YouTube client Juno is removed from the Vision Pro App Store
Juno was a native app for watching YouTube videos on Apple's Vision Pro. But YouTube apparently didn't like that at all.
The YouTube client Juno is history. Apple has removed it from the Vision Pro App Store.
(Image: Christian Selig)
The unofficial YouTube client Juno has been removed from the App Store for the Apple Vision Pro. Developer Christian Selig announced in a blog post that Apple had removed his app at the instigation of Google. The YouTube operating company complained that Selig had not adhered to the YouTube guidelines and had changed the website in a way that the company did not approve of.
Juno was released in February of this year and closed a gap in the range of apps for Apple's first spatial computer, as YouTube had previously refrained from developing its own native app for the Vision Pro. Selig is an experienced app developer and was responsible for the Reddit client Apollo for the iPhone, among other things. His Juno app saved Vision Pro owners the detour via the browser to watch YouTube videos.
Only the CSS of the website has changed
YouTube, still without a native Vision Pro app, apparently did not find this amusing and contacted Selig a few months ago to draw his attention to the infringements, as he wrote on his blog. However, the developer did not see any copyright infringement in his approach: Juno is technically just a web view that, similar to a browser extension, only changes the layout descriptions in the so-called Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) of the YouTube website in such a way that the web player looks more like a visionOS app. According to Selig, no other logos were placed, and the advertisements were not blocked.
However, YouTube was not satisfied with this and had the app removed by Apple. "Juno was just a fun hobby project for me. As a developer, I wanted to gain experience in developing for the Vision Pro, and as a user, I wanted to have a nice way to watch YouTube videos on this cool new device," he explains his reasons for developing Juno.
No desire for a second Apollo
As he has no interest in entering into another massive dispute, as he did on Reddit, he asks for your understanding that he is letting Juno rest. In 2023, Selig discontinued his Reddit client app Apollo after Reddit changed its APIs and charged high fees. Juno would continue to work for anyone who had already installed the app as long as YouTube did not make any major changes to its website. Selig actually had plans for new features, but this has now been canceled.
(mki)
