It cannot be a coincidence. A lot of the Wordle clones have begun to disappear from the Apple App Store. This indicates a crackdown has been initiated by Apple on these fake apps, in a bid to clean up the App Store. Though some remain at the time of writing this, it is likely they will be taken down as well. Over the last few days, Wordle clones have taken over the app stores on Android and iOS, after the original Wordle game took social media by storm.
Apple has not issued a statement yet on whether they have initiated action against these clone apps, but it is unlikely that developers would take these down on their own. The developer guidelines are very clear though. Section 4.1 of these guidelines specifically tackles the issue listed as “copycats”. It is likely that a takedown process was initiated. There are quite a few Wordle clones on the Google Play Store for Android phones as well.
The Wordle game, developed by Josh Wardle, is a web browser-based game. You must solve hidden words in a puzzle, each being a five-letter word and you’ll get six attempts at each. A new puzzle is available every day. It is free to play and is accessible on any browser app on PCs or smartphones. You don’t need to download any app on your phone or computer. The fact that the original Wordle app wasn’t available as an app for Android phones and the Apple iPhone, led other developers to clone the idea.
Cloning popular apps and games isn’t unusual. But Apple potentially cracking down on them certainly is. PUBG Mobile, Angry Birds, Flappy Birds and Among Us are some of the popular cloned games.
One developer, whose app has since been taken down, wrote in a tweet earlier this week, “I love Wordle so much I decided to make my own Wordle app but with a twist! There’s not just 5-letter words, but also 4, 6, and 7 letter words too! You can also play unlimited times if you’re on the Pro version”. He later bragged about the download numbers and how his app was climbing the charts on the App Store.
Incidentally, a lot of these cloned apps turned up as paid apps, quite literally attempting to cash in on the craze. For instance, there’s Wordle by a developer called David Knowles, which is priced at ₹179 and has in-app token purchases priced between ₹89 to ₹899 per purchase.
Apple’s developer guidelines make it very clear that apps or ideas that are copied are in line for a strike. The guideline reads, “Don’t simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store, or make some minor changes to another app’s name or UI and pass it off as your own. In addition to risking an intellectual property infringement claim, it makes the App Store harder to navigate and just isn’t fair to your fellow developers”.
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