Apple shares criteria for removing ‘abandoned’ software from App Store after recent pushback

In response to the recent news about software being removed from App Store, Apple has shared its guidelines for how it removes abandoned apps. The company is also reiterating that the practice is not new but instead part of an initiative that started six years ago.

Abandoned apps

The effort started in September 2016 as part of a greater initiative to revitalize the App Store with daily editorial and clearer policy decisions. The company said it would pull software that had been abandoned by developers or just no longer worked. It makes sense to remove software that was not working when it is downloaded on new hardware years ago. However, this has not always been obvious. Nothing stops Apple from pulling apps that still work but just aren’t maintained.

Criteria

Six years after it made a reset of dev relations, Apple continues to learn how to better its relationships with developers. Part of that effort is material in publishing its criteria for how it chooses to remove apps that it considers abandoned.

As part of the App Store Improvements process, developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold — meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period — receive an email notifying them that their app has been identified for possible removal from the App Store.

Emphasizing that the program has been ongoing for years as standard App Store maintenance, Apple shares that it has removed nearly 2. 8 million apps and counting for meeting this criteria. Read more about the policy on Apple’s developer site. Apple says it has revised its page detailing the practice as well for clarity.