GoKawiilApple is taking a tough stance on vibe-coding apps as the company is blocking updates or removing those apps from the App Store. Affected apps include Replit, Vibecode, and Anything. While Replit and Vibecode’s updates were paused, Anything’s app was removed twice. The company is now looking for new ways, like offering a desktop version of its service, to let users build apps for mobile devices.
Anything’s co-founder, Dhruv Amin, said in a conversation with TechCrunch that Apple removed its app on March 26. Since then, the company has been unable to get its app approved, despite a period where there was a brief reinstatement.
“It’s been a long saga. We built a mobile app primarily to let our users who are building iOS apps preview their own app on their own device while developing it. [We] had no problems through December. Post December, we and everyone else in the category started getting our updates blocked,” Amin told TechCrunch.
Amin noted that Apple told the company that the app was restricted or removed because of its developer agreement clause 2.5.2, which prevents apps from downloading, installing, or executing code.
“The app markets itself as a mobile app builder for iPhone and advertises making native iOS apps with features like 1-tap App Store submissions, code export, and full source code editing,” Apple told the company, according to a screenshot of an email shared by Anything on X.
Guideline 2.5.2 – Gatekeeping – Vibes denied
we haven't talked about this publicly
for months we tried to resolve it privately with emails, calls, appeals, and four technical rewrites to comply with whatever Apple wanted
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