• Apple rejects Hey calendar app for not allowing non-paying users to do anything within the app.
• Hey had previously faced a similar rejection from Apple for its original iOS app four years ago.
• Hey plans to fight Apple’s decision, but the specific approach is not yet known.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But roughly 72 hours after the premium email service Hey announced its latest feature — an integrated calendar — co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson received some unwelcome news from Apple: it was rejecting a standalone iOS app for Hey Calendar, because non-paying users couldn’t do anything when they opened the app up.
The controversial rule has a ton of gray areas and carve-outs (i.e. reader apps like Spotify and Kindle get an exception) and is the subject of antitrust fights in multiple countries.
Close to four years ago, the company rejected Hey’s original iOS app for its email service for the exact same reason.
Same bullying tactics as last time: Push delicate rejections to a call with a first-name-only person who’ll softly inform you it’s your wallet or your kneecaps,” wrote Hansson in a post on X.
“After spending 19 days to review our submission, causing us to miss a long-planned January 2nd launch date, Apple rejected our stand-alone free companion app ‘because it doesn’t do anything’.
As Hansson details in an X post, Hey plans to fight Apple’s decision — though he didn’t specify what route they will be taking.
The original article contains 512 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!