Microsoft, for all its faults, is much better than Apple or Google here.
Businesses take planning and strategy, and these things lead to drop-everything fires.
Economies rely on stability.
> This requirement applies to all app submissions starting January 31, 2022.
Unsure if this means new apps, or includes updates to existing apps. But I bet there'll be a bit more of a grace period if you don't have a new update to push.
if you provide a good and easy sign in functionality from your app, through native UI and the like, then you should be able to provide the same functionality for deleting that same account. That is at least what we have recommended one of our clients, but that client is also a public transport company, so they can't afford to be in gray area where the app is either rejected or taken down.
Details were very vague at the time and now we know when it will actually start being enforced, but overall it’s more like half a year notice.
However, in this case, they have ended up giving you 6 months and a courtesy reminder.
If you aren’t interested in maintaining your app annually, don’t publish apps on Apple’s store.
Whether or not their level of notice is enough, they’ve been consistent for years in this practice of 3 months notice for significant and breaking changes, and they seem comfortable compelling annual updates from developers. I would not expect them to care that 3 months is difficult in your circumstances, as they assume you’re prepared to maintain your app and proactively keep up with policy changes over time. It sounds like you did not attend to this year’s policy updates and may well have been out of compliance for months now. Fortunately, they offered a grace period rather than just refusing your next bugfix update. Lucky you!
(I am not sympathetic to your situation, because as a user of apps, I am exhausted of crappy apps and bottom-of-the-barrel behaviors from developers. I understand that others may feel otherwise, and that’s fine too, just as long as those feelings do not get in the way of being a responsive app developer.)
But I don't think it's particularly hostile. I think it's just that their focus on user experience requires them to accept the punishing annual cycle for developers.
> You have to be crazy to stake your company on apple's goodwill at this point
My company has an app on the app store. We do a few hundred million dollars in sales via the app. Are we crazy?
Apps are just a single frontend to a larger system, and Apple thinks they can dictate the workings of that entire system just because you want to let users access your system from an Apple device. It's bonkers.
Imagine microsoft going: "Microsoft edge will refuse to render your website unless there is a "delete account button". How would that make you feel?
That's exactly what I do. I avoid the app stores like the plaque.
> (I am not sympathetic to your situation, because as a user of apps, I am exhausted of crappy apps and bottom-of-the-barrel behaviors from developers. I understand that others may feel otherwise, and that’s fine too, just as long as those feelings do not get in the way of being a responsive app developer.)
I think the word here is 'entitled.' There are a few different groups here:
- Bottom-of-the-barrel scammers, whom I have no sympathy to
- Little kids and amateurs, who might want to put something out and move on
- Graduate students and research projects
- Little not-for-profits
- Internal-use small businesses and enterprise apps, where a they might be developed once and forgotten about for decades (yes, plural)
In my case, I don't need to have an app on the app store, and I don't care for Apple's behavior, so I don't have an app there. That hurts Apple (and you, if you're an iPhone user) more than it does me.
You're also confusing strictness with timelines. I'm all for super-strict policies. Just with:
- Backwards compatibility (e.g. grandfathering) of older apps
- Plenty of notice
I can’t imagine account deletion is straightforward for most of the implementation, even just from a legal standpoint when money changing hands is involved.
I think it’s a complicated enough issue that it should be tackled from the start (which is usually the case) and kept track of as the product/service evolves.