Why Your IOS Vaping App Suddenly Disappeared
In line with the new App Store guidelines , Apple has removed vaping-related apps from platform 181 and strongly prohibits the inclusion of any vaping-related apps or features in its app store. It may seem like a sudden move on the part of the company, but Apple has been slowly moving towards this inevitable ban for months now – and it’s easy to see why.
The vaping industry often portrays vaping as healthier and safer than smoking cigarettes, but governments and private organizations oppose the use of vaping products almost as passionately as they do against smoking, and for good reason. The CDC reports that smoking has resulted in at least 2,172 cases of respiratory illness / injury (including internal burns), and at least 42 recent deaths have been attributed to nicotine vaping products. This is certainly not nearly as many as the number of deaths and diseases associated with smoking, but these numbers will only grow as more research is conducted and the popularity of vaping grows.
Many companies have responded to these numbers by canceling or banning the sale or advertising of vaping-related products, which is why Apple has decided to remove all vaping apps from the App Store. While uninstalling all applications in one fell swoop was unexpected, this is not surprising; Apple stopped accepting applications for vaping-related apps back in June, and this official ban is the latest step in implementing its anti-vaping policies.
If, like me, you didn’t know that vaping apps were anything special at all, then it probably doesn’t matter much to you, but to those who relied on an iOS app to manage or monitor their vaping devices, you will need to find a new platform. Both Google Play and the Amazon app store still have a variety of e-cigarette apps, some of which were also available on the Apple App Store, but these are Android app marketplaces and won’t work with Apple products. At this point, if you don’t want to jailbreak your iOS device to run non-App Store apps, you can switch to Android, change your vape, or, you know, stop vaping.