Whenever an app goes viral on TikTok it’s bound to get plenty of downloads, and that was the case when Retro Pod started to blow up in December. But now the app appears to have gotten the wrong kind of attention and you can’t download it anymore.
Retro Pod was an app that was designed to turn your iPhone into an iPod, including the clicky experience we all wish was still a thing. TikTokers went mad for it, and the app was everywhere.
Now though, it looks like Apple has banned Retro Pod from the App Store, and that’s a real shame.
Apple hasn’t yet confirmed why Retro Pod has gone missing, and neither the developer of the app nor Apple responded to requests for comment by The Verge (opens in new tab). But it seems likely that Apple saw that an app was borrowing from the iPod and cut it off at the knees — apps can’t replicate Apple devices, after all, according to Apple’s own stringent App Store rules.
A sad day
The app itself was more than just a pretty face — Retro Pod was able to work with users’ Apple Music library, giving them access to their music in a way that the iPod was so famous for.
Sensor Tower says that the app received almost 450,000 total downloads on the iPhone including a massive 275,000 in the first work of this month. That’s a lot, and it apparently saw Retro Pod take its place as high as number 11 on the list of music apps in the App Store. Considering that list includes the likes of Spotify, it’s all rather impressive.
But that was never going to save Retro Pod from a fate that other similar apps have had to deal with. It seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever see Retro Pod make a return to the App Store, which is a shame, as it’s probably the best iPhone app for listening to music we’ve seen in a long time. Definitely better than Apple Music, that’s for sure.
