Following Flappy Bird’s removal from the App Store, Apple is now reportedly rejecting third-party applications that have ‘flappy’ in their title. One developer has found his app rejected during the iTunes authorisation process because it’s attempted to “leverage a popular app”.
Apple is obviously referring to Flappy Bird, which raked in $50,000 in daily ad revenue and got removed by its developer Dong Nguyen after the game, in his own words, has ”become an addictive product”. Other developers are reporting their apps are being removed over branding issues as well…
Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:
Word has it that both Apple and Google are now rejecting games that have the word “flappy” in their title.The iPhone maker reportedly told Vancouver-based game designer Ken Carpenter of Mind Juice Media that his app called ‘Flappy Dragon’ was in violation of a clause in the App Store Review Guidelines that covers apps which contain “false, fraudulent or misleading representations will be rejected”.
“We found that your app, and/or its metadata, contains content that could be misleading to users, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines,” Apple told the developer. “We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app”.
In response to Apple’s objection, Carpenter says he will be resubmitting Flappy Dragon with a new title, Derpy Dragon.
He also got yanked from Google’s Play store, too!
“The first time I assumed it was because I included a phrase about ‘Flappy Dragon’ being the best flapping game to play now that ‘Flappy Bird’ is dead,” Carpenter says. “My app was originally published with no issue and was online and searchable for a few hours”.
The report notes that other developers are seeing their ‘flappy’ apps removed from both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store. The App Store charts are currently dominated by Flappy Bird clones, though that should change soon once developers start changing their app names in response to Apple’s moves.
And who can blame Apple?
The proliferation of Flappy Bird clones is definitely getting out of hand and causing some consumer confusion.
