There’s unrest brewing in the world of vibe-coding startups.
Apple is blocking AI coding apps on the App Store, sparking complaints among AI companies that believe the tech giant’s rules are outdated and draconian, the Financial Times reports. Apple’s resistance here could remain a huge roadblock for the AI industry, as coding tools have become one of the most popular — and potentially profitable — use cases for AI.
The rule in question is App Store Guideline 2.5.2, which blocks apps from downloading, installing, or executing code that changes their functionality. This is a safety measure that Apple argues prevents unvetted software from running on users’ phones, per the FT. That’s quite clearly a problem for vibe-coding AI tools, whose purpose is to design and build entire pieces of software for you; when you use one of these apps’ preview functions to test your vibe-coded creation, that’s downloading and executing code.
Among the aggrieved startups is Replit, which complained that Apple was blocking updates to its app. Another startup called Anything said its app was repeatedly blocked and was removed twice after being initially approved. Anything even went public about its struggles with Apple last month, blasting its grievances to its followers on social media.
“We’re in the dark,” Anything founder Dhruv Amin told the FT.
“Either they should stop enforcing the rules in this weird way, or they should update the guideline to let this use case emerge.”
The FT viewed communications between Apple and Anything in which Apple emphasized that letting users preview their vibe-coded apps breached the restriction against “downloading code.” When Anything removed the preview feature, Apple rejected it again because it now offered “minimum functionality,” the communications showed. In early April, Apple let Anything back on the App store, before removing it within a day, citing the prohibition against downloading code. The FT asked Apple about its reasoning for the reversal, but didn’t hear back.
Replit, meanwhile, told the magazine that it was “surprised and disappointed” by Apple blocking updates to its app, “given that we have been on the platform for years abiding by their rules.” It added it was “in discussions with Apple” in the hopes of resolving the issue.
On the one hand, the vibe coders aren’t wrong to be frustrated with Apple’s mixed signals, see-sawing between allowing and banning their apps. But on the other hand, Apple is right to be wary of the risks posed by AI tools that can crank out volumes of code on a mere whim, which can backfire in unexpected ways or be deliberately harnessed for nefarious purposes. It’ll be an interesting tug of war to see play out, but for the moment Apple seems to be winning; other hugely popular vibe-coding apps like Cursor are yet to even launch their own iPhone apps, the FT noted.