Apple Updates The App Store’s Screen Shot Policy

Apple has announced that it will be updating the App Store’s screen shot policy. Developers can now only change their app’s App Store screen shots when they submit new binary updates on new or existing apps. Screen shots will be locked into iTunes Connect once submitted. This change goes into effect today, January 9th, 2012. Apple announced this change via the Apple developers news page.

This update to Apple’s developer terms has been much needed over the past few months. Some developers have been submitting iOS apps to the App Store that feature legitimate screen shots in order to get approved, only to change them to screen shots of other popular iPhone applications to scam users out of a few bucks.

We’ve even seen some applications use screen shots of games that aren’t available on iOS yet, like Pokemon. For instance, last year we saw a fake Pokemon Yellow app hit the App Store with fake screen shots. The application made it to the third most downloaded app spot on the App Store, even though it was completely non-functional. Apple removed this application after tons of one star reviews were left for the app. We’ve also seen fake Minecraft apps trickle into the App Store this way.

Image Credit: PhotoAtelier (Glen)

Andrew is a geek, Apple enthusiast, blogger and coffee lover from Chicago.