The Wordle clones have disappeared from the App Retailer

Has Apple taken motion in opposition to apps that cloned the favored net sport Wordle? They’ve now disappeared from the App Retailer, after several publications (including The Verge) known as out a flood of copycats so blatant as to be named “Wordle” and that featured the identical gameplay and UI, every making the most of the truth that developer Josh Wardle didn’t create an Apple app of his personal. Whereas we’re nonetheless seeing a couple of clones on the App Retailer, they don’t use the Wordle identify.

The clone apps had a highlight shone on them right this moment, when one developer started bragging about how many downloads his version of Wordle was getting. Following some intense backlash from the neighborhood, he set his account to non-public, however folks had already began discovering many different apps prefer it on the App Retailer.

Apple didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for affirmation that it was the one which took motion in opposition to the Wordle-alikes, nevertheless it appears vanishingly unlikely that every developer determined to take down their app within the house of about an hour. If Apple actually is initiating a crackdown on the apps, it’s tipping the scales considerably to guard the unique sport.

Whereas there have been related high-profile conditions previously — as Protocol points out, Flappy Bird and Threes vs 2048 come to thoughts — it’s exhausting to think about a current instance the place Apple stepped in as closely because it appears to have performed right this moment. Apple does have language about copycats in its developer guidelines, nevertheless it’s notably imprecise: “Provide you with your personal concepts,” part 4.1 reads. “Don’t merely copy the newest well-liked app on the App Retailer, or make some minor modifications to a different app’s identify or UI and cross it off as your personal.”

There have been questions about how Apple would deal with blatant clones, because it’s seemingly let issues slide in some cases. With disappearance of the Wordle-alikes from the App Retailer, we could have gotten a precedent for a way related is just too related.