Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

I thought I should look at the App Store and see what this app is doing in comparison to similar apps.

The logo is basically a big pill and the tagline "Powerful keep-awake utility" which is clearly alluding to the drug. https://imgur.com/a/RJXHaBa

This was consistent with the feedback the author received: "[the] app appears to promote inappropriate use of controlled substances. Specifically, your app name and icon include references to controlled substances, pills"

Almost all of the other top apps in the app store in the same category use some reference to caffeine either in the name or tagline or description (e.g. "Jolt of Caffeine" or "Owly" which has a logo of an owl in a cup of coffee) https://imgur.com/a/yySBqEL

There's one other, much less popular app called "Coca" which appears to reference cocaine, but doesn't also have a drug-referencing icon or tagline, and which only has 15 reviews. By comparison, Amphetamine seems to be the most popular result, at least for the search term "awake", with 1.37K reviews

The guideline in question doesn't seem to consider excessive use of caffeine as problematic to encourage. "1.4.3 Apps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of marijuana, tobacco, or controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies) isn’t allowed."

Overall, Amphetamine did seem to be pushing the drug-use angle much harder than other apps in the category based on the logo, tagline and title, especially if you consider caffeine abuse not problematic.

Added: I don't have a strong opinion on this one either way, other than edgy naming has pros and cons. Word of mouth is easier, but sometimes a problem like this happens.

"1.4.3 Apps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of marijuana, tobacco, or controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies) isn’t allowed."

Taking this literally, is an amphetamine an illegal drug? It’s a class of Schedule II drugs that are legal in all 50 states.

Considering the context can be helpful. Apple has their caffeinate utility, seems to me amphetamine is an appropriate name for a more powerful “stimulant” utility, given the naming convention Apple themselves have laid out.

It's not illegal, it is perfectly legal, but like driving a car you need to go through a process for it that not everyone can clear.

For example, if you have issues staying awake from narcolepsy it's possible to legally obtain amphetamines, and our society generally accepts this to be a good thing.

Opioids are often prescribed for good reason as well but there's still an opioid epidemic and referencing them in your app's name or icon probably isn't a good thing to do. Some amphetamines are schedule 2 drugs in the US so possession is illegal in most circumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act#cite...

It's a "controlled substance", which means it is illegal under many circumstances. Most illegal drugs are actually illegal in that way.

One way it's different from driving a car is that you can own a car without having a license -- car possession is not regulated -- whereas the possession of controlled substances is what's regulated.

What drug-use angle are they pushing? The pill logo is actually pretty typical of generic 15mg amphetamine/dexamphetamine salts, a common ADHD prescription, and nothing about the tagline strikes me as drug-adjacent. "Powerful keep-awake utility"? It does what it says on the tin.

Most amphetamines except for methamphetamine are generally possessed legally. Surprisingly, most of the illegal market for non-meth amphetamine is misdirected legal pills.

They're also quite different from opiods because unlike them, they aren't inherently addictive if prescribed properly. For example, prescribed for ADHD, all cause addiction rates do not increase from amphetamine use. In general, it's about as addictive as alcohol, and that's perfectly acceptable as the name for software such as WINE.

Another side of this: consumption is not regulated. So you can consume, but not possess.

Even for legal drugs most (maybe all?) countries have rules about how you can market or promote them. The classic example would be things like cigarette and alcohol marketing needing to include health warnings.

Since the App store is global, it makes sense to just not allow anything that could run afoul of those rules.

You seem to be trying to say that each element in itself doesn't invoke the illegal drug use metaphor. Even if that were the case, my argument is that the three pieces bolster work together.

Just like if I named a game "Alcohol" and the logo was a glass with some liquid in it, and the tagline was "Have a good time". Individually none of those would necessarily be promoting drinking alcohol. After all, alcohol has uses for cleaning, and the glass is just a glass, and "Drink in the fun" is just describing what it's like playing the game. But if you put them together, they unequivocally do.

As for there being legitimate uses of amphetamines, I'm not saying there aren't (I'm well aware of these uses, personally). That doesn't mean the off-label uses are legal. AFAIK, at least in the US, using amphetamines solely to "keep awake" is an illegal usage, and the tagline is referring specifically to that.