Hey opens its email service to everyone and says Apple has approved its update with proposed changes to meet App Store guidelines
The $99-per-year email app no longer needs an invite to be used — Hey — the new email service from Basecamp that's been the subject of the latest fight …
Context & Ripple Effects
The fight that started when Basecamp says its next iOS update was rejected because Apple wasn't getting its cut of the $99/year fee has ended in a negotiated retreat on both sides. After two rejected appeals — Apple arguing email apps must work without a paid subscription — came an interim approval that bought Basecamp time while it added free functionality but still no in-app purchases.
Today's news closes that arc: HEY drops its invite requirement entirely, and Basecamp says Apple has signed off on the update with proposed changes to meet App Store guidelines. The compromise matters because neither side fully capitulated — HEY keeps web-based billing out of Apple's cut while conforming enough to ship.
First-order effects
- HEY is now open to any user without an invite, converting the waitlist scarcity into open growth for the $99-per-year service just days after launch.
- Basecamp gets its iOS update shipped, preserving iPhone distribution that was at risk after Apple twice rejected its appeal.
Second-order effects
- Apple's acceptance of a subscription app that still lacks in-app purchases creates a working template other developers can cite when pushing back on the IAP mandate.
- Rival email clients and subscription app makers gain leverage in their own App Store negotiations, since Apple has demonstrated flexibility once the dispute became publicly costly.
Third-order effects
- If 'proposed changes' become the standard resolution path, App Store rule enforcement shifts from binary accept/reject toward case-by-case bargaining — a structural loosening of the IAP toll that regulators scrutinizing the store are already watching.
The trend: App Store platform control is being renegotiated in public, with high-profile developers extracting bespoke terms that erode the uniformity of Apple's in-app-purchase regime.