I want to make an app that will basically load an e-commerce site(Made by me). Is there any possibility to get rejected from the apple review team?
I've seen countless webview apps get published on the App Store. If you provide enough value to your potential users and customers, your app has high changes of getting on the App Store. (But your store should have a top mobile-optimized UI!)
If you want to increase your chances, you use a service like Gonative.io to add even more custom native features (tab bar, side bar, Biometrics etc.)
As stated in App Store review guidelines
4.2 Minimum Functionality
Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website.
So answer is yes.
Related
The company, that I work for, wants to develop mobile apps using react native. The idea is to reuse the content on the websites instead of creating native views.
The current decision is to implement the apps like follows:
Create a react native app with bottom navigation and webviews as the
content.
Each time the user clicks on a different section of the
navigation, the webview loads a different page of the website into the web
view.
For example the login functionality will be the login page from the website in a webview.
Is this sort of apps allowed to be published in the appStore? My thinking is that the app will not be allowed because the content of the pages can be changed!
No, you are not allowed to wrap a web app in a WebView and release it apple app store (btw: Google Play may reject your app too eventually).
you can make this if the web app is a small part of your whole app (for example: some food delivery apps use a WebView for chat with support, which is totally acceptable)
4.2 Minimum Functionality
Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store. If your App doesn’t provide some sort of lasting entertainment value or adequate utility, it may not be accepted. Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes Store. Apps that are simply a book or game guide should be submitted to the Apple Books Store.
you may get this rejection letter:
If you develop such an app you will get the following feedback from apple:
We found that the experience your app provides is not sufficiently different from a web browsing experience, as it would be by incorporating native iOS functionality.
While your app content may differ from your web site or other existing sites, the experience it provides does not differ significantly from the general experience of using Safari, as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.
You may wish to provide convenient access to a web property for a select or niche group of users - and may enhance that experience with features such as Push Notifications. However, such apps do not include enough native iOS functionality to be appropriate for the App Store. As an alternative, you may wish to provide instructions to your users on how to create a Safari web clip to add to their iOS device Home Screen. Or, if you would like to share the app with a select group of users, we recommend the Ad Hoc distribution method. See the iOS Provisioning Portal for details on Ad Hoc Distribution.
We encourage you to review your app concept and evaluate whether you can incorporate additional features to enhance the user experience.
As apple guidelines says that:
4.2 Minimum Functionality
Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store. If your App doesn't provide some sort of lasting entertainment value, or is just plain creepy, it may not be accepted. Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes Store. Apps that are simply a book or game guide should be submitted to the iBooks Store.
My iOS app is based on WebView.
I want to register this app to app store.
After submit, I can see this message from support team.
Hello,Thank you for your patience.
Regarding 4.2.0, your app provides a limited user experience as it is not sufficiently different from a mobile website. Specifically, your app does not contain any native iOS features within the app.
To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to revise your app to provide a more robust user experience by including additional native iOS functionality..
We look forward to reviewing your resubmitted app."
How can I upload my app to app store?
My app is just to show only website on iOS webview. Just a simple app.
Please help me with this problem.
You can't.
I know this isn't the answer you were hoping for, but unless you change your app to significantly use some native iOS features, Apple will continue to decline your app. This is to ensure a minimum level of quality in the apps available. Due to this regulation, WebView-centric apps will not be accepted on the store. Please have a read on the guidelines to help you understand
If you really want to get it up on the store, you will have to add features. Otherwise, there are alternative distribution solutions that don't require publishing to the App store, but more often than not they are for businesses & in-house deployment.
Over the past little while I’ve been working with a client who would like to leverage Apple’s new Suggested App feature on iOS 8. The client's goal was to display a suggest app lock screen notification any time a person passes by a specific geo-location. After spending some time trying to find a concrete answer to what level of control (if any) the client would have over Apple’s Suggest App feature, it was decided to send our questions directly to Apple.
Below is copy of the questions I sent to Apple.
Hello,
For our next app release, my team and I would like to leverage Apple's Suggest App feature provided in iOS 8.
We've taken a look through the iTunes Connect portal and we haven't been able to find a configuration panel anywhere which allows us to control when/where our app should appear as a suggested app.
Questions:
Is it possible for us to specify the conditions that out app will appear as a suggested app for users who haven't downloaded it yet?
Can we specify a geo-fence that will display our app as a suggested app on a user's lock screen?
If we have no control over Apple's Suggested App configuration, under what conditions will our iOS appear on a user's lock screen as a suggested app?
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Turn on your phone
Enable suggested apps
Enable 3G
Lock your screen
Walk past a region.
Expected Result: A suggested app appears on the iPhone lock screen.
Here is the response I received directly from Apple Developer Support Team:
Hello,
Location relevant Apps are recommended on the lock screen and in the App Store based on a number of factors, including their popularity at the location, and there is no mechanism or process by which an App developer can add their App to the list of recommended Apps.
However, if your iOS App is directly related to the location or venue (such as a mall guide iOS App which is published by the mall owner or operator), and you believe your iOS App’s relevance warrants it being included the list of recommended Apps, then you are encouraged to submit an enhancement request via http://bugreport.apple.com/, and request that Apple consider whether your iOS App should be included in the list of recommended Apps for that location.
You should provide as much detail in the ’enhancement request' about the App and venue/location as possible, such as the App ID, App Name, URL to the App on the App Store, venue name, venue location (address & lat/lon), the relevance (if any) of your iOS App to the venue/location, and relationship (if any) between you as the developer and the owner/operator of the venue/location.
Submission of an enhancement request does not guarantee that a particular iOS App will be added to the list of recommended Apps for a venue or location, and the sole feedback from Apple on the request will come through the http://bugreport.apple.com/ bug report system.
Regards,
Apple Developer Technical Support
Can I submit to App Store an app that only launch Safari with one specific url?
If the answer is "yes": Can I hide default image, that is, can I launch Safari inmediatly from Main without show deafault image? (I can do it in BlackBerry and Windows Mobile)
I know.. is a horrible app but is what I have to do..
Thanks!
See section 2.12 of the App Store Review Guidelines:
Apps that are not very useful, are
simply web sites bundled as apps, or
do not provide any lasting
entertainment value may be rejected
And section 12.3:
Apps that are simply web clippings,
content aggregators, or a collection
of links, may be rejected
In short, the answer is: Yes, you can submit whatever you like. My guess based on the guidelines above, though, is that such an app is unlikely to pass the review process.
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Can anybody help me out to know the possible reasons for which Apple store can reject or raise objection to submit any iPhone application.
Here are possible reasons (unofficial, from here):
Vibration. It is not permitted to use continuous vibration in your apps - short bursts as warnings is all that is allowed. Don’t bother trying to set up a timer to keep the vibration going, it will cause your app to be rejected.
Linking to private frameworks. This is obvious, but somehow in playing around with stuff we had linked to the MoviePlayer.framework. That’s a no-no, and cost us about ten days while we unlinked that framework, recompiled, and then resubmitted.
Improper handling of editing in tableview cells. Also obvious, but be aware that if you enable table cell editing, you’ll have to manually specify which cells should respond to editing controls and which should not. We had some random prefs cells in one of our early apps that were able to be swiped to bring up a ‘delete’ badge. Of course it didn’t do anything, but Apple justly considered this poor design and rejected our app.
Icons. Make sure the 57 pixel icon is identical to the 512 pixel version. Also, use a different icon if you are creating ‘lite’ and ‘pro’ versions of your app (i.e., free and paid). Using the same icon for both sends your app straight to … you guessed it … the bin.
Copying existing functionality. This one is much more subtle and insidious, and has probably affected the great percentage of developers. In addition to the widely publicized Podcaster debacle, reports from user comments indicate that Apple is casting a wide net when looking for duplicated functionality. Mini web browsers, or apps that essentially show web pages, seem particularly vulnerable, even if they add new and/or useful functionality. Stay away from email clients as well.
Using appropriate keyboard type. If your app asks for a phone number or other numeral-only input and you present a keyboard that also includes the possibility of entering standard alpha-numeric input … yep. (Thanks Jeremy1026)
Version numbers. If your app is currently at version 0.99 or below, you’d better consider giving it a promotion as Apple seems to prefer 1.0 and above. One of ours was recently rejected for being .016, with a message suggesting that our version number wasn’t even numeric. When we resubmitted the same app from scratch as version 1.0, it went through.
Network Reachability. If your app requires any type of network access you need to make sure it works when that access isn't available. If it doesn't it will be rejected. Apple provides sample code to test this which you can use as-is in most cases: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/samplecode/Reachability/Introduction/Intro.html
And last, but not least:
Flatulence Don’t even try. ;-) UPDATE: sorry, this seems to be outdated by now. Apple makes a lot of money now with "fart apps": see this article.
Edit:
Here is a link to a recent article about ten iPhone Apps That Didn't Make Apple's App Store.
And a tip: Apple has a Mac app called Application Loader that you could install. Once you install it, it analyzes your app's zip file. It verifies all the certificates, icons, and other things are correct before submitting to Apple. Using the Application Loader minimizes your chances of app rejection.
Another interesting resource: App Store Roundtable: Transparency and the Approval System (appleblog.com)
Yet another edit:
New rules by February 2010: "No Swimsuits, No Skin, And No Innuendo" (source: TechCrunch article, Wobble author's blog)
By the way: during the iPhone 3.0 preview event (march 2009), an Apple spokesman told that 96% of all submitted application were approved.
Apple have now (as of 9th September 2010) published their official list of app store review guidelines:
appstore approval guidelines
(apple developer login required)
or a mirror here:
app store guidelines
Will apple want to create an app like that in the future? If (yes) reject.
Do you have a really awesome idea that apple may want to use in the future if(yes) reject
Here's the video of the SDK announcement that describes Apple published list of rejection criteria:
SDK Announcement
As others have noted, Apple also seem to have a bunch of other conditions that they don't publicise. Note that rejection notices are now covered by the NDA.
I can't confirm this but it makes sense, but people are reporting their apps being rejected for being too simple or too trivial.
Just got a bounce for handling network outages badly. If you connect to the network, be prepared to handle any error conditions that may come up.
My paid version of app was rejected by appstore.
After Purchasing and downloading app first screen was "User Agreement" and when user taps on " I agree" only then he is able to continue using app.
Apple described the reason of rejection "when user purchased app from appstore and download in phone then you must not restrict user to Agree with Agreement" instead display your agreement before downloading app in iTunes.
Amazingly, apps can get rejected for trying to keep their interface consistent with Apple's own apps. (ie, using pinch zoom/expand gestures)
There is a site I know which can help you generate great advertising ideas with iPhone. see this site:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/adpack/id359562015?mt=8
I submitted a paid app to app store but get rejected and i learned another possibility of app rejection
My app was Game Center enabled. When app starts first screen was login screen that prompt user to login through GameCenter to continue.
They rejected the app giving reason- As user will not be able to get services of your app unless he is not logged in with Game Center although he paid you to download app. You cannot restrict user to login through Game Center each time before app starts.
From 1st May,2013 onwards if we don't support iPhone 5, your app will be rejected.So iPhone 5 support is must.