Two Apple developers have been given the green light to promote wearing the mask through their sticker pack apps for iOS, after receiving an earlier rejection from Apple indicating that they were providing “inappropriate signals to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Here’s how this story began:
He had a similar rejection. Our posters were saying “Wear a mask”, “Wash your hands”. Approved when we removed the text but keep the sticker. pic.twitter.com/cFZABwwY8A
– Mark Johnson (@markjnet) November 8, 2020
How could a friendly, masked poster be an inappropriate sign of COVID-19 in particular When Apple has its own emoji wears the mask? That was the question on my mind, so I contacted Apple yesterday.
This morning, Apple responded with this Not only Does the company have no rules regarding stickers wearing the mask, but both examples are perfectly fine – and both developers have since confirmed that Apple has approved their apps.
Apple called for clarification. He said no problem, the content was approved. It’s okay to photograph masks and wash hands in our Emoji Me Animated Faces app. The policy targets apps marketed as COVID apps.
– Mark Johnson (@markjnet) November 10, 2020
It’s not entirely clear why they were rejected at first, but Apple says it has only made sure to allow medical institutions and official health agencies to mention “COVID-19” in their app names or metadata (which opportunists may try to show their apps higher in the search). They are both Apple And the Google It has policies designed to make sure that your COVID-19 searches point to apps that may actually help you protect yourself.
These particular applications are * Kiss of the chef * And the Emoji Me – Animated faces for kids Applications, in case you are curious.
