British entrepreneur’s ‘robot lawyer’ takes on Apple by challenging app rejections

A British entrepreneur whose “robotic lawyer” app is utilized by hundreds of customers to battle parking tickets and authorized battles is taking up Apple with a service to problem the tech big when it shuts down apps.

DoNotPay, founded by 23-year-old Joshua Browder and backed by high Silicon Valley traders, is launching the function after Apple got here near eradicating the app final week.

On Tuesday, Apple stated the DoNotPay app broke the corporate’s guidelines and could be faraway from the App Retailer. The ban was rapidly reversed, however Mr Browder stated the episode motivated him to assist different builders problem the foundations. 

Tens of hundreds of apps or app updates which can be rejected from Apple’s App Retailer every week, and builders have claimed they discover the assessment course of inconsistent.

Mr Browder stated the DoNotPay chatbot will routinely generate an attraction with the app assessment course of, giving builders a greater probability of efficiently interesting when Apple rejects an app.

DoNotPay’s chatbot service, launched 5 years in the past, routinely recordsdata authorities paperwork, fights parking tickets, and handles landlord disputes by coming into particulars of a declare. The app also can declare compensation for spam emails and report fraud.

It has round 100,000 subscribers who pay $3 or £3 a month for the service, and its backers include Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, three main tech traders. It has dealt with round 1m instances in whole.

Mr Browder stated Apple had demanded the app use its cost service, from which Apple takes a 30pc fee, for promoting subscriptions, earlier than reversing its determination on Tuesday evening. Apple’s big App Retailer critiques 100,000 new apps or updates every week, and rejects round 40pc of them.

“The app assessment tips are longer than the US Structure, and DoNotPay is all about beating forms,” Mr Browder stated. He stated he wouldn’t embrace the function within the iPhone app, since Apple’s guidelines prohibit apps that themselves talk about Apple’s guidelines, however would add it to DoNotPay’s service in net browsers. Apple didn’t reply to a request for remark.