August 18, 2021
Kosta Eleftheriou, the developer behind FlickType, recently announced plans to discontinue the iPhone keyboard for blind users after accusing Apple of treating developers unfairly through their false rejections and decisions.
FlickType is an app that includes an Apple Watch keyboard and the iPhone keyboard for blind and visually impaired users of VoiceOver, an Apple technology that can speak the key a user selects.
Eleftheriou had originally filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of using its control over iPhone app distribution to get it to sell his app, FlickType to the company at discount. He rejected this move.
The most recent reason for his discontinuation of the keyboard stems from an update he provided that was supposed to fix various iOS 15 issues and improve the app for VoiceOver users, which the company dismissed.
According to Eleftheriou, “Apple rejected it. They incorrectly argue again that our keyboard extension doesn’t work without ‘full access,’ something they rejected us for THREE years ago. Back then we successfully appealed and overturned their decision, and this hadn’t been a problem since. Until now.”
For more information, read the original story in Ars Technica.
