It’s been more than 8 years since Apple launched the App Store. Developers have uploaded more than 2 million apps since 2008… and some of them are woefully out of date.
So Apple has announced plans to start cleaning up.
Starting September 7th, the company plans to review and remove apps that are outdated, don’t work properly anymore, or don’t comply with current guidelines (even if they were fine when they were originally submitted to the App Store).
For the most part, Apple will contact developers to give them 30 days to fix problems before an app is removed. But any apps that crash every time they launch will be removed. Odds are most users won’t miss them… and most developers who haven’t bothered to fix the bugs won’t care much either.
In addition to removing broken or outdated apps, Apple has also announced that it will now limit app names to 50 characters to prevent developers from trying to game the App Store’s search function by using extraordinarily long names.
Worried that you’ll lose access to a favorite, but discontinued app? If you’re already using an app that’s removed, you’ll be able to continue using it.
All told, this seems like the kind of improvement that’s probably going to make the App Store easier to navigate… but which will invariably annoy a small number of developers and users of old apps.
via 9to5Mac
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