Apple Updates App Store Rules: No New Apps in Saturated Categories, Threat of Removal for Existing Ones

In conjunction with WWDC 26, Apple updated the App Store guidelines with changes that tighten admission and retention criteria for entire app categories, extend developers' responsibilities for user-generated content, and explicitly prohibit certain uses of Live Activities.

The most significant change concerns section 4.3(b), whose text has been clarified and expanded with new explicit examples. In already saturated categories such as dating apps, flashlights, sound effects, wallpapers, simple timers, and fortune telling, Apple will no longer accept new submissions unless they offer a significantly different or improved experience. This is not just a filter on new apps: those already present risk removal if they are not updated, improved, or do not attract new users.

The guidelines explicitly cite mediocre, low-quality, or poorly developed apps as examples, mentioning titles like Karma Sutra drinking games, flatulence simulators, and burping apps. For those who continue to submit this type of applications, the penalty is direct: repeated submissions can lead to removal from the Apple Developer program.

Section 1.2 adds a paragraph about developers' responsibilities in removing content that violates the guidelines, including pornographic material. Section 4.5.3 introduces an explicit prohibition: Live Activities cannot be used for spam, phishing, or sending unsolicited messages.

The context for this crackdown emerges from data shared during the June 2026 WWDC. Tim Cook stated that developers submit more than 1,000 apps per hour to the App Store. The Information had already reported an 84% increase in new apps in recent months.

Apple clarified that its review team processes 90% of submissions within 48 hours, with an average time of 1.5 days; in the last 12 weeks, it has processed over 200,000 apps per week. To manage these volumes, the company increasingly relies on artificial intelligence tools to support the process, while maintaining mandatory human review for every app.