For the App Store Team & App Governance Team…
I’m beyond frustrated after yet another immediate app delisting with zero prior warning.
Shopify just shut one of my apps down without any heads-up. This app is a major source of income for me (and many other developers rely on their apps the same way). Then the support staff messages me with the issue right before they clock out for the day, so the app has now been offline for hours — completely dead, no installs, no revenue — and I can’t even start fixing it until the next business day. That’s not just inconvenient; it’s a terrible business experience for partners who are building real businesses on this platform.
I’ve raised this before, but clearly it needs to be said louder: immediate delisting is way too dramatic and punitive. For most issues (especially minor or fixable ones), there is absolutely no excuse to yank an app offline instantly.
My suggestion:
Implement a policy that gives developers at least 24 hours’ notice before delisting — and honestly, 48 hours should be the bare minimum. That small buffer would let us actually address whatever issue you’re flagging, push an update, or at the very least communicate with our merchants instead of everyone waking up to a broken/dead app and lost revenue.
This current process is ridiculous and it’s actively hurting legitimate developers trying to run sustainable businesses on Shopify. A little advance notice isn’t asking for much — it’s basic fairness when people’s livelihoods are on the line.
Shopify team / other developers: does anyone else feel this way? Has anyone had success getting this kind of change considered?
Thanks for reading. Hoping this gets some attention.