’ thing is nonsense. The App Store is a utility. It defines the future of software. If you're not on it as a developer, you don't exist. If you don't have access to apps, as a user, you're excluded from the modern world
@stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x
(Whereupon it will present an ad for a competitor who bought the keywords to appear before your app in search, anyway) https://twitter.com/...
@donmacaskill Don MacAskill on x
This whole thread is a really fascinating historical look at why App Store incentives are difficult, complicated, and “abused”. Highly recommended read. https://twitter.com/...
@ourielohayon Ouriel Ohayon on x
One question for Apple and one suggestion. Does apple consider their app developers as *customers* or *suppliers*? If they are obsessed with customer satisfaction would they be ready to run an widespread anonymous customer/dev satisfaction survey? https://www.nytimes.com/...
@copyconstruct Cindy Sridharan on x
🙄🙄🙄🙄 🙄🙄 at the highlighted part. More fool him for not knowing how distributing an iOS app works. Man, the dudebros sure like throwing out all their toys out of the pram when they don't get treated like the Twitter celebrities they are. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter…
@steven_aquino Steven Aquino on x
A great take on Apple and the App Store, vis-a-vis the spat with Basecamp, by @siracusa here. https://hypercritical.co/...
@fnando Nando Vieira on x
30% fee on Apple Store/Google Play is ok, as long as you have options. I find this whole “don't mention paid plans from outside our store” policy the must utter bull crap. @Apple must be fined. Like @Microsoft. $1.3B back in 2004. Let's make it $50B now? https://hey.com/...
@thejackbeyer Jack Beyer on x
“Apple seems to firmly believe that its ambitious goal state can be achieved with something close to the current set of App Store rules. This belief is not supported by the evidence.” I half expected this from @tim_cook but not a product person & photographer like @pschiller. htt…
@reneritchie Rene Ritchie on x
“Apple captures 30% of billings through its App Store. My estimate for these billings were $67.9 billion in 2019 which means App Store billings were 13% of the 2019 ecosystem. Apple's 30% cut of Billings amounts to 3.8% for the whole ecosystem. It's hardly an oppressive number.” …
@reneritchie Rene Ritchie on x
(It's fascinating to see how different the takes are between several of the industry analysts who focus on Apple. And all how different some of those takes are from media that cover Apple. My guess is focusing on 30% is less important than focusing on consistency/transparency.) h…
@rogueamoeba Rogue Amoeba on x
This piece from @jasonfried covers a whole lot of the problems with Apple's App Stores: https://hey.com/... These things aren't just bad for developers. They're bad for users and even Apple.
@donmacaskill Don MacAskill on x
This. 1000%. As another business with exceptional customer care, this right here is everything you need to know about @Apple and IAP. https://twitter.com/...
@thurrott Paul Thurrott on x
“Phil Schiller's suggestion that we should raise prices on iOS customers to make up for Apple's added margin is antitrust gold.” Ohh. Beautiful. https://hey.com/...

Chronicles