Programming with the support of Large Language Models (LLMs) polarizes the developer community: While one faction appreciates the ease of work and the simplified introduction, another fears a flood of unstable, difficult to maintain and insecure applications. For Apple, Vibe coding is reflected in a higher volume of submitted apps. This was probably one reason why Apple has increasingly denied Vibe coding platforms access to the App Store in recent months. At least for the provider Replit, the blockade is now over: Apple released the Replit app for the first time after a month-long break. The company’s founder Amjad Masad announced this in a publication on X. Things had been clarified with Apple and the app was updated – for the first time in four months. He thanks customers for their support and points to a wealth of new functions, which are available for the first time in version 2.185.0 for iPhone and iPad. “Agent 4”, the current version of the company’s own LLM, makes it easier to work on several projects at the same time and allows several people to work together on the same project.
End of the blockade?
In the past few months, several providers have reported Vibe coding platformsthat Apple’s App Store Review Team refused to update their apps. The reason cited was Section 2.5.2 of the App Store Guidelines, which prohibits an app from subsequently downloading, installing or executing additional code. The competitor Anything was initially denied an update, then the entire app was banned from the app stores. How Replit was able to get Apple to give in remains uncertain. In any case, the current version includes in-app purchases for booking subscriptions – with a significant price difference: While you pay 216 US dollars (around 185 euros) for an annual subscription to “Replit Core” on the provider’s website, the same package costs 249.99 euros in the App Store.
