December 11, 2022

TonSafe 2.1: Held Up Again By Apple

Just so our customers know: TonSafe 2.1 has been completed, tested and is ready for release, with many new features, as well as some fixes, and hopefully no new bugs...

However, as per usual, the broken Apple App Store Review system is letting everyone down, so let's share a little about this...

Some of you may know that Apple were delaying a past update of important fixes, because they were insisting that we put a "Delete Account" button.

As you may know, it isn't really possible to delete a wallet account smart contract on the TON blockchain. Freeze it you may be able to, but delete it you cannot.

So we told Apple, if you want us to say the sky is red and the earth is flat, we'll never do so, in this case, we will just have to explain to everyone why we're not in app store.

Apple responded, as expected, with we don't care. So what did we do?

What did other wallets do?

First, let's see what the other TON wallets, which are the very reason TonSafe exists, did when they were being forced to add a "Delete Account" button to get into Store:

We won't name the wallets by their correct names, so as not to promote privacy-invasive and unprofessional wallets, so we'll call them Wallet A and Wallet B:

Wallet A: Made a Delete Account button and told its users if you push this button your account will be deleted and all data removed from the phone. Yes, data is removed from the phone, but the account is not deleted. It's a lie and they know it.

Wallet B: Made a Delete Account button and told its users you need to have at least 0.1 TON before you can delete your account. Then they say to do so all your funds must be moved to another wallet — and by default they include their own wallet address.

But, even if you move all your funds to their wallet address to make them richer and yourself poorer, or to another wallet address, or you did not have enough balance and so you added 0.1 TON, what really happens when you press "Delete Account" button on Wallet B? A pop up message: "Account Deletion Completed".

Only, of course, as we could expect from the Wallet B team which are notorious for dishonesty, of course, no such thing, account is not deleted. You can happily log back in later on or whenever you like, only of course, you wallet will now be empty.

What did we do?

So, how did TonSafe handle the threat from Apple? After spending many weeks and even a appeals process to try to focus Apple on the legal implications of lying to their customers as well as hours, and the moral implications thereof, and pointing to their own conditions which they were not paying attention to, and after seeking legal advice, this is what we did: we decided, OK, but we'll be honest about it.

So, in TonSafe you will not see a Delete Account button but a "Delete Account" button including quotation marks, as a legal protection, as per legal advice. And if you tap on it? You get a pop up which explains that you cannot delete an account on the TON blockchain, with a link to further information.

And of course this satisfied the apparatchiks at Apple Review team.

So, what is holding up 2.1 now?

A different issue, and one which they also wrongly used months ago to reject an update. We took it to appeal and we won. Now some other apparatchik has decided to push that button again, and with a promise that if we have bug fixes it'll be released, but, of course, they don't check back their mail for hours or days at a time.

And we've explained to them, AGAIN, that this issue is incorrect on their part, and was already raised to appeal and won in the past. Meanwhile, expect what usually happens: they simply copy and paste a previous answer again, and then we go to appeal...

and then we wait again for days, or even weeks...

2.1 to be released Monday 12/12/22

Our next update has many improvements, including vast improvements to Arabic layout, and new features most notably Contact List address book and messaging.

More currencies were also added taking the total to 58 local currencies.

If you compare the Send feature in terms of convenience and safety with other wallets, TonSafe is by far the best. Likewise with the address book contacts: everything is done carefully with utmost consideration of your privacy.

Unlike Wallet B, nothing leaves your phone. Your contact list is visible to you, and only you or whoever else you let look at your phone. Nothing leaves your device.

And this is not all for the address book more features will be added in future updates.

So, why don't we release 2.1 already on Play Store and APK?

Well, we want to release it to everyone at the same time. But if Apple take too long again, we'll give it until some time Monday, we'll release with the usual consolations to iPhone users that they'll either have to wait, or join our external beta test flight.

Don't you just love big tech?`