Apple and Hey squash another App Store beef

Apple has accepted Hey’s new calendar app, according to 37signals co-owner David Heinemeier Hansson (aka DHH), ending a brief but familiar App Store battle between the two companies. Apple rejected the calendar app last week, arguing that it didn’t do anything if you don’t subscribe to a Hey account — which is the same line of argument that led Apple to initially reject Hey’s email app in 2020.

Hey had planned to launch the calendar app on January 2nd, but after learning of the rejection on January 5th, the company scrambled to update the app and resubmit it to better meet Apple’s guidelines. On Monday, DHH said that the revised version of the calendar app would let you look through Apple history on the calendar if you don’t have an account.

“Do we really want to do this? No,” DHH said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. “Apple’s own rejection letter quotes the very section of the App Store Guidelines that says we shouldn’t have to. Because HEY Calendar is a free companion app to an existing, external paid web service.”

DHH has pointed out repeatedly that Apple inconsistently applies its rules about requiring functionality in an app even if you don’t have an account. But it seems that new history feature met the bar, as Apple has now found Hey Calendar worthy of approval. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

You can now grab Hey Calendar from the App Store, and if you want to read more about the approval, check out DHH’s blog post.