Apple warns it will remove apps from the App Store that haven't been “updated in a significant amount of time” and is giving developers 30 days to update them

Wiping apps that haven't been updated in a ‘significant amount of time’ — Apple may be cracking down on apps that no longer receive updates.

The Verge 2022-04-24 Emma Roth

Context & Ripple Effects

Apple’s initial warning was soon narrowed into a three-year and low-download threshold, with the developer response window extended from 30 to 90 days. That clarification turned a broad maintenance warning into a more defined App Store curation rule.

The policy later resurfaced in App Store review language for saturated categories, where Apple tied removal risk not only to updates but also to improvement and customer attraction.

First-order effects

Developers receiving Apple’s notice must update affected apps within the stated window or risk removal from the App Store.
Apple gains a formal mechanism to reduce listings it considers insufficiently maintained, while developers of older apps face a new compliance task.

Second-order effects

The later three-year, low-download standard directs the burden toward long-idle, lightly used apps rather than every older listing, and gives developers a longer remediation period.
Apps in crowded categories face a stronger incentive to ship visible improvements and sustain customer demand as Apple’s review criteria expand beyond elapsed update time.

Third-order effects

If Apple continues to apply maintenance and demand tests together, App Store availability shifts further from a one-time publishing outcome toward ongoing platform compliance.
The pattern strengthens Apple’s control over catalog quality and discoverability, making lifecycle upkeep a continuing cost for smaller and legacy-app developers.

The trend: Apple is broadening App Store governance from technical review at launch toward ongoing curation based on maintenance, improvement, and user demand.

Discussion

@lazerwalker Emilia on x
.@apple is removing a few of my old games b/c they have “not been updated in a significant amount of time” Games can exist as completed objects! These free projects aren't suitable for updates or a live service model, they're finished artworks from years ago. https://twitter.com/…
@protopop @protopop on x
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. ht…
@dominictarason Dominic Tarason on x
Apple's utterly unhinged games policy: Unless you push out regular updates, your game will be removed from sale. Even if the game is fully complete and doesn't need updating. There's no 'mail us to say the game is complete" option. Just ‘update or perish’. https://twitter.com/...
@keleftheriou @keleftheriou on x
Apple also removed a version of my FlickType Keyboard that catered specifically to the visually impaired community, because I hadn't updated it in 2 years. Meanwhile, games like Pocket God have not been updated by the developers for 7 years now: https://twitter.com/... https://tw…
@warpling Ryan McLeod on x
We can watch defining movies from decades ago or dig up a SNES and play an iconic game... what will we do when Apple has removed most every original and defining game from the App Store? Friends at Apple, this policy and process needs to change. https://twitter.com/...
@bobbdub @bobbdub on x
@protopop Yup. This just happened to me too! Removed my app because I haven't updated in 2 years, even it's still getting downloads and running on all devices. It's hard to take time away from current projects to update old ones, just to keep them alive on the store.
@allthecode_ Simon Barker on x
@protopop I received an email this morning saying the same about one of my apps, it hasn't got any crash reports, still gets downloads after 5 years, doesn't need a v2 and Apple decide it's time to go 🤷‍♂️ due to swift version changes I don't have time to push a meaningful change
@simen_g Simen Ø. Gjermundsen on x
@CraigGrannell I had a fully functional and original game for kids being removed from sale for this reason just a few hours ago. I have simply not had the time the last month to update it and publish a new version. Stupid decisions.
@adrianhon Adrian Hon on x
Apple want to retain a monopoly on mobile app distribution, yet are awful custodians with little respect for art and culture that doesn't make money https://twitter.com/...
@arclight @arclight on x
Sometimes software is done. I know the World expects growth and change and improvement forever (for free) but sometimes the software is done and it ships and that's the end of the story. ‘Old’ and ‘stable’ are not failure states. On the contrary — they indicate success. https://t…
@colincornaby Colin Cornaby on x
Worth noting Google will do the same thing. (Which reminds me, I need to submit an update to my Android app to reset the clock.) I'm pretty sure what's going on is they are trying to cull apps to limit backwards compatibility. https://twitter.com/...
@shawndoublea Shawn Alexander Allen on x
My first indie game was killed on the app store because of a lapse payment in a developer account. Can't imagine keeping up with this. Imagine an album or movie being pulled because it's old? https://twitter.com/...
@craiggrannell Craig Grannell on x
Apple needs to improve comms with devs as a matter of urgency. Removing a working game that's a few years old. Why? “App improvement system” is not an explanation. And not telling a dev what updates are needed is absurd. Apple needs indies onside, not to alienate them. https://tw…
@stepickford Ste Pickford on x
Our BAFTA nominated mobile game Magnetic Billiards has long gone from the App Store for similar reasons. In our case we couldn't afford the expensive development hardware, and time, required to keep updating the game every time Apple updated their OS and SDKs. Gone forever now. h…
@kerriodos @kerriodos on x
this sucks, but also a mobile app that is 3+ years old is basically unusable by almost the entire market share. you need to update for new iOS versions, which generally requires updating to your engine (likely Unity unless you're a bigger developer, tbh), etc. given that most of …
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
IBM solved the OS problem of app backwards compatibility in 1964, providing a blueprint successfully followed by Unix, DOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and consoles. So it's crazy that 58 years later, Apple has reverted to this model of requiring apps to be continually rebuilt.…
@jamespopstar James Montagna on x
Deleting old apps from the store like this is the most lousy possible action for the preservation of arts and media. Sadly, this impacted my work too. Games I developed a few years ago that otherwise function fine on current devices are no longer available for no good reason. 👎 h…
@sorrelish @sorrelish on x
I get so mad about this. Some of my favourite games just gone because they weren't being updated. I get that the OS changes and that maybe needs updates but surely that's just paying someone for a couple of days work a year? I watch enough goddamn ads 👀 https://twitter.com/...
@lithohedron @lithohedron on x
This isn't unique to Apple or app stores, but I'll just say that I have a 10 year old windows desktop app that I pulled from Git yesterday and it complied and ran without errors. It really doesn't have to be like this. https://twitter.com/...
@hihidanni @hihidanni on x
Apple's fundamental misunderstanding of games as a “service” instead of something more permanent like a book, movie, or music album, is problematic for small developers and archivists, but I didn't know it was *this* bad https://twitter.com/...
@ryansilberman Ryan Silberman on x
This is why lots of games disappear from app stores over time, and why I don't even bother with publishing to Google Play anymore Apple and Google don't care about just letting apps exist. Developers always have to keep working to ensure they still have their spot on the market h…
@adamkonig Adam Konig👾 on x
Jumping on this train because I just had one of my games removed for this. Also had to dig up incredibly old code for Pingus to keep it up. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@jackal27 Jordan Starkweather on x
Digital storefronts only see the games that populate them as their products, and as long as they have enough items to fill out what they see as an attractive library, they are more than happy to throw the actual creators under the bus. We are seeing more and more of this. https:/…
@fourmilab John Walker on x
Apple doesn't understand the concept of software ever being “done”. I have 30 year old C code that works without modification and is in production today. https://twitter.com/...
@baconbrix @baconbrix on x
Web: your free project exists forever Apple: the project you pay $100 a year to keep in the store will be removed if you don't upgrade through multiple breaking changes every few years https://twitter.com/...
@seanosullivanuk Sean O'Sullivan on x
This happened to me a few months ago. I made a few iMessage sticker apps and finished everything I intended to add. They hadn't lost any functionality, I just had no new content for them; and yet I had to resubmit each one as-is, bar the version number, to keep them available! ht…
@stopskeletons @stopskeletons on x
An absolute tragedy. Apple is one of the worlds leading video games publishers, by virtue of them owning the App Store. And they simply have zero internet in preservation or backwards compatibility. They've killed thousands of games wantonly and they will kill thousands more. htt…
@simonw Simon Willison on x
This is such a bizarre policy decision by Apple. Not every app (especially games!) should expect to be actively maintained https://twitter.com/...
@cathrynsymons Cathryn Symons on x
Typical @Apple, a sort of forced obsolescence. It would make sense if the game hadn't been downloaded in 5 years, but not this. They'd probably remove classics books too if they could. https://twitter.com/...
@mattbirchler Matt Birchler on x
I'm sorry, but unless there's something dire about this game, this is inexcusable. Not all useful software, especially games, are actively developed, and if 🍎 insists on being the only way to load apps onto their devices, they're going to have to host millions of apps like this h…

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