There is a new version of wwrite available, version 6.3.0. This will be the final version of wwrite. After more than 10 1/2 years of development it is time to stop working on wwrite. There are a few reasons for this decision.
The first reason is that there is very little usage of the app. I could speculate on why only a few people use it, and I will, but the reality is that not many people use it. The first possible reason is that it is a paid up-front app, you cannot try it before purchasing. The app has always been this way. While it is only $0.99, there is a large contingent of people who are reluctant to purchase any apps these days. The second possible reason is that it is hard to search for the app. If you do a search for "wwrite" in the App Store, every other writing app will appear, but wwrite will not. This is due toApple presuming you mean "write", and not "wwrite". Therefore, so every other app comes up in the results. The app name has not never changed, it has been the same since its introduction in April of 2010. This is entirely on Apple, since they control the searching algorithm. I get that people make mistakes, but they really should show exact matches first. They do have a link to search just for "wwrite" instead, but nobody sees that because it is in a small font.
The next two reasons are interrelated. The next reason is that there is a more popular version, wwriteLite. This is a free app, but it is ad-supported with first party ads. As mentioned above, the free version is definitely more popular than a paid version. Similarly, maintaining two versions of the same app is duplicating work. Any feature that gets added to one app, outside of anything related to ads, gets added to the other app. Therefore, this creates additional work for me just to maintain the same app twice.
The last reason is somewhat related to the last two. In January of 2020, I added the ability to make in-app purchases to wwriteLite. At the time the only in-app purchase was to remove ads. The price of this is $0.99. The in-app purchase effectively makes wwriteLite into the exact same app as wwrite.
For all of these reasons, I have made the decision to stop working on wwrite. It is not one that I came to lightly. wwrite was my first iOS app and its is not easy to stop working on an app after so much time. However, practicality dictates the change. If people are not using it,
I hope that stopping support on wwrite will allow me to make some bigger changes with wwriteLite, ones that I have wanted to make for a while but have not as of yet. wwriteLite is not going away, and there is a new version of that app available.
wwrite should continue to work throughout iOS and iPadOS 14's lifecycles. I am not sure if it will work in future versions of iOS and iPadOS. You can see the list of changes for the app below, or by checking out the change log.
If you have purchased wwrite at all in 2020, you can contact me to get a redemption code for the in-app purchase to remove ads from wwriteLite. Proof of purchase will be required for this. If you have purchased wwrite at all since it was initially released in 2010, thank you for using the app. I recommend using wwriteLite. So, give it a try, it is free after all.
Version 6.3.0 Changes
New Features
- Final release of wwrite.
- Added one-time alert for end of development. This is also avaiable in the "About" screen.
Tweaks
- Removed Feature Request menu option.
- Removed Contact support via email and twitter menu options.
- Removed Submit Review button on About screen.
- Remove ability to make in-app purchases, but you can restore existing in-app purchases.
- Removed wwrite from being able to run on Macs with an M1 chip.
