YouTube first requested Apple to remove my app well over a year ago, initially just stating that my app violates their Terms of Service. This was a generic takedown request they sent to many YouTube apps at once. They later started going into more detail, even stating that I could not sell the app as that alone violates their ToS. They basically wanted me to remove every feature that made ProTube what it is – that includes the player itself that allows you to play 60fps videos, background playback, audio only mode and more. Without those features ProTube would not be any better than YouTube’s own app, and that is exactly what they want to achieve. YouTube wants to sell its $10/month subscription service which offers many features that ProTube also offered for a lower one time price, so they started hunting down 3rd party YouTube apps on the App Store.
I am a YouTube Red Subscriber but still preferred Jonas’ application over YouTube’s which continues to add more features I don’t want like auto playing videos, cards, annotations, captions that seemingly turn out at random and recommendations that I don’t care about. I hop onto YouTube to query a specific topic or video, not to check out mentally and consume whatever they’ll play for me “their lean-back experience”
ProTube was great for this.
I was pretty upset when I I bought the iPhone 8 Plus and restored from the iCloud. I did this right after Apple released an updated version of iTunes that removed Local App installations during the restore process. Meaning, when my new iPhone was finished restoring from backup, Apple displayed the ProTube application on my SpringBoard but with a cloud download icon next to it. When I clicked the application, I was greeted with a notice that this application is no longer available on the app store and would be removed from my device. And like that, it was gone.
An application I paid for just 6 months ago was ripped off of my iPhone w/o my permission simply because I gave Apple $950 for a new iPhone and was forced to restore from iCloud because the functionality is gone completely from iTunes.
They call this progress but I call it a kick in the Butt.
Jonas, I’m sorry YouTube bullied you but Apple has taken more control over our devices in the name of simplicity. It’s truly a shame that the only reputable alternative to iOS is a Google owned operating system. More and more, I’m just moving toward getting a flip-phone and walking away from mobile computing. It brings more trouble than its worth.