Hey Email locks horns with Apple

Hey has been pulled up by Apple for not following the app store guidelines.

File photo.

A newly launched email service Hey Email has locked horns with Apple over non-compliance with its app store guidelines.

The paid email service debuted on Monday to paradigmatically change electronic mailing as we know it.

Founded by the owners of Basecamp, a Chicago-based project management software maker, Hey provides its users a way to remove tracking pixels, apply stronger spam filters and no signature options. The service is priced at $99/year.

Less than a day after its launch, the company’s app on Apple’s app store has been pulled up for not complying with the platform’s guidelines.

In a letter from Apple to Hey Email, posted by Basecamp’s co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson on Twitter, the Cupertino-based company has said, “since the email services offered in your app are not of the type listed under guideline 3.1.3(a) for ‘Reader’ apps, customers must be able to purchase access to features or functionality in your app using in-app purchase.”

It further noted that apps that provide services from across different platforms must enable in-app purchase option for their applications.

To resolve the issue, Apple has asked Hey to change the purchase option in its app so customers can access it via in-app purchases.

Hansson claims that Apple’s policy is inconsistent with other apps, and that it offers access to subscriptions bought elsewhere.

He has listed Fastmail and Netflix among services that enable subscribers to sign up elsewhere and use their apps on Apple’s app store without an in-app sign up.

At the heart of this dispute is the business model of revenue sharing. If users sign up using in-app purchases, Apple takes a cut in the sale. This value could be about a third of the selling price.