Today I found out an email I wrote to @tim_cook in 2015 was part of the congressional record in the antitrust hearings earlier this month. My email was about App Review gaining too much power (back in 2015!)🧵
For the record I was not contacted by anyone from Congress. I did not reach out to anyone. I did not post to hacker news. I was actually shocked that 1) Tim Cook actually got and read my email and 2) a pretty passionate email that was not meant public consumption was in the wild
Apple removed our popular iOS app which at the time was visited by 750k devices each day. Our app was an app recommendation app that curated the App Store into lists of best apps to download. In late 2014 it was removed from the App Store without warning.
I want it to be clear that story was not unique to me. Apple actually removed our entire category of applications. And although I didn’t know it at the time. The reason they listed was not their true motivations. I only learned this in mid-2019 when hearing from @pbsIdentity
Phillip Shoemaker was the Senior Director of the App Store who was in charge of App Review from 2009 - 2016. Although Apple cited a new rule as the reason they pulled my app, @pbsIdentity explained to me that his team was instructed to remove apps that “drove download volume”
It’s also not like we were flying under the radar and then got discovered.We were invited to all Apple events when new products and software were announced. We got invited to Cupertino to meet the iTunes team to discuss App Store initiatives and were part of the affiliate program
After more than 2 years we were able to get a much different version of the app back in the store. The new version didn’t do the same core functionality. Not only did the time away from Store erode our use base, our new offering was not interesting to users, only to Apple
It’s too late to save our apps and products. But I’d be honored if my experience helps my favorite company make an even better and more fair App Store. I am still rooting for Apple and I believe good things are coming for App Developers and iOS users.
If anyone is interested in reading the original email to Tim Cook that wound up on the Congress website here is a link to what I saw today on @newsycombinator - it contains redacted version of original email news.ycombinator.com/item?id=241893…
Agreed! That is not what we are talking about here. Here we are taking Apple removing it for their own reasons. Not the users best interest. Read the email for more context
This has been discussed a lot recently by major outlets (@benthompson and @gruber) but solely focused on big names. Some people tend to not care about the big guys so I hope our experience will help make a fairer App Store for @dhh @EpicGames @FortniteGame @FacebookGaming etc.
