With a world gone mad with “flappy” fever, it appears that Apple has had enough. There have been grumblings from several developers that Apple is rejecting new apps that attempt to leverage the popularity of Flappy Bird for app store visibility and rankings.
Following the Flappy Bird flap, I decided to shift gears on #OpReskin and focus on a reskinned version of the world’s most buzzed about app instead of the whack-a-mole app I had started on. I found a great Flappy Bird-style app source code over on Chupamobile which came with a free code to a Udemy course that guides you through the process of setting up your ad networks and reskinning the app.
The course which comes with the source code I purchased.
The author of the course, Yohann Taieb, warned course takers about Apple’s new directive to reject apps with too much “flappy” business in the title and meta data.
From an Apple Technician:
Thank you for your response. We understand that the original app “Flappy Bird” is no longer on the App Store. However its still not appropriate to leverage the popularity of the original game to mislead consumers into believing that your is app is associated with the Flappy Bird app previously on the App Store which does not fall in compliance with the 22.2 guidelines. It would be appropriate to revise all of the content within the app and marketing text that leverages the app “Flappy Bird” to fall in compliance with the 22.2 guidelines.
22.2
We still 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.
– The app has a misleading elements in the app name, splash screen, keywords and marketing text leveraging the app “Flappy Bird”.
It would be appropriate to remove any content related to third party apps associated with “Flappy Bird”.
If your iTunes Connect Application State is Rejected, a new binary will be required. Make the desired metadata changes when you upload the new binary.
See here for more info on flappy clone rejections
I had originally intended to leverage the popularity of Flappy Bird by adding “flappy” as part of the title of my app. Clearly, this was something thousands of people were also doing when submitting their apps, considering the benefits of getting visibility for the app store’s current most searched for keyword. It’s time to shift gears a little. Let’s see how it goes.
Curiously, 5 of the top 6 free apps are outright Flappy Bird clones with the words “flappy” clearly in the title, keywords and description. It seems that if you were able to get your app into the app store before the onslaught of clones, you get to reap the rewards (and boy are they feasting!)
No word yet on whether Apple will take any action to remove these games from the app store for failing to abide by their guidelines.
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Photo by kalexanderson
Appme says
So if your app doesn’t contain the word “flappy” but has similar game play, will it be rejected?
Shane K. says
From my understanding, Apple doesn’t reject apps that have similar game play. If they did, it would be a very tough line to draw because what’s to say the hundreds of photo apps out there aren’t Instagram clones and so forth?
Just avoid using “flappy” in your game title, description, keywords and I think you should be fine.
Appme says
By the way, the link to read more info on the rejections doesn’t work. Thanks.
Shane K. says
Oops, I just realized I think you need to be logged into Udemy and possibly a course taker to see the link. Thanks for the heads up.
Sean Nam says
Anyone know how much these clones are making?
Shane K. says
The top ranking clones are probably making the equivalent to what Flappy Bird was making at its height which was estimated to be $50k a day from ads.
I am speaking specifically on the ones that are ranked in the Top 5 of Free Games. Other clones are likely getting lost now, so don’t think just launching a Flappy Bird clone at this point will become a cash cow.
Sean Nam says
Thanks.
I wish there was a way to know for sure! (offtopic but…) It just seems like revenue of other apps is hard to access (and for good reason but still…)
Ahsan Khan says
Hi Shane!
I’m new in IPhone app developing and planning to buy an Apple developer account. Just want to say that like Google play Developer account, Apple also terminate our Developer account after some app rejections? Or not