This kind of behavior, as questionable as it is, would be totally fine if Apple didn't also employ a variety of technical measures to ensure that it's impossible to install software from outside their store.

Consider the Mac App Store: there are lots of restrictions, but no one really cares, because you can just...not use it.

Exactly, it is always making me angry when iOS proponents are trying to tell me not to use the App Store. I wish I could!

Could this backfire on Apple? They are already a target for antitrust. [1]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/technology/antitrust-appl...

Apple wants a slice of HEY’s pie.

Is HEY’s app essentially a web view?

Don’t they use the Turbo framework?