How to Download Apps That are No Longer in Your Phone’s App Store
Smartphone app stores are well established at this point, and as much as we love to see new apps become available, that also means the inevitable: sometimes apps go away. Here’s what you can do if your favorites disappear.
Why Do Apps Disappear?
Before we talk about how you can get apps that are no longer available to download from your phone’s respective app store, let’s first talk about why apps get removed in the first place.
Generally, this is a call by the developer; the app gets pulled because they no longer support it. Case in point: Epic Games recently pulled all versions of Infinity Blade from the iOS App Store for that exact reason. The company claimed lack of resources to support the games “at a level that meets [their] current standards.” Makes sense—if you’re going to do something, might as well do it right, after all.
More often than not, this is how it goes. The app becomes more trouble than it’s worth to continue supporting, its features get moved into another app from the same developer (and there’s no need for redundancy), or the developer is dissolved completely.
The good news is that if the app you’re looking for isn’t available for any of those reasons, you should still be able to re-download it if you’ve previously had it downloaded (this is especially true for paid apps).
That said, it’s worth noting that if the app has is removed by the app store company itself—Apple in the case of the iOS App Store or Google for the Play Store—then it’s most likely gone forever. If they pulled it, there’s a good reason for that so you can’t expect to get it back easily.
If the app is no longer in the app store, however, here’s the easiest way to get it back for both Android or iOS devices.
How to Download Apps That Are No Longer in the iOS App Store
If you’re an iOS user, your options are pretty limited—you have to get your apps from the App Store. Fortunately, if you bought or downloaded an app that is no longer available, you can probably still grab it.