Apple Cracking Down On Emoji Apps

Apple’s cracking down on apps that have no other purpose but offering emoji — that cute emoticon character set popular with some text messengers — and are kicking developer’s apps out of the App Store if they do nothing else. The reason? iOS 6 already does emoji.

Here’s the email Apple is sending developers:

We are writing to let you know your app, [redacted], has been removed from the App Store because it is no longer needed to unlock Emoji.

Since iOS 6 now provides Emoji support to all users, your app is no longer in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines

2.12 Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected

If you have questions about the removal of your application, please contact App Review at (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address). Please include the App ID and the name of your application in your email.

Thank you and best regards,

App Review

Doesn’t seem like a huge loss to me, and it seems as if developers of such apps can still have emoji as long as their software has other functionality. What do you think?

• Source Techcrunch

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