Lazy iOS app developers better watch out.
The purge is coming.
Apple sent registered developers a notice today that it plans to clean the App Store of crummy apps starting on September 7th. The review team will evaluate apps in every single category to ensure they meet Apple’s quality standards of being “functional and up-to-date.”
Hopefully this means all the apps that still haven’t even updated to iOS 7’s UI style will be dropped off at the slaughter house. The purge should be beneficial to developers, too, by increasing visibility to newer apps.
Apple warns devs that any apps that “no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines, or are outdated” will be removed if they’re not updated within 30 days of receiving a warning from Apple.
Apps that crash on launch will be removed immediately. Apple is even taking aim at apps with long names by limiting them to 50 characters to improve search. For more details on the process, check out Apple’s support page.