OneZero

OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the…

Follow publication

Member-only story

Apple Is Trying to Kill Web Technology

Owen Williams
OneZero
Published in
4 min readNov 7, 2019

Credit: SOPA Images/Getty Images

TThe programming languages used to build the web often find their way into apps, too. That’s largely due to software that allows developers to “reuse” the code they write for the web in products they build to run on operating systems like Linux, Android, Windows, and macOS.

But Apple has a reason not to like this recycling of web technology. It wants its Mac App Store to be filled with apps that you can’t find anywhere else, not apps that are available on every platform. With a recent policy change, the company has made it a little more difficult for developers to submit apps containing web code.

The Mac App Store has quietly started rejecting apps made with a popular tool called Electron that allows developers to base all of their apps on the web-based code. Some of the most popular apps in the App Store, like Slack, Spotify, Discord, and WhatsApp, fall into this category.

In a discussion on the programming community Github, several developers say rejections for apps that they built using Electron — which would were approved in the past — came with an explanation that these apps “attempt to…

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

OneZero
OneZero

Published in OneZero

OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the future. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Owen Williams
Owen Williams

Written by Owen Williams

Fascinated by how code and design is shaping the world. I write about the why behind tech news. Design Manager in Tech. https://twitter.com/ow

Responses (102)

Write a response

Web technology should stay at web. You want submit an app? Make an effort to write a native app. We don’t want your ‘web technology’ parading as desktop app, thank you very much.

Native apps > Electron apps

This is adorable.
“I want to create apps for your platform, but I don’t want to spend the time to learn your platform”
wat.