Apple has updated its App Store Review Guidelines to prevent developers from creating and uploading anti-virus and malware scanning apps to the iOS App Store. 

Thanks to the walled garden nature of iOS, stringent rules from Apple, and iOS apps running in a sandbox, no malware or virus exist for iOS. However, developers keep uploading such apps on the App Store or offer it as one of the many features in their apps and feed on the fear of lesser-known consumers.

Apple usually removes such apps from the App Store but every once in a while, they do make their way to the top charts of the iOS App Store.

Below is what the updated Rule 2.3.1 of the App Store guidelines now says:

Similarly, 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 behavior 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.

The updated guidelines also make it clear that developers using ARKit in their apps shall provide a rich and integrated AR experience. Apple is essentially making sure that developers don’t end up using ARKit for simple purposes like replaying animations or dropping an ARKit object into view.

Apps using ARKit should provide rich and integrated augmented reality experiences; merely dropping a model into an AR view or replaying animation is not enough.

Finally, the tweaked App Store rules make it clear that Face ID on the iPhone X will not be available for kids below 13 years old. For them, developers who use Face ID in their apps should provide an alternative authentication method.