With there being millions of apps in Apple’s App Store, there are bound to be some that are bad eggs that try to scam users. We’ve heard such stories before, where some scam apps are reportedly raking in as much as $1 million from users per month. Now it seems that Apple has finally addressed those issues by making it easier for users to report these types of apps.
As noticed by Kosta Eleftheriou and Richard Mazkweich on Twitter, it seems that Apple has finally added back the “Report a Problem” button in the App Store for app listings. Tapping will bring users to another page where they can then select that the app in question is either a scam or fraud.
In a major reversal, Apple quietly added back the “Report a Problem” @AppStore button in iOS 15: pic.twitter.com/UopiPDEV7e
— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) October 3, 2021
Prior to this, users had to kind of go about a long-winded method to report these types of apps, and they would then be redirected to another website where they’d have to sign into their Apple account again. This made it a bit more troublesome for users to report, but with the return of the button, users will now be able to complain to Apple more easily than ever.
Has this button started working with the new iOS 15? @ilyakuh @keleftheriou @rjonesy @nickjsheriff pic.twitter.com/1MkQNRHt2D
— Richard Mazkewich (@mazkewich) October 3, 2021
This feature would require you to have installed the app on your phone, which we suppose makes it fair since Apple probably doesn’t want people to simply abuse the feature to try and get innocent apps into trouble.
While it is a welcome update, how long Apple will take to address apps that have been reported and what they will do is a different story. Critics have pointed out how Apple has let these types of apps run rampant in the past, so while reporting them is now easier, what Apple does after that will probably be more telling as to whether or not they are now taking these issues more seriously.