It’s been just over a week since Flappy Bird’s creator pulled his game and sent it off to App Store heaven hell. Since then, the App Store charts have been FILLED with recreations of the popular game, often even including the word “Flappy” in the title for good measure.
Apple’s apparently had enough of this Flappy nonsense and has begun to crackdown on how the word is being used in the App Store. Certain developers have stated that apps submitted including the word “Flappy” are being rejected by Apple, including John Carpenter, who says he tried to submit the app “Flappy Dragon”.
Apple rejected Carpenter’s request, listing these App Store Review Guidelines as reasons why:
Reasons:
22.2: Apps that contain false, fraudulent or misleading representations will be rejected
22.2
We found that your app, and/or its metadata, contains content that could be misleading to users, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app.
It also seems that Apple may be forcing apps already on the App Store that contain the word “Flappy” to go and change their names, or perhaps developers are doing it out of fear of being removed from the store. The popular “Flappy Bee” app, for example, recently changed its name to “Jumpy Bee”.
Google is reportedly doing all of the same things on its Google Play store. Apps submitted with “Flappy” in the title are being denied with the simple explanation that they are “spam”.
Sorry developers. You’re going to have flappin’ think of some motherflappin’ new words.
