Musk accuses Apple of snubbing X

Elon Musk publicly accuses Apple of refusing to list X and Grok in the App Store, hinting at political motives.

Musk accuses Apple of snubbing X in App Store

Elon Musk posted a message directed at Apple on August 11, 2025, alleging the company is refusing to feature X or its Grok AI in the App Store’s Must Have section. He cited a tweet from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account claiming X is the No. 1 news app in the United States and pressed Apple to explain why the two apps are not listed. Musk asked if politics are at play, framing the issue as a test of fairness in a major distribution channel.

Apple has not issued a public response in the thread, and there is no independent confirmation of changes to its policy. The exchange adds to a yearslong history of tensions between Musk and Apple, including criticism of how the platform treated the app formerly known as Twitter after Musk acquired it in 2022. The episode underscores how much control platform owners hold over visibility and, by extension, revenue for large and small developers alike.

The incident highlights the power imbalance between platform owners and developers. App stores decide who earns visibility and what audiences can easily access, a dynamic that can influence traffic, growth, and even influence over public conversation. When a CEO frames a distribution decision in political terms, it invites scrutiny of whether platform rules are applied evenly across players.

For investors and policymakers, the clash signals broader questions about openness, neutrality, and the risk of political narratives shaping technical decisions. If gatekeeping becomes more common or more opaque, it could alter competition, pricing and innovation in the mobile ecosystem, beyond a single feud between two high-profile tech figures.

Highlights

The outcome could redefine how open platforms must be to diverse apps and voices.