10 years ago, it was fashionable to recommend apps to each other, and I always shared it with my friends when I saw an app that was fun or easy to use.
After 10 years, sharing is no longer there, and even occasionally changing phones will find that there is an old app that cannot be found, they may no longer be supported by developers, or they may be removed from the App Store.
According to statista, by the first quarter of 2021, the App Store has about 2.22 million apps, Google Play is as high as 3.48 million, if only domestic as a consideration, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data by the second quarter of 2021, the App Store has 1.36 million apps.
When the number of apps reaches the million level, the main applications that people use are only a fixed number, and how to get the attention of new applications has become one of the top priorities of the app store.
Robert Kabwe, the developer of the free game Motivo, recently received an email from Apple, saying that because the application has not been updated for a long time, it will be removed from the shelves, and the developer has 30 days to update the application and avoid being removed.
The incident quickly fermented on social media such as Twitter and caused controversy, with some arguing that Apple's approach was "one-size-fits-all" and unfair to indie developers, while others thought usability should be the standard.
Robert Kabwe's screenshot of the email does not explicitly state how long, a year, two years, or more "long no update" means?
In fact, Apple has a team dedicated to app review, and there are a series of review requirements for removing apps, including security, usability, etc., and app expiration is only a sub-item in the review process.
How expensive is the app update
Robert Kabwe's indie game Motivo hasn't been updated since March 2019, and several developers like BobBDub (https://twitter.com/BobBDub) have had a similar experience, with Apple asking them to update the app within 30 days or remove it.
It's not a big problem for organizations, but indie developers like Robert Kabwe don't see it that way, because they don't see the cost of updating applications at all, and some applications like games don't need to be updated at all.
Once an independent developer like Robert Kabwe, limited by effort or cost, doesn't have timely updates that lead to app removal, there are fewer apps people can choose from, affecting the diversity of the App Store.
Is the cost of applying updates really that high?
In order to understand this problem, we invited Wang Jiahao, the developer of YaoYao, and Zhou Kaiwen, the developer of 50-tone Origin, to chat together.
For the cost of application development, Wang Jiahao and Zhou Kaiwen both said that the hardware and the annual developer qualification fee of $99 are basically fixed, 2 to 3 years to replace a Mac and some old iPhones, Zhou Kaiwen recently replaced a MacBook Pro of about 20,000 yuan.
Both said that time is the biggest development cost compared to hardware and eligibility costs.
Wang Jiahao said that he has to update YaoYao nearly 50 times a year, and the function update involves more steps, including design, code development, testing and listing, etc., which takes about 1 month, while updates like adapting to new systems and fixing bugs take about 1 week, which accounts for about half of all development time.
For application updates, Wang Jiahao said that mobile application iteration updates are faster, if you do not often use and understand the latest development tools, coupled with the application for a long time without updating the code lead to stale code, update adaptation does take longer.
Apple provides the development tool Xcode on the Mac
Both Zhou Kaiwen and Wang Jiahao believe that Apple forces developers to update in order to ensure the quality of applications, and applications that have not been updated for a long time are likely to have usability problems such as bugs.
Forced developer updates are incentives and spurs, Zhou Kaiwen for this move 2 intuitive examples, such as Apple launched a desktop widget on iOS 14, after the WWDC developer conference, developers generally have about 3 months to adapt to the update, with new features to attract people to download, is conducive to improving revenue, improve the quality of platform applications.
▲ Douban's desktop widget is quite popular
For example, when iPadOS 15 was launched, it provided a more convenient split-screen function, which also needed to be adapted by developers, and people's operations in the application would conform to the logic of the entire system operation, intuitive and predictable.
▲iPadOS multitasking function
The App Store is the only app download channel for the iPhone, so Apple has been relatively strong in terms of operation, developers have to follow the rules to get on the shelves, and the App Store is also the moat of the iPhone experience.
Only by ensuring a high-quality application environment will people be willing to continue to stay in the product ecology built by Apple, and continue to consume for it and promote ecological development.
Apple makes it clear in its App Store Improvement Rules that they establish processes to evaluate apps to remove apps that aren't working as expected, aren't following current review guidelines, or are outdated.
▲ Image from: Apple Developer Platform
But whether delisting is a best practice to improve the quality of the app store, when must be used to warn developers of the takedown, in addition to the App Store, there are many app stores trying other solutions.
How other platforms handle legacy apps
Both Apple and Google hope that developers can update more to match the new features brought by the Android and iOS system updates, and adapt to more new models.
After the Android 12 system was launched, Aifan also received an email from the vivo open platform, prompting updates for the new features of the Android 12 system, such as not updating the platform in time will reduce the resource allocation as a punishment.
▲Image from: 9To5Google
Most of the resources of the app store are content display and search rankings, if the app is not adapted, the app store may reduce the search weight, such as searching for "read" keywords, and the application with high weight ranks higher and gets more downloads.
For developers who want to continue to make money through the app, such software "punishment" is very effective, missing the user is missing the revenue.
Of course, there are some special cases, and some companies that clearly have sufficient development resources will still choose to be unsuitable for the interface configuration requirements of the new system.
▲ Image from: Google
For example, some applications such as Facebook deliberately do not update applications according to the latest system API interface in order to obtain more user data.
Google has previously put forward new requirements for this phenomenon and given a 6-month buffer period.
The Google Play Store requires that the target runtime environment for all new and new apps is at least Android 9.0 system, 28 API interface level, otherwise it will limit the application display or prevent people from installing the corresponding application.
In recent years, people have paid more and more attention to personal data and privacy, which is also reflected in the laws of many countries and regions around the world, as the owner of the app store, Apple and Google have given countermeasures - no update to remove the shelves.
Involving privacy data, search downgrading can not be solved, even if the keyword is lower, but such as the application name of such an accurate search, the platform can not through the reduction of the right not to show the application, especially such a well-known application as Facebook.
The fight against search downgrading and the acquisition of private data have become two ends of the scale, and large applications are likely to give up some downloads for the sake of data and advertising revenue.
Even if a red notice is added to the application download interface to prompt people that the application has not updated the privacy interface, it is not necessarily effective, after all, different people's cognition and understanding are different, and some people will still choose to download after seeing the "privacy" prompt.
In the face of demand and convenience, there are still some people who will choose the former instead of private data.
To protect people, when it comes to serious usability issues such as the misuse of private data, taking down the shelves is the appropriate solution.
Not updating does not mean that it is not easy to use
In the screenshot of the email posted by Robert Kabwe, there is no key information that Apple specifically defines how long it is to "not update" for a long time, if it is an application in the iPhone 4S era, it is impossible to use it without updating it today.
But if it is not updated in two or three years of the application is different, love fan's iOS version in fact, there is no update for more than 1 year, from the usability point of view basically no problem.
The well-known application "Mortise", which has been officially recommended by Apple, has not been updated for more than 4 years, but this does not mean that it is not easy to use and cannot be used.
Stand-alone games, or pure tool applications such as subject books and calculators, there is really no need to continuously update, the content is fixed, and it is not necessary to pursue the various functions of the new system.
If you purely take "long-term non-update" as the removal standard, it is inevitable that there will be a "false block", obviously there is no problem with the use of the app, but it is removed from the shelves because there is no update, especially for independent developers, which has limited energy.
▲ Search sorting is helpful for app downloads
Usability should be the audit standard, it is directly linked to the experience, in the App Store search key, long-term non-updated applications appear in the front row, if the application availability is not good, resulting in flashback, black edges and other issues, should be dealt with.
The user experience is not good, and it is not conducive to the development of the App Store.
The application can be updated frequently is naturally the best, developers can better attract payment, consumers spend money is worth the money, the platform application ecology can continue to develop, so that all three parties can get benefits, in order to stabilize and benign development.
However, this is not suitable for all applications, purely to whether to update as a standard will bring about the problem of misblocking, the low search weight is actually a more secure approach, and the abuse of private data, poor adaptation, black screen flashback and other usability problems of the application, should be reduced.
Usability should be the criterion for judging whether an application should be removed from the shelves.
This matter, as the master of the App Store, Apple is obviously more aware, otherwise it would not insist on using a manual team to continuously improve the app review process.