Apparently, Apple’s rules apply to everyone but Apple

Apparently, Apple’s rules apply to every company and individual but itself. The tech giant has used the push notification of one of its native iOS apps to push one of the company’s ads to at least some users, though not everyone received it.

Apple could claim it’s not an ad, but this message to Apple Music subscribers is certainly that: “New, Apple Music on Amazon Echo: Now you can ask Alexa to play your favorite artists, songs, and more. Tap to get started.”

This is the fourth such push notification this month. The first, on Dec. 7, urged iPhone owners to upgrade to an iPhone Xs or Xr. The second, on the same day, promoted a new episode of Apple’s “Carpool Karaoke” TV show. The third, sent on Dec. 17, was for another “Carpool Karaoke” episode.

It’s not fair for Apple to be doing this when it would punish other companies for the same practice. The App Store Review Guidelines lists as unacceptable the practice of “onetizing built-in capabilities provided by the hardware or operating system, such as Push Notifications, the camera, or the gyroscope; or Apple services, such as Apple Music access or iCloud storage.”

Yet Apple is doing just that. It makes the company seem … desperate. Besides Apple Music is touted as offering “Millions of songs. Zero ads. No commitment.”

You can stop these push notifications by turning off notifications for the apps via the Settings app. Go to Notifications > Music or TV, and toggle off “Allow Notifications.” However, there’s no way to getting TV or Music notifications you might want without also getting the unwanted notifications from Apple.