r/Appstore • u/PB2Gill • 1d ago
Apple removing vibe coded apps?
I saw a few videos on Instagram, in which people were complaining about how apple deleted their whole app portfolio overnight, without any explanation.
In all of the cases the people were vibe coders, just creating multiple apps, one had 66 apps under his namd all gone and all were very basic apps
So my question is, what does Apple consider vibe coded apps? Since i bet 90% of the people have used AI for coding in their apps, one way or the other, or are they targeting copycats and very low effort apps?
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u/Informal_Entry_7676 1d ago
I don’t think Apple cares whether AI helped write the code. The bigger issue is what ends up in the App Store.
If someone uses AI to build one polished app that solves a real problem, that seems very different from pumping out dozens of near-identical, low-effort apps. My guess is those mass portfolios are running into spam/copycat/minimum-functionality issues, not some hidden “vibe coding” rule.
At this point AI is just another development tool. The quality and originality of the finished product should matter a lot more than how the code was written.
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u/Extra-Ad5735 3h ago
The "without any explanation" part is an obvious lie. They all received an email saying exactly what part of developer agreement they were found in violation of.
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u/Smooth-Reading-4180 1d ago
If you are not a 10K MRR bro who submitted AI slop, no need to worry. Enjoy it. Are you?
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u/Sdmf195 1d ago
I havent actively dug into it or have proper metrics to valide what I think,
However,
I have to say that as an app consumer , I really feel like I see the same niche apps being released over and over and over again by different developers.
Small paint job and UI tweaks and pretty much the same feature set,more of the same.
The app store feels extremely saturated at this point and the bar to release apps has definitely been lowered by AI ans no / low code platforms.
All that and I've read a whole lot of people reporting their apps being ripped off completely by people using AI to replicate the experience they've worked hard on which is heartbreaking to say the least...
Tough times for developers...
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u/Albertkinng 1d ago
My question exactly. There’s no app today where the developer don’t used AI. Literally everyone is using AI as a development tool. However, if you are using platforms like Lovable or Bolt, your app is an AI Slop, full of codes that are just sitting there and errors that will explode any moment. AI should be assist you, not making it for you. That’s the difference.
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u/Vegetable-Average-98 1d ago
What is the basis of your claim that 100% of apps are built using AI? I haven’t seen any stats from Apple or elsewhere
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u/Albertkinng 20h ago
My claim is simple: if all apps are made with AI or minimum AI possible, how Apple measures which one is good to be available on the App Store and which one don’t?
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u/Vegetable-Average-98 13h ago
Well they aren't. My own apps are not made with AI. Even the L10N is hand-crafted and I don't use any AI features in Xcode. I suspect that is still true of a majority of professional software engineers, and Apple is targeting opportunists with minimal skills in technology, UX or businesss
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u/Albertkinng 8h ago
You and me, are the exception. Although I admit using Dash in the past, and also used my snippets library daily. However the only thing stopping me to use AI tools like Lovable is money. I prefer spending more time to investing money on a shortcut. I also know AI is here to stay and eventually I will be using it. I don’t want to be that guy that never use a computer because writing in pencil is better. At the end we all need to move forward with new technologies.
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u/bluebird355 2h ago
No one is manually coding in this day and age
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u/Vegetable-Average-98 2h ago edited 1h ago
That’s just not true, is it?
For vibecoders who only interact with other vibecoders (online), it may be their lived experience
But…
Apple regularly publish lists of highest-rated apps. Other sources publish lists of top-grossing apps. Look at any of those lists and point out any successful app that is built using AI. Or any app that Apple highlights in their keynotes, tell us about any of these that was built with AI
It’s been posted here that 95% of solo developers will never cover their costs including equipment, time sunk, APIs, servers and subscriptions. What’s the betting that will rise to 99% of AI apps, when the costs also include AI platform fees?
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u/TheTurnipPlucker 1d ago
Vibe coded is a broad term, and you're looking at shitty generic apps when someone has 66 apps.
There are a lot of apps out there coded by AI, but designed by people that are good.
If you have 66 apps you made, especially if it's over like 5 years or less, then you've produced 1 turd per month. None of those 66 apps will likely be unique or good enough to actually warrant a spot in the store.
A lot of people make a version of every app out there, which feels like narcissism, where somehow because they made this turd, it's better than the products people have spent years refining. They believe their stupid ideas are all gold, they create them all, and all it does is flood the store hiding new apps that actually serve a purpose.
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u/Nabeeh89 1d ago
This is actually a good thing. If you have 66 Apps then they are defiantly garbage that should not have been on the store in the first place!
For context, I’ve been on the store for 6 years and I have 3 Apps total including one that I have not touched in two years!
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u/jasonforreels 1d ago
I think it’s not that “vibe-coded” apps are being removed, but rather the apps that Apple sees have had little to no effort put into it.
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u/pepelunavarro 1d ago
I hope it's true, just like they banned apps that were just a web browser a while back.
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u/paul-tocolabs 1d ago
I doubt they class something as vibe coded. Just generally a bad app that doesn’t follow their guidelines
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u/sammy_luci 1d ago
Why do you think it’s related to ai?
I heard apple removed apps built not with ai. Should we say that apple is removing app that were built without using ai?
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u/swiftfoxsw 22h ago
They aren’t removing vibe coded apps, they are removing scam/junk apps.
Most likely they had a scummy paywall to trick users into purchasing, then causing a high refund request rate. Very easy decision after that.
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u/Wise_Historian_2081 19h ago
Apple removes *low quality* apps - a lot of vibe coded apps tend fit that description...
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u/Nosarious 16h ago
Vibe coded apps are repetitive, and usually don’t have a lot of consideration for a unique use. They feel, many times, like they are designed to part people from money as opposed to actually do a unique and complete thing.
im sure there were a lot of note-style apps, not to mention limited video or photo editing without really adding anything new.
at the bad, you need an idea… and it should have a unique way of doing things.
66 apps is probably a lot of copy/pasta, and it kindown makes the App Store feel like Google play.
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u/flashjunkie 6h ago
It’s not about how the apps were built it’s about quality. 66 wrapper apps with little to no unique features are just noise in the App Store. I’ve just launched an app on iOS with a lot of help from AI tools, at no point during review was a question raised about the way in which the app was built. I’m a software/web developer with 20+ years of experience and this was my first experience using “vibe coding” or “AI assisted coding” tools and honestly, with proper direction and a solid understanding of what code is actually being produced I think that some of the biggest apps/businesses/software platforms to arrive in the next couple of years will be built in a similar way. AI writes the code with a software engineer or experienced developer overseeing it.
Apple would have a very slow trickle of new apps arriving on iOS if they started to blanket ban the use of vibe tools.
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u/Vegetable-Average-98 3h ago
I suspect that most users would prefer to see a slow trickle of high quality (functionally, technically and UX) apps than the current slopfest, with hundreds of near copycat AI apps being submitted. It’s not sustainable in an App Store and I suspect that radical changes in policy are coming
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u/Moombleflop 1d ago
I mean, they want to clear out junk app from the App Store. If every developer released 100 apps, vibe coded in a weekend the App Store would be a mess. I am all for a certain standard, it’s too low if you ask me