Hey, a new email app made by the founders of Chicago tech company Basecamp, was granted approval from Apple to administer updates to its app on the App Store after the tech giant initially denied Hey’s request.
Late Friday evening, Apple approved Hey’s update, but required it to make some adjustments to better fit within in its App Store guidelines, according to a blog post penned by Basecamp CEO Jason Fried.
Apple asked the developers to offer a free option of its app on the App Store that gives users access to an in-app, free and temporary Hey membership. To continue using the software after the 14-day trial period, customers have to pay $99 per year.
Hey says its team worked through the weekend to deliver the update by Monday morning.
The feud began last week when Apple rejected the first set of updates to Hey, which the company describes as a simple, no-nonsense email organizer.
At the time, Apple was telling Hey that if it wanted to update the app, Hey would have to share 15-30% of the revenue with Apple, according to David Heinemeier Hansson, the CTO at Basecamp and developer of Hey. He also wrote on Twitter that if Hey didn’t comply with Apple’s demands, the tech giant would take Hey off its App Store completely.
Hey appealed Apple’s demands, but Axios reported soon after that Apple had rejected the appeal as well, saying Hey needed to either offer an in-app subscription option or a free version.
Though Hey has delivered a new version of its app that abides by Apple’s terms, Hey has not adopted Apple’s own in-app payment system or allowed users to pay for its service through the iOS app, according to reporting from The Verge. As of now, users still have subscribe for Hey directly on its website.
