What the heck do they mean by "private api"?

[fcarney]

https://9to5mac.com/2019/11/04/electron-app-rejections/

I just heard about Apple rejecting things from a store for using a private API in their code. First what do they mean by "private api"? Second, why would anyone care if there is a private api?

[JonB]

@fcarney
Well, I can understand that, I guess. A "private API" means it's private for Apple's use. I guess they don't want third-party products published using it. For reliability, security etc. It might break at any time. Etc.

[ODБOï]

Same goes for Qt's private API i guess ?

[J.Hilk]

@LeLev
No electron used private macos/ios apis

Apple won‘t care of you use private Qtapis. As long as those don‘t use private Apple stuff 😉

[fcarney]

@JonB Okay, that makes sense. Don't use Apple's private API. Not private APIs in general.

@LeLev There are things that we can only do in QtQuick based apps by using private APIs of Qt. It sucks, I hate it, but we cannot find another way. We do this for file dialogs. I had a post on it a while back and the result was just use the private API.

[J.Hilk]

Turns out, there are some modules that use private apple apis
For example QWebEngine
So becarefull and always Check the Documentation😉

[fcarney]

@J-Hilk said in What the heck do they mean by "private api"?:

Turns out, there Art some modules that use private apple apis
For example QWebEngine

And that status can change for other modules if Apple decides to make some things private as well. Apparently some things were in the public APIs and then put into private APIs for some specific reasons.