In yet another example of Apple’s increasingly strained relationship with developers, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg tweeted that the free WordPress app on iOS had not seen any updates a while ago because “we were locked out by the App Store. ” According to his tweet, there was no way for updates to release updates or bug fixes until it went to a purchase in-app support (which Apple would get a cut from) for its WordPress.com plans.
I am a big believer in the sanctity of licenses. (Open source depends on licenses and copyrights.) We agreed to this license when we signed up for (and stayed in) the app store, so we’ll follow and follow the rules. Not looking to smoke it, therefore doing what they asked us to do.
– Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) 21 August 2020
While the app does not feature the purchase of those plans, he later said “There are a few connected ways you can get to our web app from previews, documentation, etc. We have offered to block based on server-side of user agent, but that was not considered enough. ”It is unclear why simply blocking this option was not enough for Apple, but the company decided that this falls under the payment part of their developer agreement.
