Apple Confirms That Controversial Dating Apps Tea & Teaonher Have Been Pulled From The App Store

Controversial making love information apps, Tea and Tea connected Her, person been pulled from nan Apple App Store. The apps’ removal was first spotted by nan app shop intelligence supplier Appfigures, which told TechCrunch nan 2 apps were removed from nan App Store connected Tuesday successful each markets, but stay unrecorded connected Google Play.

Reached for comment, Apple confirmed nan apps’ removal, saying it removed Tea Dating Advice and TeaOnHer from nan App Store because they grounded to meet Apple’s requirements astir contented moderation and personification privacy. The institution besides said it saw an excessive number of personification complaints and antagonistic reviews, which included complaints of minors’ individual accusation being posted successful these apps.

Apple communicated nan issues to nan developers of nan apps, a typical said, but nan complaints were not addressed. (Request for remark from nan app developers person not yet been returned.)

Specifically, Apple cited violations of its App Review Guidelines 1.2, 5.1.2, and 5.6. Rule 1.2 says apps pinch user-generated contented should connection reporting and blocking features, and should region objectionable content. Rule 5.1.2 says apps can’t usage aliases stock someone’s individual accusation without permission, and 5.6 says excessive customer reports and antagonistic reviews break Apple’s Developer Code of Conduct.

Tea and TeaOnHer person generated a batch of headlines and liking since going viral earlier this year. Tea, which had softly existed since 2023 earlier picking up steam successful 2025, was sounded arsenic a making love information instrumentality for women, somewhat akin to nan “Are We Dating nan Same Guy?” Facebook Groups. The app encouraged women to spill specifications astir men, peculiarly those connected making love apps. This included their individual information, Yelp-style reviews, and whether they’d dub them a “green flag” aliases “red flag.”

Many men, however, didn’t admit nan app’s penetration into their privateness and questioned whether sharing accusation for illustration this could beryllium considered defamation.

After going viral and generating controversy, Tea suffered a information breach complete nan summer, pinch hackers gaining entree to 72,000 images, including 3,000 selfies and photograph IDs submitted for relationship verification, arsenic good arsenic 59,000 images from posts, comments, and nonstop messages.

Later, a rival app called TeaOnHer launched to connection men nan expertise to crockery connected women successful nan aforesaid way, but it was beset by information issues that exposed users’ individual information, including authorities IDs and selfies, TechCrunch discovered successful August.

Appfigures says nan Tea app saw 6.1 cardinal full life downloads and had generated $5 cardinal successful gross gross to date. TeaOnHer had 2.2 cardinal downloads and didn’t connection in-app purchases.

With their removal, copycat apps are gaining traction. For instance, an app called Tea connected Her & Him – Overheard has 354,000 full downloads and has jumped from No. 90 connected nan Overall Top App Charts to No. 27.