applecensorship

We monitor 175 App Store storefronts to answer one question —

Is bthere - for your best friends censored by Apple?

Gone.

bthere - for your best friends is gone from every App Store storefront we test. It was last seen available on Jan 14, 2021.

88 tests on record·last checked 14 days ago

Why it is unavailable

Five things can put an app out of one App Store. Each is weighed below against what can be seen from outside — open a card for the reasoning.

  • A government or a court demanded itLikely

    and Apple complied. Apple publishes a count of these per country each year and never says which apps they were. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report

  • Apple applied a rule, unaskedLikely

    either its own review guidelines, or its own reading of a local law, with nobody having demanded anything. This is the largest category in Apple's own removal figures by a wide margin, and it covers distribution permits as well as content — Apple kept a free Bible app out of mainland China in 2021 for want of one. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report

  • The developer withheld itUnlikely

    freely, or under legal advice of their own, or because Apple's guidelines require that kind of app to be limited to certain countries. Switching a country off is easy for a developer to do in Apple's own tools: it needs no new version of the app, and it leaves no public trace other than the app being unavailable.

  • Something brokeUnlikely

    a rejected update, a lapsed certificate, a payment or licensing problem, a mistake nobody has got round to noticing.

  • A local rule about paying for itRuled out

    gambling licences, financial rules, tax — the kind of law that governs a transaction. Apple can obey every one of them by refusing the payment, which is why this is the only restriction we would accept and the only one that cannot touch a free app.

    • It is free, so Apple sells nothing here.
How this is weighed, and what it cannot tell you

Weighed from the evidence under each card, not from a model. There is no published figure for how Apple's removals divide up, so these are ordered words rather than percentages. For scale on the same-day counts: across the whole record an app leaves a storefront with fewer than two others, so a dozen at once is not a dozen coincidences.

None of this is certain, and a citation does not make it so: Apple naming a Chinese agency tells you what Apple said, not everything that happened. What can be said is that the readings alone cannot separate these five — a developer switching off a country and a government ordering it removed arrive at Apple's catalogue looking identical — and that nobody has ever measured how they divide across the App Store. The one careful study of the question was done on Google's store, using an error message Apple does not emit.

Apple publishes no record of which apps are unavailable in which of its App Stores. For the removals it makes on a government's demand it publishes the agency and the law behind every one — 2,045 of the 166,899 apps it removed during 2025 — and never which app. Where a reason reaches the public at all, it is usually because a developer chose to say so. Apple's App Store Transparency Report

Know of a statement, notice or order we have missed? Tell us →

bthere - for your best friends

Developer: bthere Holdings LLC · Category: Social Networking · Released: Sep 26, 2016 · Rating: 4.8★

View in App Store ↗
0stores where available
26stores where blocked
2.51Bpeople behind the block
26of 175 stores tested
88tests on record

Other Social and messaging apps missing from mainland China

Everything missing from mainland China →

Life of this app

  1. Sep 26, 2016Released on the App Store
  2. Jan 14, 2021First tested by AppleCensorship
  3. Jan 14, 2021Last seen available anywhere
  4. Aug 7, 2022Gone from 26 storefronts
  5. Sep 4, 2026Most recent test

Testing history

One column per month, every month from the first reading to the last. Height follows how many readings we took that month; red is the share of them that found the app unavailable. An empty month is one nobody tested.

2021-012026-09

Found availableFound unavailable

Availability by storefront

Every storefront we test, current status first. Data is a measurement, not a promise: each row carries its own date.

Test now
BahrainBHUnavailableApr 11, 20242 years ago
BelgiumBEUnavailableDec 17, 20233 years ago
BeninBJUnavailableDec 20, 20233 years ago
BruneiBNUnavailableMar 14, 20252 years ago
China (Mainland)CNUnavailableJan 14, 20214 years ago
DR CongoCDUnavailableAug 7, 20224 years ago
FijiFJUnavailableJan 1, 20223 years ago
GrenadaGDUnavailableSep 4, 202614 days ago
HondurasHNUnavailableFeb 27, 20222 years ago
Hong KongHKUnavailableJan 1, 20223 years ago
MaliMLUnavailableJun 1, 20222 years ago
MontserratMSUnavailableFeb 27, 20222 years ago
NauruNRUnavailableAug 20, 202414 days ago
NepalNPUnavailableJun 16, 20222 years ago
NorwayNOUnavailableAug 7, 20224 years ago
PakistanPKUnavailableNov 28, 20233 years ago
PolandPLUnavailableJan 1, 20223 years ago
RussiaRUUnavailableJun 1, 20222 years ago
RwandaRWUnavailableJul 17, 20233 years ago
SeychellesSCUnavailableJun 16, 20224 years ago
South AfricaZAUnavailableNov 29, 20233 years ago
UkraineUAUnavailableJun 1, 20222 years ago
United Arab EmiratesAEUnavailableJul 17, 202314 days ago
United StatesUSUnavailableJan 1, 202214 days ago
UzbekistanUZUnavailableJun 1, 20222 years ago
ZimbabweZWUnavailableAug 20, 20242 years ago
AfghanistanAFNot tested——0
AlbaniaALNot tested——0
AlgeriaDZNot tested——0
AngolaAONot tested——0
AnguillaAINot tested——0
Antigua & BarbudaAGNot tested——0
ArgentinaARNot tested——0
ArmeniaAMNot tested——0
AustraliaAUNot tested——0
AustriaATNot tested——0
AzerbaijanAZNot tested——0
BahamasBSNot tested——0
BarbadosBBNot tested——0
BelarusBYNot tested——0
BelizeBZNot tested——0
BermudaBMNot tested——0
BhutanBTNot tested——0
BoliviaBONot tested——0
Bosnia & HerzegovinaBANot tested——0
BotswanaBWNot tested——0
BrazilBRNot tested——0
British Virgin IslandsVGNot tested——0
BulgariaBGNot tested——0
Burkina FasoBFNot tested——0
CambodiaKHNot tested——0
CameroonCMNot tested——0
CanadaCANot tested——0
Cape VerdeCVNot tested——0
Cayman IslandsKYNot tested——0
ChadTDNot tested——0
ChileCLNot tested——0
ColombiaCONot tested——0
Costa RicaCRNot tested——0
Côte d’IvoireCINot tested——0
CroatiaHRNot tested——0
CyprusCYNot tested——0
CzechiaCZNot tested——0
DenmarkDKNot tested——0
DominicaDMNot tested——0
Dominican RepublicDONot tested——0
EcuadorECNot tested——0
EgyptEGNot tested——0
El SalvadorSVNot tested——0
EstoniaEENot tested——0
EswatiniSZNot tested——0
FinlandFINot tested——0
FranceFRNot tested——0
GabonGANot tested——0
GambiaGMNot tested——0
GeorgiaGENot tested——0
GermanyDENot tested——0
GhanaGHNot tested——0
GreeceGRNot tested——0
GuatemalaGTNot tested——0
Guinea-BissauGWNot tested——0
GuyanaGYNot tested——0
HungaryHUNot tested——0
IcelandISNot tested——0
IndiaINNot tested——0
IndonesiaIDNot tested——0
IraqIQNot tested——0
IrelandIENot tested——0
IsraelILNot tested——0
ItalyITNot tested——0
JamaicaJMNot tested——0
JapanJPNot tested——0
JordanJONot tested——0
KazakhstanKZNot tested——0
KenyaKENot tested——0
KosovoXKNot tested——0
KuwaitKWNot tested——0
KyrgyzstanKGNot tested——0
LaosLANot tested——0
LatviaLVNot tested——0
LebanonLBNot tested——0
LiberiaLRNot tested——0
LibyaLYNot tested——0
LithuaniaLTNot tested——0
LuxembourgLUNot tested——0
MacaoMONot tested——0
MadagascarMGNot tested——0
MalawiMWNot tested——0
MalaysiaMYNot tested——0
MaldivesMVNot tested——0
MaltaMTNot tested——0
MauritaniaMRNot tested——0
MauritiusMUNot tested——0
MexicoMXNot tested——0
MicronesiaFMNot tested——0
MoldovaMDNot tested——0
MongoliaMNNot tested——0
MontenegroMENot tested——0
MoroccoMANot tested——0
MozambiqueMZNot tested——0
Myanmar (Burma)MMNot tested——0
NamibiaNANot tested——0
NetherlandsNLNot tested——0
New ZealandNZNot tested——0
NicaraguaNINot tested——0
NigerNENot tested——0
NigeriaNGNot tested——0
North MacedoniaMKNot tested——0
OmanOMNot tested——0
PalauPWNot tested——0
PanamaPANot tested——0
Papua New GuineaPGNot tested——0
ParaguayPYNot tested——0
PeruPENot tested——0
PhilippinesPHNot tested——0
PortugalPTNot tested——0
QatarQANot tested——0
Republic of the CongoCGNot tested——0
RomaniaRONot tested——0
São Tomé & PríncipeSTNot tested——0
Saudi ArabiaSANot tested——0
SenegalSNNot tested——0
SerbiaRSNot tested——0
Sierra LeoneSLNot tested——0
SingaporeSGNot tested——0
SlovakiaSKNot tested——0
SloveniaSINot tested——0
Solomon IslandsSBNot tested——0
South KoreaKRNot tested——0
SpainESNot tested——0
Sri LankaLKNot tested——0
St. Kitts & NevisKNNot tested——0
St. LuciaLCNot tested——0
St. Vincent & GrenadinesVCNot tested——0
SurinameSRNot tested——0
SwedenSENot tested——0
SwitzerlandCHNot tested——0
TaiwanTWNot tested——0
TajikistanTJNot tested——0
TanzaniaTZNot tested——0
ThailandTHNot tested——0
TongaTONot tested——0
Trinidad & TobagoTTNot tested——0
TunisiaTNNot tested——0
TürkiyeTRNot tested——0
TurkmenistanTMNot tested——0
Turks & Caicos IslandsTCNot tested——0
UgandaUGNot tested——0
United KingdomGBNot tested——0
UruguayUYNot tested——0
VanuatuVUNot tested——0
VenezuelaVENot tested——0
VietnamVNNot tested——0
YemenYENot tested——0
ZambiaZMNot tested——0

Testing asks Apple whether it will sell this app in that storefront, right now, by the same method the crawler has used since 2019. Your browser asks Apple directly, so the answer describes what Apple serves your connection — and if your browser cannot reach Apple at all, we ask on your behalf and say so. The result is a link: open it to see Apple's own answer and check ours. Readings are added to the record above; roughly a quarter of the readings taken each day come from people testing.

How we test

Availability is checked against Apple's own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way the App Store app asks. "Unavailable" means Apple's servers say the app cannot be offered in that country — it does not say who asked for the removal. Removals initiated by the developer and removals demanded by governments look the same from outside; the history and context on this page are how we tell them apart.