from Hacker News

Juno for YouTube has been removed from the App Store

by MaximilianEmel on 10/1/24, 9:18 PM with 140 comments

  • by sonofhans on 10/1/24, 9:34 PM

    This is the same developer whose Apollo app got screwed by Reddit. They seem to have a talent for finding simple ways to improve things in new contexts. Unfortunately, their improvements are typically of benefit to _actual users_, and the services in question would rather treat users as grist for the mill.

    It’s unjust, and I believe it’s short-sighted.

  • by citizenpaul on 10/1/24, 9:41 PM

    I find it funny that at the time of this comment this Submission and this one.

    >Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms (2021)

    Are both on the top 10 of the frontpage of HN.

    Also thx for apollo but it wouldn't have mattered if it stayed active since reddit has plummeted in usefulness since the time of its removal anyway. I don't see reddits direction changing ever at this point.

  • by jherskovic on 10/1/24, 10:39 PM

    Oh, man, Christian, are you going to do Discord next? Because it’d fit the pattern to a T.

    (This is a joke)

    I was a huge fan of Apollo and genuinely appreciate your UX design and aesthetic chops. Please make something 100% your own next time! You have the name recognition and development experience to pull it off.

    I can’t wait to see what you do next. Just… please not another client for someone else’s service.

  • by rmbyrro on 10/1/24, 9:35 PM

    A 15 year old bully reaches out to the other 15 year old bully and decide to take the lunch of a 4 year old kid.

  • by bentocorp on 10/1/24, 10:23 PM

    I'm surprised that this app was actually allowed and approved in the first place.

    Apple has an App Store rule against allowing apps or wrappers using an API or third party content without the express permission of the content owner.

    Juno was likely given a pass by Apple due to the dearth of native Vision Pro video players. For instance, both YouTube and Netflix didn't have native apps available.

    Perhaps Apple was a bit more lenient on Juno initially as it provided their own platform with some credibility at a critical launch stage.

  • by NL807 on 10/1/24, 10:51 PM

    This highlights the reason why side-loading should be a right for users on the device they bought. Users get to control what gets installed on the device.

  • by haunter on 10/1/24, 9:51 PM

    Yattee will always work because it's using Invidious or Piped as a backend that you can even self-host

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yattee/id1595136629

    https://github.com/yattee/yattee

    https://old.reddit.com/r/Yattee/comments/13d3lj7/how_to_set_...

  • by forrestthewoods on 10/1/24, 9:37 PM

    This is one of many reasons why we need alternative app stores.

  • by mholt on 10/1/24, 9:34 PM

    Christian, you really don't get a break do you :( Thanks for the great apps you have made.

  • by megaunicorn123 on 10/1/24, 9:41 PM

    First Reddit now YouTube. Christian is a talented developer, but his efforts are wasted building applications for closed social media.

  • by dewey on 10/1/24, 9:37 PM

    Christian, if you are reading this...maybe a nice HN app as the next fun project?

  • by Terretta on 10/1/24, 11:22 PM

    This less an iOS App Store dispute so much as a YouTube dispute. Selig's post makes it clear there was a process, started by YouTube, that took time, and the disagreement wasn't resolved between them.

    I'm going to quote here so what happened is part of the commenting narrative:

    For those not aware, a few months ago after reaching out to me, YouTube contacted the App Store stating that Juno does not adhere to YouTube guidelines and modifies the website in a way they don’t approve of, and alludes to their trademarks and iconography.

    I don’t agree ... Juno is just a web view ... that modifies CSS to make the website and video player look more “visionOS” like... Juno also doesn’t block ads in any capacity...

    I stated as much to YouTube, they wouldn’t really clarify or budge any, and as a result of both parties not being able to come to a conclusion I received an email a few minutes ago from Apple that Juno has been removed from the App Store.

    It's worth noting that the YouTubes of the world get self-hosters to take things down too.

  • by tpoacher on 10/3/24, 6:46 AM

    I don't know iOS enough, but, is there no other way to provide this other than the app store? (e.g. like you can enable "untrusted" apk installs in Android?)

    i.e., while there's surely fat less visibility outside of the app store, is it not even possible to install such an app offerred in a different way?

    (especially given the wording that it is, in effect, a browser extension)

    along similar notes, is there a market for an alternative browser that is just extensible enough that you could effectively program useful apps on it and bypass such walled garden BS ... and does chrome/firefox not already provide that?

  • by jjcm on 10/1/24, 9:50 PM

    This will continue to happen as long as the incentives of the platform are misaligned with the incentives of the user.

    For ad-supported sites, the customer is the advertiser, not the viewer. The site will optimize the experience for the customer. 3rd party apps simply don't provide a way to control ad delivery, so there's an incentive for the platform to shut them down.

    It's why I've been pushing for/working on a paid social sharing site, since at that point the customer is the user. It means the incentives are aligned, and 3rd party apps are a boon not an anathema.

  • by RIMR on 10/1/24, 10:30 PM

    I love my MacBook, but this kind of App Store nonsense is exactly why you won't find me using any other Apple products. At least with MacOS I can install whatever software I want without Apple's approval, and I can write Mac OS programs and Apple doesn't get to decide if my users are allowed to run them on their machines.

    But iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS are awful wall-garden hellscapes that force me to use Apple's store, or pound sand. This is a great example where a developer created a useful app in good faith, following all of the rules laid out by YouTube and Apple, and because Google didn't like it (despite it not breaking any rules or laws), the project has been killed with no recourse for the developer or the users. There's no alternative option to acquire this app, it's Apple's way, or the highway.

    Let me write the software I want to write, and use the software I want to use, and get the hell out of my way.

  • by MikeRichardson on 10/3/24, 2:51 AM

    Why not implement Juno as a userscript?

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/userscripts/id1463298887 is supposedly compatible with Apple Vision.

  • by rekttrader on 10/1/24, 9:35 PM

    Put the code on GitHub and make it open. It’s a shame, and yet you can ensure it a I’ll get used

  • by HorizonXP on 10/1/24, 9:30 PM

    Bah! Humbug!

    I use this all the time. Thanks for making it.

  • by car on 10/1/24, 10:12 PM

    The risks of a derivative business.

  • by skybrian on 10/1/24, 9:38 PM

    What does this app do?

  • by daryl_martis on 10/1/24, 11:29 PM

    release the code then

  • by delduca on 10/1/24, 10:18 PM

    Probably the same will happen to Reeder.

    Fuck you YouTube to make a worse UI & UX.

  • by quercus on 10/1/24, 10:29 PM

    Time for Selig to build some original ideas instead of yet another wrapper around a popular service.

  • by vfclists on 10/1/24, 10:07 PM

    Is this for Apple's VR thingy?

    I take it this is for Apple's app store and Apple removed it.

    I thought Youtube removed it from Play store or something, so Apple is the bad guy here.