The Weirdest iPhone App Bans We’ve Ever Seen

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Apps disappear from digital storefronts all the time for a variety of reasons. Developers may decide it’s not in their best interest to continue supporting new operating systems, a company may go out of business due to financial problems, etc. But sometimes it happens for a variety of reasons. Stranger reasons.

Here are five different apps that Apple has seen fit to remove from the iOS App Store over the years, for a variety of reasons. Seriously, they run the gamut from the intentional waste of obscene amounts of money to personal feuds between corporations. Not all of the apps are weird in and of themselves (though some are), and not all of them have ever posed any real risk or threat to anyone. But they all have one thing in common: They can no longer be found in the App Store due to direct intervention by Apple. And it’s highly unlikely that any of them will ever return.

Fortnite

While “Fortnite” itself isn’t a weird app (if a game where Optimus Prime fights LEGO Luke Skywalker alongside Goku is completely normal), the reason for its removal from the iOS App Store is a bit unusual.

Most iPhone users were able to enjoy “Fortnite” without issues for a while, but then the lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games hit. When the dust settled after that lengthy legal battle, Apple cut Epic’s revenue stream from all mobile devices, in what many believe was an act of revenge.

There are other ways to play “Fortnite” on iPhone thanks to game streaming services like cloud gaming via Xbox Game Pass, but the official Epic Game app doesn’t seem like it’ll be returning to the App Store anytime soon — if ever. Until then, players will have to move to another platform or find an internet service provider with very fast and stable streaming speeds.

I am rich

“I Am Rich” was an odd app even for its time, which was a long time ago, when the App Store—and the mobile app market in general—was still trying to figure itself out. The app itself did nothing. Or at least, almost nothing. When you opened the app, it showed an image of a red gem on your screen, and that was it. When you touched the gem, it said, “I am rich, I deserve it, I am good, healthy, and successful”—with no other functions or goals.

The lack of, well, anything made “I Am Rich” a target for Apple’s attack. It was the $1,000 price tag. For an app that does nothing but show a single image and a few misspelled affirmations when you tap it.

Perhaps strangest of all is the idea that the app was purchased by eight people while it was still available, six of whom decided to keep it after that initial $1,000 purchase. Although it’s unclear whether they didn’t ask Apple for a refund because they wanted to keep it or because they didn’t know it was an option.

Driving license

Apple’s reasoning behind banning “Driver’s License” isn’t really about competition, even though it is possible to save your driver’s license to Apple Wallet if you live in a few specific US states. No, “Driver’s License” was shut down in 2011 due to more troubling real-world applications.

Anyone using the app could take or import a photo and put it on a digital version of a driver’s license from any U.S. state. That means someone could create a fake ID fairly easily, so the U.S. government took notice.

Of course, a digital image on your phone is no substitute for a physical card, which itself is full of verification tricks. The thing is, it’s not very helpful in situations where all you need is a photo of your ID. And most people who’ve worked in customer service can probably imagine (or even remember) a scenario where someone tried to use a photo of their driver’s license as valid ID. That kind of fraud is something no one wants to deal with, so of course Apple kicked it out of the market.

Tawkon Radiation Detector

The purpose of the “Tawkon Radiation Detector” was (allegedly) to collect data from an array of iPhone sensors to determine how much radiation people were being exposed to. The developer claimed that the app was able to determine a phone’s Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), which measures the rate at which radio frequency energy is absorbed by the human body. Naturally, Apple banned the app, which could make its hardware look bad.

This isn’t some grand conspiracy where Apple is hiding a dangerous truth from the public. Yes, smartphones emit radiation, but there’s no evidence yet that the radiofrequency energy emitted by smartphones causes cancer — or any other health problems. Yes, France temporarily banned the iPhone 12 over radiation concerns, but that was the issue with the way SAR testing protocols changed, not that the iPhone 12 was some pocket-sized demon core.

Send me to heaven

Despite the implications of its name, Send Me To Heaven is actually a very simple game about earning high scores. While the app isn’t loaded with malware or poses any direct risk that could change your iPhone’s security settings, it did pose a risk of its own. As dangerous as trying to trick users into microwaving their devices or the iOS 7 water resistance scam.

The app is supposed to record the maximum height of an iPhone and compare the numbers to an online leaderboard. In other words, it tries to trick users into seeing who can throw their expensive smartphone into the air the highest. It may not technically be an inevitable risk if someone is confident in their ability to catch it on the way down, but there was certainly a high probability that people would smash their phones.

This is all intentional, as the app’s creator admitted in a 2013 interview (via Wired ) that the goal was to trick people into smashing their phones. Despite its surprisingly accurate timing of how high the iPhone was thrown, the app existed solely to cause damage. And Apple (understandably) wasn’t too happy about it.