The new year was supposed to start with a brand new calendar app. But about 72 hours after premium messaging service Hey announced its latest feature — a built-in calendar — co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson received bad news from Apple: It was rejecting a standalone iOS app for Hey Calendar, because non-paying users could not. I didn’t do anything when they opened the app.
New users can’t sign up for Hey Calendar directly on the app – Basecamp, which makes Hey, requires users to sign up first through a browser. Apple’s App Store rules require most paid services to offer users the option to pay and sign up through the app, guaranteeing the company a cut of up to 30%. The controversial rule has a ton of gray areas and exclusions (i.e. reading apps like Spotify and Kindle get an exception) and is the subject of antitrust fights in several countries.
But as Hansson detailed on and in a later blog post he found Apple’s rejection insulting for another reason. Nearly four years ago, the company rejected Hey’s original iOS app for its messaging service for the exact same reason. “Apple just called us to let us know that it is rejecting the HEY Calendar app from the App Store (in its current form). Same intimidation tactics as last time: push delicate refusals into a call with a person using only their first name who will gently inform you that it’s your wallet or your kneecaps,” Hansson wrote in an article on X.
The outcome of the 2020 fight actually worked in Hey’s favor. After days of back-and-forth between Apple’s App Store Review Board and Basecamp, the Hey team agreed to a rather creative solution suggested by Apple exec Phil Schiller. Hey would offer a free option for the iOS app, allowing new users to sign up directly. But the company had a slight change: users who signed up through the iOS app got a free temporary random email address that worked for 14 days, after which they had to pay for the upgrade. Currently, Hey email users can only pay for an account through the browser.
Following the saga with Hey, Apple ruled out its App Store rules that stipulated that free apps that complement certain types of paid web services were not must have an in-app payment mechanism. But, as Hansson mentions on email.
“After spending 19 days reviewing our submission, causing us to miss our long-planned January 2 launch date, Apple rejected our free, standalone companion app ‘because it doesn’t do anything’ . This is because users must log in with an existing account to use the feature,” Hansson wrote in the blog post.
As Hansson details in an article The edge has contacted Hey and Apple for comment.
