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Cal AI got removed from the App Store today.

@aistartupfren

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Why it worked

The video leverages a high-profile industry news story to provide actionable, cautionary advice, establishing the creator as an authority in the app development space.

Summary

The creator explains why the popular app Cal AI was removed from the App Store for violating payment policies. She uses this as a cautionary tale for other app developers to ensure their payment funnels comply with Apple's terms.

Structure

1Announce the removal of Cal AI from the App Store
2Explain the technical violation involving Stripe
3Discuss the timing and Apple's review process
4Provide advice to other app developers

On-screen text

Cal AI got removed from the App Store today. $100M App Cal AI got Removed by App Store -> Sold subscriptions through Stripe -> Skipped Apple's 15-30% cut -> Generated more revenue -> A guy exposed it -> Apple notices the matter -> Removed Cal AI from App Store Absolutely, horrible...

Transcript

Cal AI got removed from the App Store today. The Cal AI, the one with 15M+ downloads, $2M in store revenue last month, acquired by MyFitnessPal. Gone. Two days ago, a tweet went viral exposing their paywall setup: Stripe payment sheets appearing natively inside the app, instead of opening in the default browser. This violated the ToS and probably is the reason for the removal, the timing matches. This is just a reminder that if you are building app funnels, where you are processing payments, check before any updates, because Apple's review policies do not play around. With web2, you have a lot more control, but with web3, you have a lot more of the payment flow that is untouched. If today's news scares you, you should check your paywall link, check your account and expect to be removed until you launch a fix.