In accordance withnew App Store guidelines, Apple removed 181 vape-related apps from the platform and is outright banning the inclusion of any vape-related apps or features in its app marketplace.
It might seem like a sudden move on the companys part, but Apple has been slowly moving towards this inevitable ban for months nowand its easy to see why.
Vaping is often portrayed by the vape industry as being healthier and safer than smoking cigarettes, but the government and private organizations have been advocating against the use of vape products almost as passionately as they do against smoking, and with good reason.
TheCDC reportsthat vaping has resulted in at least 2,172 cases of respiratory illness/injury (including internal burns), and at least 42 recent deaths were due to nicotine vape products.
Its certainly not as high as smoking-related deaths and illness, but those numbers will only grow as more research is done and vapings popularity increases.
Many companies have responded to these figures by removing or banning the sale or advertising of vape-related products, hence Apples decision to pull all vaping apps from the App Store.
While axing all the apps in one fell swoop was sudden, it wasnt exactly surprising; Apple stopped accepting submissions for vape-related apps back in June and this formal ban is the last step in implementing its anti-vape policies.
If like me, you were unaware that vaping apps were even a thing in the first place then this probably doesnt mean much to you, but those who relied on an iOS app to control or monitor their vaping devices will need to find a new platform.
BothGoogle Playand theAmazon Appstore still have plenty of vape apps listedsome of which were also available on the Apple App Storebut these are Android app marketplaces and wont work on Apple Products.
At this point, unless you want to jailbreak an iOS machine so you might run non-App Store apps, your choices are to jump to Android or, change your vape, or, yknow, stop vaping.
