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.
Related
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.
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
This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
iPhone app without AppStore
I work for a software company which creates bespoke applications for customers - currently just ASP.NET internal applications. Due to the growth of mobile, we've been considering creating mobile apps for our customers. These apps would be extremely specific to a customer so we would not want these in any app stores.
While with Android this is obviously relatively simple, but seeing as the distribution of iOS apps is restricted to the App Store (as far as I know!) we would be unable to create iOS apps. Am I missing anything - i.e. is there a way to distribute apps without using the App Store?
There are two schemes designed for this scenario.
First, there's Enterprise. This is (kind of) like delivering ad hoc builds. There are restrictions but it doesn't go through the App Store or a review processes.
More recently, there is also a special B2B channel. Your customers download from the App Store, but the app isn't public. Other than having to go through review, the other disadvantage is that the scheme is not available in all countries. This may not be a problem for you, of course.
A lot of clients I work for want the "publicity" of being in the app store but don't want everyone to have access. The way around this is to create an app that requires a login, with credentials that you control server side.
Consider building an HTML5 app. This way you can distribute it yourself (and the user can easily add it to their device as a link (which looks like an App icon).
Let's say we have a mobile-friendly website www.mywebsite.com that I want to quickly turn into an iPhone app. Would I just create an empty iPhone app with a full screen web browser control and point it to www.mywebsite.com? Or is there something more to it...
FYI I have no iPhone development experience.
Yes, you can do that with UIWebView. However Apple take a dim view of applications like this and you could well find your application rejected. The App Store Review Guidelines state:
Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected