ANONYMOUS CARDS and secret admirers may have been an integral part of St Valentines Day for years in Ireland, but it seems there is no place for them in modern technology.
Tech giant Apple has thwarted plans to bring romance into the lives of the shyest iPhone owners by rejecting an application that allowed them to send anonymous e-cards to potential Valentines.
The Secret Valentine programme, developed by Irish firm Appsie, was given the elbow by the App Store because the software would allow users to disguise their true identity.
The application allowed users to create their own card from scratch, customising the background and pictures before adding a personal message to the recipient. It would then be sent to the object of their devotion through Appsie’s server, using a generic “secret Valentine” e-mail address to keep the sender’s identity a mystery.
However, the light-hearted programme didn’t make it through the App Store’s approval process, with the anonymous element raising some concerns.
“Apple didn’t like that,” said Ronan Higgins of Appsie. “I think their concern would be that people could send a message to someone with a hate message or bullying, or even potentially spamming them.
“But we did point out to them that we’re actually monitoring all the e-cards being sent. We have a system where we can review all the e-cards that are generated ourselves, and delete the ones that are nasty, if there were any.”
Programmes submitted to the App Store are subjected to rigorous testing by Apple to ensure they meet reliability standards for the platform. However, the software can be rejected or returned to developers for review for a number of reasons, including duplicating the functions of the iPhone itself.
Appsie is already moving on to its next project - an e-card app for St Patrick’s Day.
