Vibe Coding Spurs App Surge... New Apps on Apple App Store Up 84%

The rise of "vibe coding," which allows developers to write code by giving natural language instructions to artificial intelligence (AI), has significantly lowered the barriers to app development, resulting in a sharp surge in the number of new apps registered on app stores.

According to IT media outlet The Information on April 5 (local time), the number of new apps registered worldwide on app stores in the first quarter of this year reached 235,800, up 84% from the same period last year. Last year, nearly 600,000 new apps were registered, a 30% increase from the previous year, but the growth rate in the first quarter alone has already exceeded 80%.

This surge is attributed to the effects of "vibe coding," where developers communicate their intentions in natural language instead of programming languages, and AI generates the code. Introduced last February by OpenAI founding member Andrej Karpathy, the concept enables anyone to develop an app with just an idea and an AI model, even without coding experience.

As the speed and volume of app development increase, Apple's infrastructure is experiencing overload. The review period for new apps on the App Store has recently been delayed to more than 3 to 7 days, whereas the typical review time is 24 to 48 hours after submission.

At the end of last month, Apple began implementing measures to slow down this pace by restricting apps related to vibe coding. For example, Apple has blocked updates for coding apps that use AI to generate and execute app functions, such as Replit and Vibecode, and has removed the vibe coding app "Anythink," which allows users to create apps in a short time.

Apple determined that running code generated in real-time by AI within an app violates the App Store's review guidelines. Apple has traditionally operated the App Store in a closed manner, approving only apps with finalized features.

According to section 2.5.2 of Apple's app review guidelines, it is prohibited to run code within an app that creates unauthorized features in real time or alters how the app operates. This is because running unverified code on a user's device makes platform control difficult and increases security risks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.