Almedia's Freecash app was restored to the Apple App Store on June 17, 2026, completing the platform's return to both major mobile distribution channels after a removal that began in mid-April and cut off access for 80 million registered users.

The reinstatement closes a two-month gap that exposed the structural risks facing large-scale rewarded user acquisition campaigns when platform governance decisions intersect with media coverage. Freecash had already returned to Google Play on May 7, 2026 - more than five weeks earlier. The iOS channel, which had been the platform's most commercially significant distribution point, was the last piece to fall back into place.

The timeline of the removal and return

The sequence of events began on approximately April 13, 2026, when Apple removed the Freecash iOS app without advance notice. PPC Land reported the removal on April 14, 2026, noting that the app had climbed to number 2 in the US App Store overall chart and had been among the top-ranked apps in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. Within days, the Android version followed - a dual removal that PPC Land covered on May 2, 2026, confirming that Freecash had been taken down from both Google Play and the App Store simultaneously.

Moritz Holländer, founder and chief executive of Almedia, attributed the removals to media coverage. In a statement published on April 16, he described that coverage as containing "a number of inaccurate and misleading claims" about the business. He confirmed the company was working with both Apple and Google to resolve the situation and said it was "confident in a positive outcome." Neither platform issued a public statement explaining the specific reasons for the removals.

Google acted first. According to Almedia, the Android app was restored to Google Play on May 7, 2026. PPC Land reported the Google Play reinstatement on May 10, 2026, noting at the time that the Apple review remained unresolved. Six weeks later, the iOS reinstatement followed on June 17, 2026.

The commercial scale at stake

The scale of what was disrupted puts the significance of the return in concrete terms. According to Almedia, Freecash has accumulated more than 80 million registered users globally and has paid out more than 300 million US dollars in rewards over its lifetime. In 2026 alone, before the April removal, 19 million new users had joined the platform and the iOS app had reached the number 2 position in the US App Store overall chart. That trajectory represented a rapid expansion into what the company calls rewarded UA - a performance-based user acquisition model distinct from traditional paid install campaigns.

The commercial model works as follows. Mobile game publishers and other advertisers pay Almedia only when users complete meaningful in-app actions after downloading a game - for example, reaching a specific level or making an in-app purchase. Almedia then distributes a portion of that revenue to the Freecash users who completed the tasks. The arrangement separates the advertising cost from the install event itself, tying payment directly to post-install engagement. For game publishers, the appeal is measurable user behavior rather than raw install volume.

The removal severed this mechanism on iOS for both Freecash's existing user base and for new iOS users attempting to download the app. Almedia maintained a mobile web version as a contingency, but a web experience does not replicate native app engagement or discoverability through App Store search. According to Holländer's April 16 statement, the platform was paying out more than one million dollars daily to users at the time of the removal - a figure that quantifies what was at stake operationally during the period of unavailability.

Almedia's position and the Financial Times recognition

Almedia is registered in Berlin as Almedia GmbH, operating with more than 160 employees across offices in Berlin, London, New York, Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo, and Yerevan. The Financial Times' FT1000 list identified Almedia as the fastest-growing advertising company in Europe and the third fastest-growing company on the continent overall. That recognition comes from the FT1000, which ranks European businesses by compound annual revenue growth rate - a measure of trajectory rather than absolute size.

The company's advertising budget - not its revenue - exceeded 300 million US dollars annually at the time of the April removal, according to Holländer's public statement. That figure covered spending across Google, Meta, DSPs, television, and influencer partnerships. The scale of that commitment reflects how central iOS and Android distribution were to the Almedia business model. The company had rebuilt Freecash from scratch following a mid-2025 update to Apple's App Store guidelines that introduced section 3.2.2.(x), which explicitly permitted rewarded user acquisition models. That guideline change was the foundation on which Almedia invested heavily through early 2026.

According to Almedia, Moritz Holländer said: "We are glad that the Freecash app is fully back - both on the App Store and on the Google Play Store, and we thank the store providers for their trust and confirmation. The period was frustrating for our users and partners and we are thankful to them for their patience and support. Almedia can now fully focus on its mission to advance mobile advertising and continue to lead the growth and success of the rewarded UA sector."

What the removal revealed about affiliate governance

The April period surfaced a specific operational issue that has broader relevance for affiliate marketing programs in mobile advertising. Holländer's April 16 statement acknowledged that some third-party affiliates within Freecash's affiliate program had created advertisements on TikTok with what he described as exaggerated or misleading claims. When those ads were identified, Almedia says it had them removed and supported the platforms' decisions to take them down.

This disclosure matters because it illustrates how a platform's brand and distribution status can be affected by affiliate activity that the platform operator neither approved nor initially detected. Large rewarded platforms typically rely on affiliate networks to extend their reach - affiliates earn commissions by directing new users to the platform, and some independently create promotional content. The Almedia case shows that affiliate-created content, even when later removed, can influence how the primary platform is perceived by app distribution gatekeepers.

The episode also raised questions about data practices. Almedia stated in its April 16 response that it is "not a data broker" and does not sell user data. The company described itself as fully compliant with GDPR, citing German data protection standards. The privacy policy was updated to remove broad legal language that, according to Almedia, "could be misinterpreted," while the company maintained it had not collected the sensitive categories of data that media reports alleged.

The rewarded UA category and platform policy tension

The restoration comes against a backdrop of broader tension between rewarded platforms and app store governance. Rewarded user acquisition as a category has experienced previous removals and reinstatements at earlier points in its development. The mid-2025 Apple guideline update that explicitly permitted the model was widely interpreted by the industry as a durable signal. The April 2026 removal called that interpretation into question, showing that a written guideline update and uninterrupted operational access are not the same thing.

PPC Land's coverage of the AppsFlyer 2025 Performance Index from December 2025 had documented that rewarded platforms including Freecash were gaining ground in user acquisition rankings - context that underscores why the removal landed with such force in the mobile advertising community. The index showed rewarded platforms improving their performance scores alongside major networks, indicating that the category had achieved meaningful scale before the disruption.

For marketers allocating user acquisition budgets across mobile channels, the practical question the episode raises is one of platform dependency. A campaign architecture built around a single rewarded platform - regardless of how well that platform performs - is exposed to operational disruption if that platform loses app store access, even temporarily. The five-week gap between Google Play reinstatement and iOS reinstatement illustrates that the two major app stores move at different speeds through review processes, and that the timelines are not predictable from the outside.

The Almedia Summit and what comes next

With both channels now restored, Almedia has announced plans to host the first Almedia Summit on July 2 and 3, 2026, in Berlin. According to the company, the event will bring together leading mobile game publishers, advertising platforms, and user acquisition teams. The timing - approximately two weeks after the iOS reinstatement - positions the summit as the company's first major industry event since the disruption period ended.

The summit is relevant beyond its networking function. For mobile game publishers who suspended or reduced Freecash campaign activity during the iOS unavailability period, the event provides a direct channel to understand the current state of the platform and its forward roadmap. For advertising platforms that compete in or adjacent to the rewarded UA space, it represents Almedia signaling a return to market-facing activity.

The broader context for all of this sits within a mobile advertising market that has been moving rapidly. Liftoff's IPO in June 2026 - a mobile DSP and SSP with over 160,000 SDK integrations - reflected strong investor appetite for mobile user acquisition infrastructure. AppLovin's Q1 2026 results showed revenue of 1.84 billion dollars, with self-serve access to the Axon platform announced for June 2026. The competitive environment for mobile game publisher budgets is intensifying at precisely the moment Freecash is re-entering the iOS market with full native app access.

Why this matters for performance marketing

The Freecash episode is instructive for performance marketing teams in ways that extend beyond the specific company involved. Platform distribution is a dependency that campaign planners do not always treat with the same structural caution they apply to ad account access or attribution infrastructure. Yet the operational reality is that losing app store access - even temporarily and even with a mobile web fallback - changes conversion rates, disrupts attribution chains, and interrupts the user growth momentum that rewarded platforms depend on to deliver results for advertisers.

The App Store policy environment has been volatile across several dimensions simultaneously in 2026. Apple's activation of Texas SB 2420 age verification requirements in June 2026 added new compliance obligations for app developers. Apple's expansion of App Store search ad placements has changed the paid acquisition landscape within the store itself. Against this backdrop, the restoration of Freecash's iOS app confirms that the rewarded UA model retains its place within the Apple ecosystem - at least as of mid-June 2026.

Whether that position holds over time depends on factors that the Almedia case has clarified. Policy compliance is necessary but not sufficient. Affiliate channel governance is material to platform stability. Media coverage can trigger review processes that written guideline compliance does not insulate against. And the timeline from removal to reinstatement - approximately two months for iOS, around three weeks for Android - establishes a data point for how long a disruption of this kind can last.

For the 80 million users who can now download Freecash natively on iOS again, and for the mobile game publishers whose post-install acquisition campaigns can now reach that audience through the app, the June 17 date marks a return to operational baseline.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Almedia GmbH, a Berlin-based ad tech company, and its flagship platform Freecash - a rewarded user acquisition platform with 80 million registered users and more than 300 million US dollars in lifetime reward payouts. The announcement came from Moritz Holländer, founder and CEO of Almedia.

What: Freecash was reinstated to the Apple App Store on June 17, 2026, completing the platform's return to full distribution across both major mobile channels. The app had been removed from both the App Store and Google Play in mid-April 2026 following media coverage that Almedia disputed. Google Play reinstated the app on May 7, 2026; the App Store reinstatement followed on June 17. Almedia also announced the first Almedia Summit, scheduled for July 2-3, 2026, in Berlin.

When: The Apple App Store reinstatement took effect on June 17, 2026. The original iOS removal occurred around April 13, 2026. The Android removal followed within days, and Google Play reinstatement occurred on May 7, 2026. The Almedia Summit is scheduled for July 2-3, 2026.

Where: Freecash operates across both the Apple App Store and Google Play globally. Almedia is headquartered in Berlin, with additional offices in London, New York, Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo, and Yerevan. The Almedia Summit will take place in Berlin.

Why: The iOS reinstatement matters because it restores native app distribution for a platform that had reached number 2 in the US App Store and had 19 million new users in 2026 before the removal. For mobile game publishers using Freecash's rewarded UA model, the reinstatement re-opens a performance-based acquisition channel that pays advertisers only for post-install user behavior rather than install volume. The two-month disruption illustrated the operational and financial risks of platform dependency in mobile advertising at scale.