Apple Pulls Vibe Coding App 'Anything' — And It's Part of a Bigger Pattern

Friday, 03 April 2026 at 08:01

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Apple removed the vibe coding app Anything from the App Store on March 26, citing Section 2.5.2 of its App Review Guidelines. Co-founder Dhruv Amin was told his app violated Guideline 2.5.2, which requires apps to be self-contained and prohibits downloading, installing, or executing code that introduces or changes features or functionality.

Anything wasn't the first. It wasn't even the second.

Key Points

Apple removed Anything from the App Store March 26 under Guideline 2.5.2 — which bars apps from executing code that changes their own or other apps' functionality
Replit and Vibecode were blocked earlier in March — Anything's removal is the third enforcement action against vibe coding apps in the same month
Amin submitted an update allowing vibe coded apps to preview in a browser rather than inside Anything — Apple rejected it and pulled the app entirely
Apple told multiple outlets the issue isn't vibe coding itself — it's specific guideline violations around code execution
Apple introduced AI coding inside Xcode powered by Anthropic and OpenAI the same month — a timing detail that hasn't gone unnoticed

Why 2.5.2 Applies Here

The issue is that an app on iOS building another app inside itself bypasses App Review and takes Apple out of the equation of app distribution entirely. When a vibe coding tool generates and runs code live on a user's device, that code was never reviewed by Apple. From Apple's perspective, that's an App Store running inside an App Store.

The browser-based workaround Amin's team attempted was a genuine compliance effort. Apple rejected it anyway and removed the app entirely — an escalation that signals the problem isn't the implementation, it's the category.

The Inconsistency Problem

Apple approved an update for Emergent, an Indian vibe coding app with an identical workflow, the same week it removed Anything. As of April 1, Emergent's app ranks number one in Developer Tools on the App Store.

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That inconsistency is going to create legal and regulatory headaches. Enforcement that applies to some apps but not others with identical functionality is difficult to defend as principled rule application.

The Xcode Timing

Apple introduced AI coding inside Xcode powered by Anthropic and OpenAI — which also generates and runs code. Whether that code goes through App Review before execution, and how it is structurally different from what vibe coding apps do, Apple has not said.

That's a question developers and regulators are going to keep asking.