Apple Cracking Down On CallKit Apps In China

When you consider how big the China market is, it is not surprising to see companies such as Apple try to make accommodations so that they can operate in the country. For example Apple recently started accepting WeChat Pay in China, and in more recent times have started pulling apps that don’t comply with China’s regulation.

However it looks like those crackdowns aren’t at an end yet because according to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple is cracking down further on iOS apps using the CallKit functionality. For non-developers, CallKit is a framework offered to iOS developers in iOS 10 that allowed them to integrate calling services into their apps.

The notices which were sent to developers claim that their apps are not allowed to use CallKit due to government regulations, which isn’t surprising when you consider that it was late last year that apps such as Skype (which offers VoIP functionality) were pulled from various app stores in China.

While it’s expected that companies need to comply with local regulations in order to play nicely with the government, a study from last year suggested that Apple was pulling apps from the Chinese App Store at a considerably faster rate compared to normal. Apple has also been criticized by several US government officials for complying, claiming that Apple is enabling China’s censorship of the internet.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apps, China, iOS, Legal