[a_imho]

Interestingly I interpret the article as apps were abusing push notifications without a second thought in the past when it was explicitly against the guidelines, I fail to see how they will self moderate now some of it is even allowed.

With the ample data we have so far it most probably will lead to dark UI patterns with dysfunctional opt-outs and/or blanket consents at most if someone takes it seriously at all.

[amelius]

Then these apps would be removed from the app store, I suppose.

[fmajid]

Apple's enforcement of the app store rules is sporadic at best, specially the widespread abuse of notifications for marketing.

[rekoil]

But perhaps the reason they have been so lax in enforcing that particular rule is because they know they are doing it themselves in their own apps, and didn't want to attract lawsuits?

If so, now that they are introducing this new functionality they might start looking more carefully at notification system abuse.

[solarkraft]

They don't seem to concerned about lawsuits, considering the advantages their own apps get on the platform.

They seem to enforce the guidelines purely based on politics (whether the publisher has friends at Apple and how important the app is to the ecosystem).

I do wish they'd be legally bound to treat everyone the same way (EU?).

[a_imho]

It is wishful thinking. I can recall no case when someone said we should spam less ads or do it in a more respectful manner.

These apps could have been removed long ago, per the guidelines.

[untog]

It's tricky. Could you imagine if Apple removed Uber from the App Store? Users would be livid. And at Apple, not Uber, I suspect.

[netheril96]

Apple just needs to stop Uber from uploading new versions. Users won’t notice a thing, but Uber can’t have new features any more.

[kaiabwpdjqn]

I would assume you could control the showing of ad notifications and non ad notifications separately as a user.

[bilbo0s]

That's what I'm assuming.

Not only that, but now Apple is probably going to be very aggressive about kicking apps off the app store if they find even a single notification in the non add stream that they, in their sole estimation, consider to be an ad.

This might be a trap feature. I could easily see it being used to allow apple a reason to get rid of you.

[clay_the_ripper]

As a user, good! I hate the fact that there are certain apps that to use properly I have to have push notifications on or it severely restricts the functionality of the app (uber eats for example). Then they send promotional ads to me which I can’t turn off which is really annoying.

I’m excited for Apple to enforce this policy. Yet another example of Apple being pro user.

[nojvek]

Why should Apple be the police, they don’t even currently police their apps in a uniform way. So many apps violate the guidelines but are still in the AppStore.

I welcome the change but I’ve also seen Apple be a bully.

[soraminazuki]

> Why should Apple be the police, they don’t even currently police their apps in a uniform way.

This argument could be used for any decision that Apple makes regarding the AppStore. While I dislike some of the policy decisions being made in the AppStore, I don't see any downsides with this specific case. Developers just have to clearly label promotional notifications going forward, no harm done. Users will be much better off with more fine grained control over what kind of notifications they receive. What's the big deal here?