WhatsApp Sticker Apps Reportedly Being Removed From App Store

Apple has started deleting all WhatsApp Sticker apps from the App Store as these apps have found to be violating the company's guidelines for developers, according to WABetaInfo -- a fan website that tracks upcoming WhatsApp features.

WABetaInfo says that the reasons Apple is taking this decision to remove WhatsApp Sticker apps is that there are many apps with similar behaviour on the app store, many apps with a similar design, and, the apps require WhatsApp to be installed when App Store guidelines instruct apps should not require other apps. However, no official statement about this has been released by Apple or WhatsApp as yet.

In October, WhatsApp announced in a blog post that it is adding support for third-party developers to build sticker apps for WhatsApp for both Android and iOS users.

Designers were asked to "publish your sticker app like any other app on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and users who download and install your app will be able to start sending those stickers right from within WhatsApp."

Post this announcement, the Apple App Store began being flooded with these sticker apps.

Written with inputs from IANS

We discussed what WhatsApp absolutely needs to do in 2019, on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.