Two for Paul developers have been given the green light to promote mask-wearing with stickerpack apps for iOS, previously denied by Apple Pal after it was suggested that they were “inappropriately referring to the COVID-19 epidemic.”
Here’s how the story began:
The same was denied. Our stickers said “Wear a mask”, “Wash your hands”. Approved when we removed the text but cap the sticker. pic.twitter.com/cFZABwwY8A
– Mark Johnson (MarkJannett) November 8, 2020
How can a masked friendly sticker be an inappropriate reference to COVID-19, especially when Apple has its own masked emoji? That was the question in my mind, so I reached out to Apple Pal yesterday.
Apple Play responded this morning Only The company has no rules about masked stickers, but both of these examples are fairly accurate – and both developers have since confirmed that Apple Play has approved their apps.
Apple immediately called for clarification. Said no problem, content is valid. The mask and hand wash depiction in our application Emoji Me Animated Faces is good. The policy is intended for applications that are marketed as COVID applications.
– Mark Johnson (MarkJannett) November 10, 2020
It’s not clear why they were initially denied, but Apple Paul says only medical institutions and official health agencies have been careful to allow “COVID-19” to be mentioned in their application names or metadata. May try to show apps more in search). Both Apple Pal and Google have policies designed to ensure that COVID-19 points to search applications that can really help protect your own.
These special apps are * In case you are curious, ‘Shuff Kiss’ and Emoji Me Animated Faces Kids apps.
