Apple needs to start helping developers and not allow scammers to thrive
Kevin Archer is an indie developer who makes Authenticator App by 2Stable, a feature-rich, premium and suitably named take on, well, an authenticator app. There are of course other, similar, apps on the App Store. But he today revealed just how similar.
On Twitter, he claimed another developer lifted text from his app (including a section on Apple Watch support, despite the other app not supporting Apple’s wearable). When testing the app, Archer found a review request during onboarding, which doesn’t appear to align with Apple guidelines. And, naturally, there’s a weekly IAP subscription, because of course there is.
That’s all bad enough, but the dodgy app popped up a second time, with a different icon. The linked thread outlines how the app is not only a straight clone of the other scammy app (right down to what appears to be integrated stock art), but also directly lifts copy and functionality from Archer’s app.
On Twitter, Archer rightly said he didn’t understand how these apps pass review with features that don’t work, a copied design and a weekly subscription. He added that every day, indie devs like him get “apps rejected for silly things”, while these scammy apps sneak through.
It’s reasonable to argue Apple cannot deal with a flood of daily apps to review that might circumvent copyright – and that certain things aren’t liable to such protections anyway. If someone steals the ideas within an app, tough (broadly). Actual content is another matter, mind. But you might counter by using an argument from Apple itself that the App Store is meant to be better. It’s supposed to be curated. It should be a place where developers thrive, not where they play whac-a-mole with pretenders ripping them off.
Mind you, Archer told me even getting to whac-a-mole stage isn’t easy. Although you might reasonably argue Apple cannot pre-emptively police its store, surely it makes it easy for developers to flag when their apps are ripped off? Archer suggested otherwise: “One of the main issues with the App Store team is that you can’t contact them directly. You can contact developer support, but they are in charge of technical issues and told us on the phone they can’t put us in contact with the App Store team.”
Archer says he’s submitted a report via the App Store’s ‘report a problem’ feature and is hoping for the best. Meanwhile, Apple regularly argues that when devs hit a problem that running to the press won’t solve them. History suggests otherwise; but if Apple really doesn’t want issues to be fixed by bad press, perhaps it should give developers the tools to flag problems more rapidly with those who can actually do something about them – who then should, very swiftly, take action.
Update: MacRumors wrote about the situation yesterday. Apple has since removed both apps from the App Store.
I don’t see how Apple can solve this.
There are literally millions of apps in the App Store. The scope is just too large to curate what they approve, or to provide any kind of meaningful service to developers. Even if they wanted to hire the staff required to do this, where would they find qualified people?
They can’t really automate this. Sure, they can add a “report this app for copyright infringement” button, but that’ll end the same as on YouTube, where similar systems are weaponized against smaller creators, who still can’t talk to a real person at YouTube, and now also have to deal with other companies stealing their revenue using automated systems.
But Apple also can’t decrease the number of apps in the App Store, particularly not the scammy ones, because those are the ones that drive revenue.
Apple dug itself into a deep hole here. It’s a very lucrative hole, so they’re not complaining, but it’s still a hole. The best we can hope for is that legal action forces Apple to allow third-party stores, at which point the people who care about quality products can switch to a store that actually curates the apps it sells.
I think there’s a point where you can justifiably hit apps that clone the entire internal text of another app. That might only force the scammy app to adjust its writing, but it would at least be something.
Hard to know whether third-party stores would help or hinder. On Apple, we’ve only the MAS to look at, but that seems more hampered by Apple itself than anything else.
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