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> …but also prevented the app from being published on the App Store…

The only thing Apple did to "prevent" f.lux from being published on the App Store was to not offer any public APIs that could be used to implement it. This wasn't some sort of deliberate decision to get in the way of f.lux; there was simply no clear use case for an API to allow an app to change the behavior of the screen on a global basis.



> there was simply no clear use case for an API to allow an app to change the behavior of the screen on a global basis.

A usecase is f.lux's functionality. There is definitely a clear use case. The decision to expose the API could have other factors to it, but lack of use case doesn't seem to be it.


An API use case for a single app is pretty hard to justify, especially when it's coupled with other concerns like "but wouldn't this require the app to stay running in the background" or "but what happens if two apps both try to do this".


How about an app for helping with colorblindness?


There are already accessibility settings for this.


> there was simply no clear use case for an API to allow an app to change the behavior of the screen on a global basis.

Except to implement color shifting for nighttime use, which they implemented themselves in a later version. That's a pretty tough justification to pull off.


There's a pretty big difference between allowing the system to alter the display settings in a specific, well-defined way, and making that available to any app in a more general form.


As I said I’m not sure if IIRC but isn’t that the case that there was a functioning version of f.lux that got submitted to the App Store and rejected? It’s been a few years and I wasn’t able to find news articles from that time but I thought it was a case of “the app works but they won’t let us publish it” rather then “Apple bad because they won’t give us an API that we can use”.


No. Per the web site linked by the parent post:

"To make f.lux work on iOS, we've had to go outside the bounds of what apps are normally allowed to do. Currently, iOS does not allow developers to access the Private APIs we need to make f.lux work on iOS."


Actually they did publish a functioning app, on their own site. Which was taken down after Apple contacted them.

https://justgetflux.com/sideload/


Thank you, yes from reading that statement you’re definitely right.


The use of private APIs is a key indication of anticompetitive behavior in software platforms.


"no clear use case"

Indeed, the use case was translucent.




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