Voicebook VO: Pulling from the App Store

By MagicBeens, 11 March, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

It saddens me to write this, but I am forced to pull the Voicebook VO app, my attempt to make Facebook much more accessible, from the app store. Over the last year and a half, Facebook has made changes which, in effect, broke the functionality of Voicebook. I have been working to rectify this problem by updating the code to the new APIs. However, upon submitting the fixed version, I was told that Facebook will no longer provide permissions for apps to read from a users newsfeed if they already have an app on a given platform. Since Facebook already has their own iOS app (plus many others who were grandfathered in prior to this policy going into effect) then they will not grant this permission to me on the iOS platform.

Since the Newsfeed is the heart of the application,it it broken in the current version, and I cannot submit a fix, I have no alternative but to pull it from the store.

I want to thank everyone who helped with the testing and who embraced the app when it was working. It has been a pleasure.

I will continue to keep an eye out for projects that will help this community to which I can offer my assistance.

Ben

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Comments

By Justin on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 21:39

Hey Ben,
No problem, VoiceBook was great when it worked. I've only used it when it worked a few times and liked the experience. I honestly don't have trouble with the native Facebook app and it seems to be usable.
Thanks for the announcement, and look forward to new contributions from you.
Take care.

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 21:39

Agreed. It's a shame that facebook are being exclusive but I'm not very surprised. Anyway hope we can come up with a way for you to still contribute app wise to the blind community.

Blessings

By DPinWI on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 21:39

I liked VoiceBook and appreciate your efforts.

By banana on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 21:39

What a pity! I really liked your app and think facebook is heading into the wrong direction with this decision. Hopefully, you will be able to create great apps that are useful to this community in the future again. Your work is really appreciated.