The new year was supposed to start with a brand new calendar app. But about 72 hours after premium email service Hey announced its latest feature, an integrated calendar, co-founder David Heinemeyer Hansson said he received some unwelcome news from Apple. That was Apple rejecting a standalone iOS app for the Hey calendar. When I opened the app it did nothing.
New users cannot sign up for Hey Calendar directly on the app. At Basecamp, the company behind Hey, users first sign up through a browser. Apple’s App Store rules require most paid services to offer users the ability to pay and sign up through their apps, guaranteeing the company up to a 30% discount. . This controversial rule has many gray areas and carve-outs (i.e. reader apps like Spotify and Kindle are exempt) and is the subject of antitrust battles in multiple countries.
However, as detailed by Hanson, on X And in a subsequent blog post, he said Apple’s refusal was insulting for another reason. Nearly four years ago, the company rejected Hey’s original iOS app for email service for the exact same reason. “Apple called me and told me they are rejecting the HEY Calendar app (in its current form) from the App Store. Same bullying tactics as last time: Subtle rejection of calls with first name only people. It gently tells you it’s your wallet or your kneecap,” Hanson wrote in a post to X.
In fact, the outcome of the 2020 fight was in Haye’s favor. After several days of back and forth between Apple’s App Store Review Board and Basecamp, the Hey team agreed to a rather creative solution proposed by Apple executive Phil Schiller. Hey he plans to offer a free option for the iOS app and allow new users to sign up directly. However, the company had a little trick up its sleeve. Users who signed up via the iOS app were given a free, temporarily randomized email address valid for 14 days, but then had to pay to upgrade. Currently, Hey Mail users can only pay for their accounts through their browser.
In response to the Hey uproar, Apple changed its App Store rules to ban free companion apps to certain types of paid web services. do not have An in-app payment mechanism is required. But as Hanson notes in his X, his Calendar app is not listed on the list of services that Apple currently exempts. This includes VOIP, cloud storage, web hosting, and of course email.
After spending 19 days reviewing the application and missing its long-planned January 2 release date, Apple rejected the standalone free companion app “on the grounds that it would do nothing.” “This is because users must log in with an existing account to use this feature,” Hanson wrote in a blog post.
As Hansson detailed in his X post, Hey intends to resist Apple’s decision, but hasn’t made clear what route Apple will take. The Verge Both Hey and Apple have been contacted for comment.