Some apps on Apple’s App Store have employed questionable tactics. Developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who has a reputation for exposing scams on the App Store, has come across apps that will not let users close them by disabling the quit button.
I didn’t think this was possible:
— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) April 14, 2022
This App Store app immediately asks you for money and then *disables* the “Quit” option so that you can never close it!
And it’s been like that on the App Store for years!https://t.co/DpOLtz9PCd pic.twitter.com/UCnRq2WvnF
These include My Metronome, which has now been removed from the App Store. Some have reported they can’t close it due to the quit button being greyed out and are asked to pay for subscriptions. Other apps are preventing Mac users from shutting off or updating their computers.
The developer behind My Metronome has grossed close to a million dollars. This number could be higher, as another developer uses the same address and has apps with the same tactics.
Maybe more than $2M: https://t.co/4LOM9k59Wl
— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) April 14, 2022
The Verge confirmed that the quit option was disabled on these apps but found ways of closing them. Keyboard shortcuts nor pressing escaped worked. One app has a window with an “X” button that worked, while another has a small “maybe later” button.
Source: The Verge
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →Turn it off and back on again should work in this scenario.
At least on Android you can force stop an app.
This isn't iOS. This is OS X. So comparisons to Android aren't accurate.
That said - seems like Force Quit would work (Ctrl-Alt-Esc). Or, if you really wanted to drop to the shell and kill it with Unix fire.
The Verge confirmed that the quit option was disabled on these apps but found ways of closing them.
great use of their 30% app store share to prevent this kind of crap.
While I haven't had any apps on Android do it, yet; there are apps on the Play Store that do make it difficult to close them. IE: No close/exit buttons/options. You have to use Android to close the app.
Well, there is no Close App on iOS. You can force quit apps, but they just sleep/suspend in the background if you have opened them and aren't using them. And that's a OS hook, I don't think an App on iOS can prevent you from switching to another app or going to the Home screen.
On OS X, all they have done is set a modal window without a Close option. Not really all that hard to get around, and anyone who's done any UI programming has probably done the same thing on accident at least once. This isn't really even a story - other than the fact that an app is mildly misbehaving on a curated storefront.