A lot of people have been asking why it took so long for Launch Center Pro to get a widget. It’s kind of a long story and I can’t share all the details, but the gist of it is that Justin and I were scared of App Review and didn’t want to risk continued development of the app after seeing the capricious App Store policy decisions Apple made just after the release of iOS 8 last fall.
So, Justin got a job and I focused on my other apps (and took a lot of time off due to health issues and other personal matters). After a combination of public and private hints that Apple was loosening up, we started to feel more comfortable about starting to invest in the app again. But it took time to get back in the swing of things given the other commitments that had accumulated.
With the warm reception to Launch Center Pro 2.5, our schedules a bit less cluttered, and Apple seemingly much more open to experimentation, we’re hoping to keep moving forward with Launch Center Pro at a more reasonable clip.
Below is an email I sent Apple in the middle of the rejections and uncertainty last fall:
Date: October 12, 2014
To: tcook@apple.com, cue@apple.com, schiller@apple.com
Subject: Abandoning the development of an Editors’ Choice app
WWDC was amazing! All the new APIs, the awesome new features in iOS and OS X, Swift, and, of course, the “hug a developer” theme. WWDC certainly felt like a big hug.
When my business partner and I got back to the office and started white-boarding all cool things we could do with Launch Center Pro on iOS 8, every conversation ended in “but Apple will probably reject that”. As a small indie development company, we don’t have the resources to spend months on features that might get rejected. So, we decided to work on other things and see what was approved when iOS 8 shipped.
And I’m glad we decided to wait. Launcher was approved, then removed.
The app “Workflow” has been in limbo for weeks.
And now it appears that launching other apps via URL schemes is reason for rejection.
The developer of Workflows tweeted that the App Review team told him that Launch Center Pro was grandfathered in, but seeing all these rejections, it doesn’t seem smart to continue investing in Launch Center Pro given the possible rejection of any feature we might add to the app. And that would be an absolute shame.
The value of Launch Center Pro has never been in replacing the iOS home screen for people who just want to launch apps. That’s not particularly compelling. URL schemes enable the creation of shortcuts that launch apps with content and context. And that’s not something that has been replaced by Extensibility.
URL schemes are a sort of API for native apps that enable some really cool (though admittedly very nerdy) interactions with apps that don’t have web APIs. Here are three quick examples combining native apps and web services in a way that’s only possible using URL schemes:
Tweeting todos into Clear
Instagram photos sent to Day One
Preview and tweet a new post
There are also tons of great shortcuts that can be created with URL schemes. Rather than typing my home address into Maps every day when I drive home and want to check traffic, I can create a one-tap shortcut in Launch Center Pro that takes me to the Maps app with my home address already set as the destination. I can create a one-tap shortcut to lookup my kids’ birthdays in the Wolfram Alpha app to see how many days, months, and years old they are. I can create a one-tap shortcut to take me to my son’s favorite Minecraft video in the YouTube app.
And those are just shortcuts based on URL schemes, Launch Center Pro also creates all sort of powerful shortcuts to native iOS features like Mail and Messages as well as web services like IFTTT and Dropbox. Creating shortcuts for repetitive tasks might be a bit nerdy, but there are a heck of a lot of nerdy iOS users, and we’d love to keep experimenting with ways to make shortcuts more accessible to the average iOS user.
We’re also quite excited about Apple Watch. With the limited screen real estate on Apple Watch, we think shortcuts are going to be HUGE! Triggering complex actions with a few quick taps on Apple Watch is going to feel like a super power.
But at this very moment, we’re contemplating abandoning Launch Center Pro. Investing our time in an app whose status with App Review seems to be in limbo is just untenable for us. We can’t afford to work months on features that might ultimately get rejected.
And that leads me to a bigger point. At this stage in the history of iOS as a platform and the App Store as the premier destination for mobile software, is it really necessary to nit-pick certain user experience issues and reject apps that find interesting and innovative new ways to do things on iOS? Why not let the App Store marketplace decide if launching apps with URL schemes or launching apps from Notification Center is a great experience or not? And why not give developers like us some way to get more clarity about App Review rules before we spend months working on apps/features that might get rejected?
I happen to agree that launching apps from Notification Center isn’t a great experience, but plenty of iOS users seem to think differently. We have gotten hundreds of requests from users to add a Today Widget in Launch Center Pro (and it was one of the first things we white-boarded when we got back from WWDC). I also happen think that many of the apps that have recently been approved, like GIF keyboards, are an even worse user experience than launching apps from Notification Center, but people seem to love those anyway.
I’ve been developing for iOS since the SDK was first announced in 2008. I certainly don’t plan on walking away from iOS development, even if Launch Center Pro doesn’t have much of a future. It’s an amazing platform and has provided a great living for me and my family over the years. Getting some clarity on the situation and feeling less apprehensive about the App Review process would go a long way in helping me to continue making a living on the App Store.