Apple’s updated developer guidelines ban "useless" virus-scanning apps

In an update to its developer guidelines Apple has introduced a new policy that bans deceptive "virus-scanning" apps for the first time.

Apple says in its App Store guidelines, "You should not market your app on the App Store or offline as including content or services that it does not actually offer (e.g. iOS-based virus and malware scanners). Egregious or repeated behaviour is grounds for removal from the Developer Program. We work hard to make the App Store a trustworthy ecosystem and expect our app developers to follow suit; if you're dishonest, we don't want to do business with you."

Apple has also been removing many of the apps that that claim to have such capabilities, as search terms like "virus scanner" and "malware finder" no longer turn up results for these types of apps.

Apple notes in the guidelines that it is incredibly misleading for apps to advertise themselves as having these types of features. This according to commentators, is not because it is impossible for malicious code to find its way into the App Store, but because Apple's developer policies make it almost impossible for any third-party app to identify such malicious code in the first place.

The new guidelines also include clauses for ARKit and Face ID apps,  Endgadget reports. Apple wants ARKit in the App Store to be more than just one-note apps with single objects, adding that these need to offer "rich and integrated augmented reality experiences." For Face ID, Apple wants the apps to offer an alternate unlocking method for children under the age of 13.

The new guidelines also now make it possible to offer 100 per cent of funds to be gifted from one person to another without using In-App Purchases, thus bypassing the need to give 30 per cent of it to Apple. But the giving the money must be an optional choice.