Apple removed Russia's messaging app Max from its App Store in early June, and cut off push notifications for calls and messages to iPhone users. This was a blow to the state-backed messaging app, which was supposed to replace the likes of WhatsApp and Telegram. However, there is still a chance that Max could return to the App Store disguised as some totally unrelated app — something that other Russian companies have done over the last few years.

Launched in the spring of 2025 as a Russian alternative to WhatsApp and Telegram, Max is being actively promoted by the Russian authorities and, by law, must be preinstalled on all smartphones and computers sold in Russia.

However, despite active promotion and restrictions on Telegram and WhatsApp, Max still failed to overtake the competing apps in user numbers. One of the main reasons Russians have been staying away from Max is its developers' alleged ties to the country's secret services. People in Russia are unwilling to trust their private messages to an app that may share them with authorities.

Apple said the decision to remove Max from the App Store was taken to comply with sanctions against Russia, but it did not explain which specific sanctions were involved.

Incidentally, shortly before Max's removal from the App Store, the global web infrastructure service Cloudflare briefly flagged the messaging service as malicious spyware. Max's developers denied that any spyware was included in Max's code and explained the situation as a misunderstanding.

Slim chances of return

In the two weeks that have passed since Max's disappearance from the App Store, there have been few signs that the app could be restored, despite the Max team's attempts to negotiate with Apple. Russia's ministry of digital development has accused Apple of arbitrarily removing the app from the App Store without providing a public explanation.

With few chances of the App Store restoring Max, the likeliest scenario is that the Max team will try to release a new version of the messaging app under a different name, using the same strategy as some sanctioned Russian lenders have used over the last few years, with varying degrees of success.

When an app is removed from the App Store, users who already have it installed on their iPhone can no longer use the entire functionality. More importantly, new users can't download and install the app.

The number of iPhone users inside Russia and among Russians who currently live outside the country but keep connections to its companies, including banks, is significant. This has pushed sanctioned Russian banks and other companies to find inventive ways to get their apps back into the App Store.

Guerilla strategies in the App Store

Since Russia invaded Ukraine back in February 2026, several Russian lenders have been sanctioned, and their apps removed from the App Store.

The sanctioned lenders responded by increasingly adopting "guerrilla" strategies to launch their apps on the App Store, disguising them as apps with third-party names or even as online games. Although they manage to stay there for no more than a day, several million customers manage to download them during that time.

In late 2025, Gazprombank and T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff Bank) released their online banking apps for individual customers on the App Store, and both remained there for no more than a day, as the App Store apparently figured out the link between the apps and sanctioned lenders.

Gazprombank’s app was disguised as an online game called CashHunter (The Hunt for Wealth), in which customers were invited to "shoot at flying banknotes among fields and bushes," and the developer was listed as "Lyubov Vetochkina" – which sounded more like a fictional name than a real developer.

The country's largest, state-run lender Sber, released an app Vzhukh, which iPhone users could use for payments. In less than 24 hours that the app was available on the App Store, nearly 10mn people downloaded it, Sber reported.

Meanwhile, T-Bank released DocStorage, an application presented as a document storage utility but which, in reality, functioned as a banking client for T-Bank customers. The bank also experimented with Freelance Case, an app ostensibly designed for freelancers. The application served as another temporary gateway for users to access T-Bank's banking services while avoiding Apple's moderation procedures.

Overall, T-Bank has been one of the most active Russian lenders in releasing various guerilla apps on the AppStore. Another app released by the lender last year was called VibroGym App, and, similarly to the lender's other guerrilla apps, it failed to stay on the App Store for more than a few hours.

iPhone users remain an attractive target group

Russian lenders and other companies continue to focus on iOS customers as the latter are apparently the most affluent segment of their audience. iPhones sold in Russia – through unofficial channels – still account for a significant share of the market in terms of volume and for event larger share of revenue.

In late 2025, Russian business daily Kommersant quoted major mobile phone operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) as saying that 1.4mn iPhones were sold in Russia last year the year, raking in RUB112bn ($1.53bn) in revenue. That accounted for 8% of the market in units and for 27% in value. Independent expert Maxim Mitusov was quoted by Kommersant as saying that releasing guerrilla apps on the App Store makes perfect economic sense, even if those apps remain available only for a short time.

"The process of adding a new app costs several thousand dollars, and if 10,000 users install it, it will be more than profitable, since the option of installing it through an office is much more expensive," he said.

More Russian companies bypass App Store restrictions

Sanctioned Russian lenders have turned out to be quite creative in disguising their mobile banking apps as unrelated consumer services to be able to get them into the App Store.

For instance, Rosselkhozbank adopted an elaborate strategy, launching several apps aimed at entirely different audiences. Uchyot Nadoya (Milk Yield Accounting) appeared to be a tool for dairy farmers to monitor milk production. PROkurochka targeted poultry breeders, while Yagodny Fest was disguised as an application for a berry festival. Another app, AgroScan, was presented as an agricultural service. Despite their diverse themes, these applications ultimately provided access to the lender's digital banking services.

Other lenders followed similar strategies. Last year, MTS Bank introduced Dom Yogi (House of Yoga), which masqueraded as a yoga and wellness application.

Still, these strategies reflect the growing difficulties that Russian financial institutions are facing in maintaining a presence on Western digital platforms after sanctions disrupted their access to international app stores.

By publishing applications under innocuous names and unrelated descriptions, lenders are attempting to stay one step ahead of platform moderators. However, these apps are typically short-lived: once identified by Apple, they are removed, forcing lenders to launch new iterations under different identities. This has created an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between sanctioned Russian banks and major technology platforms.

Now, observers are wondering what kind of disguise Max's team may come up with to bypass App Store's restrictions.