Flappy Bird clones are all the rage at the moment, even as those who don’t want to miss out on the craze are downloading similar games on their smartphones and tablets. But in a development that has hit hard those game creators who are doling out these similar apps, Apple and Google have decided to clamp down on them by means of blocking on grounds of trying to leverage a popular app.
This move came to light when affected developers started taking to Twitter in order to voice their concerns regarding the move. However, similarly-named apps which are already available on the storefronts aren’t facing any heat as of now. As pointed out by The Verge, Ken Carpenter from Mind Juice Media was one of the first to complain after his new entry, Flappy Dragon was rejected by Apple.
While Apple’s reasoning includes the words, ‘We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app,’ Google is simply branding them as spam without any warnings or prior emails. A spokesperson of Apple’s has revealed that it’s not targeting apps with the word ‘flappy’ in their names, but is instead blocking the ones which are ‘trying to trick customers.’ Google on the other hand is still to make a statement.
This is just not my fucking week: Rejected. "We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app." Which app? FB doesn't exist!?!?!
— Ken Carpenter (@MindJuiceMedia) February 15, 2014
The phenomenon that’s Flappy Bird is a simple game which features a bird trying to move through an unending side-scrolling level which is extremely hard to navigate. The game is downright frustrating for beginners, and strangely enough, that’s one of the factors why it had gained so much popularity prior to its developer having taken it down all of sudden.