If you’ve been keeping tabs on new email apps, you’ve probably noticed a new one from the developers behind the popular Basecamp called “HEY”. While things started off well, the devs have run into some choppy water since the app’s official debut.
Heyis already getting praised for its usefulness and fresh ideas in the email space, but it turns out that the app’s standard subscription option is what’s ruffling feathers at Apple. More specifically, the reviewers looking over app submissions for theApp Store. According to a new report fromProtocol, the developers behind the email app ran afoul of Apple’s rule set for the digital storefront due to the subscription.
According to the devs behind the app, the submission of the first version went without a hitch. It was ready to go, available in the App Store, and the subscription was just fine. However, when lead Basecamp developer Zach Waugh tried to submit an updated version of the app (version 1.0.1), the App Store reviewers rejected the app. And when Waugh tried again, with version 1.0.2 this time, App Store reviewers rejected the app again.
The reason? Rule 3.1.1: if developers want to let users buy things within the app directly, they need to use Apple’s payment system.
The Apple reviewer said he was calling because the new app hadn’t resolved the issue with rule 3.1.1. The issue had been escalated internally, and Apple had determined it was a valid rejection — the only way to move forward would be to implement Apple’s payments system. And not only that: Waugh was told that Apple would like a commitment and a timeline for implementing the payment system, or Apple might be forced to remove Hey from the App Store entirely.
And then Apple followed up with a bit more information, but nothing that made the process easier for the developers:
If you think that Basecamp is going to back down from this, you’d be wrong. In fact, they’re ready to go in the complete opposite direction. Heinemeier Hansson, a partner at Basecamp, says that the company is ready to “spend every dollar that we have or ever make” to “burn this down” —thisbeing Apple’s cut of revenue from apps sold in its digital storefront.
As it stands right now, Hey is still available in the App Store. And it sounds like Apple could be in for a fight if the review process continues to flag the new email app. Or, even worse, pulls it entirely.
What do you make of this? Apple’s app reviewers just overreacting and over reaching? Or is the company in the right here?
