Apple’s Vibe Coding App Curb Leaves Startups Frustrated

Apple’s approach to so-called “vibe coding” apps has reportedly triggered complaints among startups and investors.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (May 3), the issue centers around what these companies argue is Apple’s erratic approach to applying App Store rules. This is happening amid a rise in artificial intelligence tools designed to make it easier to develop software.

One of these companies, Replit , said Apple had blocked updates to its iPhone app. Another startup, Anything , said its app had been blocked repeatedly and twice pulled from the App Store despite being approved initially.

Apple said its review process was created to protect users’ privacy and security and denied an uptick in AI-generated apps had led to slower approvals, FT added.

However, vibe coding startups say the iPhone maker is having a tough time applying its existing rules to AI tools that can create and roll out software almost instantly, the report added.

“We’re in the dark,” Anything founder Dhruv Amin told FT. “Either they should stop enforcing the rules in this weird way, or they should update the guideline to let this use case emerge.”

The FT story follows a similar report last week from The Information about an apparent crackdown on vibe coding services. That report noted that the vibe coding wave has led to an explosion of new apps on platforms like the iPhone, something that could pose a problem for Apple if this trend floods the App Store with lesser-quality apps.

Beyond that, the report added, these tools could be competition for Apple’s Xcode developer tool, which has launched integrations with Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s Codex models.

Writing about the advent of vibe coding earlier this year, PYMNTS argued that the office of the CFO is a perfect fit for this space, at least on paper.

“Finance has always been data-rich and time-poor,” that report said. “Modern organizations generate enormous volumes of financial and operational data across ERP systems, planning tools, data warehouses and point solutions.”

Access to data has never been an obstacle. Rather, the roadblock is but the friction that comes with interrogating it.

“However, vibe coding and conversational AI promise to help collapse much of that friction,” the report added.

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