Juno, the widely praised (unofficial) YouTube app for the Vision Pro, has been removed from Apple’s App Store following complaints from Google, according to From Juno developer Christian Selig. Selig said Google suggested his app infringed on its trademark.
This is the latest setback for Selig. Mr. Selig shut down the popular Apollo last year after the company changed its developer policies and started charging fees for its API. The shutdown of Apollo and other apps like it sparked outrage from Reddit users and moderators.
This time, Selig said he didn’t want any drama, noting that the $5 app was a “hobby project” for him to tinker with developing for visionOS. “While I had a lot of fun building Juno, I always thought of it as basically a little app I built for fun,” Selig writes on his website. “So I have no desire at all to turn this into a huge battle similar to what happened on Reddit all those years ago.”
It’s unclear which aspect of Juno was at fault. Selig said Google referred to its “trademarks and iconography” in a message to Apple and said “Juno is not following YouTube guidelines and modifying its website in an unauthorized manner.” ” he said. “Personally, I don’t agree with this because Juno is just a web view, a browser extension that changes CSS to make websites and video players look more like ‘visionOS’,” says Selig. he explains. “We won’t place any logos other than those already on the website, and our brand guidelines allow for the ‘For YouTube’ suffix. ”
Google hasn’t developed its own YouTube app for Vision Pro, but the company said such an app is “on the roadmap.” The company did not respond to requests for comment.
Selig said people who already pay for the app should be able to continue using it for now, but future YouTube updates could cause the app to break.
