Apple has removed yet another cool-sounding app from the App Store.
The Vidyo iOS screen recording app showed up in the App Store on Wednesday, but Apple promptly pulled it on Thursday morning, according to TechCrunch. The app being allowed in the App Store came as a surprise to begin with, since Apple bans such screen recording capabilities on iOS devices.
“I was surprised to see this in the AppStore,” wrote one early reviewer, according to the cached version of the iTunes App Store page for Vidyo. “This is a LEGIT SCREEN RECORDER!!!! I have been searching for this FOREVER!! The quality is great and sound is awesome! And there is no lag when watching your playback!”
Vidyo allowed you to record your iPhone or iPad screen and save the files to your device. You could also capture audio and any other device input, like footage taken with front or back camera or sound coming in through the microphone. Vidyo allowed you to record your screen even when you weren’t using the app, so you could capture your home screen. This was done by simulating AirPlay mirroring, another reason why Vidyo was placed on Apple’s chopping block.
For those users lucky enough to have installed Vidyo before it was yanked, the app cost $5.
Why this matters: Apple has a long history of yanking apps from the iOS App Store if they tinker too deeply into your device functions. Apple has a very detailed app review and approval process in place, so most often these apps get rejected before they even surface in the App Store. A recent example is Gravity, an app that utilized 3D Touch capabilities to turn your iPhone into a digital scale.
It remains unclear how Vidyo made it out the gate, considering how screen recording is a widely known App Store no-no. If you got a chance to install Vidyo before it was taken down, let us know how it’s working for you in the comments.
Author: Oscar Raymundo, Staff Writer
Oscar writes about iOS, mobile culture and digital music. He also hosts 'The iPhone Show' from Macworld's San Francisco HQ.