Many apps in the Apple App Store carry their pricing info in the title, which is sometimes convenient. Now it seems that Apple no longer supports this, and hence, it has issued instructions to developers not to use prices or the word “free” in their apps’ titles. If they don’t abide by this new rule, their app will be rejected after being submitted for inclusion in the App Store or Mac Store.
Apps must not include pricing details in title
According to VentureBeat, developers will get a rejection message reading: “Your app’s name, icons, screenshots, or previews to be displayed on the App Store include references to your app’s price, which is not considered a part of these metadata items.”
Thereafter, there are instructions for developers to remove references to the app’s price from “your app’s name, including any references to your app being free or discounted.” Apple has asked developers who want to advertise their pricing info to do so in the app description.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed the changes to VentureBeat but gave no more details on the matter. It must be noted that Google’s Developer Program Policies do not explicitly restrict apps from mentioning their price in the names. Microsoft’s Windows Store Policies are quiet on the matter of pricing details in names and other metadata.
Apple continues to clean up App Store
This can be seen as one more step from Apple to clean up the App Store. In September, the company began the process of cleaning up the App Store by removing the apps it found either problematic or abandoned. The process was taken too seriously, and it took just one month for the company to remove 50,000 applications (a significant rise of 238% in the average number of apps removed in a month), notes 9to5Mac.
With this latest naming policy, which started last month, the iPhone maker has decided to flat-out reject apps with pricing details in the title. It did discourage such practices in the past but never chose to reject apps for this reason. Previously, the company tried to discourage such practices via its Developer Guide for iTunes Connect and its overview of App Store product pages.
The word “free” exists in the titles of numerous apps in the App Store. Thus, the new naming policy will definitely have a major impact on the app submission process going forward. But whether apps with the word “free” already a part of their title will be required to rename them is not known for now.
