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Apple Allows 'Drafts' App to Reinstate Notification Center Widget
Earlier this month, Apple asked note-taking app Drafts to remove its Notification Center widget, which offered simple tools for opening up the Drafts app and creating a new note. At the time, the removal request seemed highly questionable, because a multitude of apps with Notification Center widgets, including other note-taking apps like Evernote, provide similar functions.
As it has done with several other overly zealous removal requests, Apple has reexamined the Drafts widget and has reversed course once more, allowing the Drafts app to retain its Notification Center widget.
In a new 4.0.6 update pointed out by MacStories, Agile Tortoise, the developer behind Drafts, has returned the widget to the app with permission from Apple.
The removal of the Drafts widget and its subsequent return mark just one of the policy reversals Apple has implemented over the last few months. In October, PCalc was asked to remove its calculator widget before Apple changed its mind, and just last week, file-management app Transmit was allowed to reinstate a key sharing feature that Apple had previously said was not allowed.
Apple's frequent and erratic app policy shifts suggest the company is continuing to struggle with defining just how it wants various iOS 8 features to be used. The combination of a large app review team and somewhat ambiguous guidelines have led to many contradictory removal requests of previously approved features, causing confusion and disquiet among developers.
Drafts can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]
As it has done with several other overly zealous removal requests, Apple has reexamined the Drafts widget and has reversed course once more, allowing the Drafts app to retain its Notification Center widget.
In a new 4.0.6 update pointed out by MacStories, Agile Tortoise, the developer behind Drafts, has returned the widget to the app with permission from Apple.
New: Today widget. Now back with the addition of recent drafts summary. Thanks to the help of some fine folks inside Apple for sorting this out.In addition to returning the original quick note creation function to the Drafts widget, today's update also brings expanded functionality in the form of a feature that allows users to open recently created drafts. Combined with the existing functionality, the Drafts app now allows users to view recent drafts, create new drafts, view the number of stored drafts, and create new drafts from the clipboard, all very useful widget features.
The removal of the Drafts widget and its subsequent return mark just one of the policy reversals Apple has implemented over the last few months. In October, PCalc was asked to remove its calculator widget before Apple changed its mind, and just last week, file-management app Transmit was allowed to reinstate a key sharing feature that Apple had previously said was not allowed.
Apple's frequent and erratic app policy shifts suggest the company is continuing to struggle with defining just how it wants various iOS 8 features to be used. The combination of a large app review team and somewhat ambiguous guidelines have led to many contradictory removal requests of previously approved features, causing confusion and disquiet among developers.
Drafts can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]
[ 75 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
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50 months ago
Exactly, why would anyone pay $10 for a text app when Notes is free with the phone.
Have you *looked* at Drafts feature set? It is NOT "Notes".
Version 3 was great, but the new one displaced *Safari* from the button bar on my devices.
50 months ago
what a clusterfck. i'm not even embarrassed for apple at this point. they deserve whatever ridicule they bring onto themselves for this lack of organization or whatever it is.
50 months ago
This is getting a little embarrassing now.
Exactly, why would anyone pay $10 for a text app when Notes is free with the phone.
50 months ago
Ridicule? If you had the money they have in the bank, you sure wouldn't worry about a little bit of ridicule for changing a decision. You're making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Not really. Check Twitter or some developer blogs. Or listen to the ATP podcast. Developers aren't happy. In fact I've seen a couple say they're going to wait to develop for Watch because they don't want to put a lot of time and energy into something only for someone in app review to reject it.
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Marco Arment has it right:
http://www.marco.org/2014/12/16/how-broken-is-discovery-on-the-app-store
The most capricious App Store rejections stem from an idealized image of how iOS devices should be used, enforced by the Apple marketing division (which app review, and all of developer relations, is under). Its hard for me to reconcile that idealized image with what we see in reality in App Store search and Top lists
50 months ago
So the net effect is that, in the end, all the apps got their widgets and cloud functionality back and Apple just ends up looking extremely disorganized and restrictive. Way to go team!
50 months ago
It's an entertaining spectacle between Apple and the devs, if nothing else.
Never a dull moment.
Never a dull moment.
50 months ago
Apple should just allow devs to use iOS features however they like. As long as they don't use undocumented APIs or otherwise break the system.
If developers do horrible things with those features, users won't want to use the apps, right? The problem should solve itself.
If developers do horrible things with those features, users won't want to use the apps, right? The problem should solve itself.
50 months ago
It amazes me how oblivious people are about smartphones and their original intended purpose. Of course these things are now designed for the average person to be able to text friends, play games, and watch videos. But they were made for people to get organized, take notes, and manage work e-mails.
And people still use their smartphones for that reason. The iPhone 6+ is now at the size that PDAs in the 90's used to be, but it does the majority of things a lot better.
The types of people who download apps like Drafts, PCalc, OmniFocus, and most other apps in the category are not average. We know what we're getting into when we buy these apps, and we take the time to learn them thoroughly. We are not the same people who download a game, don't read the instructions, and then complain to the publisher that it's "too hard".
These apps aren't for the average person, so they aren't designed for the average person. Are they still polished like one? Yeah, but that's because productivity apps work best when they feel effortless.
The widgets that so many people here have a problem with are not hard to understand. And if you're not even using the app to begin with, then why the **** do you care whether it is or not to begin with? Maybe you weren't here when there was a business where people used to send their CDs to a place so they could be put on iPods because A LOT of people had no clue how to do something as simple as that back then. Heck, there's a whole new generation of people who will never understand how to do that now.
And people still use their smartphones for that reason. The iPhone 6+ is now at the size that PDAs in the 90's used to be, but it does the majority of things a lot better.
The types of people who download apps like Drafts, PCalc, OmniFocus, and most other apps in the category are not average. We know what we're getting into when we buy these apps, and we take the time to learn them thoroughly. We are not the same people who download a game, don't read the instructions, and then complain to the publisher that it's "too hard".
These apps aren't for the average person, so they aren't designed for the average person. Are they still polished like one? Yeah, but that's because productivity apps work best when they feel effortless.
The widgets that so many people here have a problem with are not hard to understand. And if you're not even using the app to begin with, then why the **** do you care whether it is or not to begin with? Maybe you weren't here when there was a business where people used to send their CDs to a place so they could be put on iPods because A LOT of people had no clue how to do something as simple as that back then. Heck, there's a whole new generation of people who will never understand how to do that now.
50 months ago
Do we even know if the majority of consumers are even USING search to begin with?
Maybe that's why it sucks, because nobody uses it. :)
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