Can I put profanity words file inside app bundle? - ios

I would like to clear a doubt is that, I have to do profanity filter on text so that I have decided to put a file inside the bundle having the list of abusive words ?
Everything is seems to fine. Now I would like to know is that can apple reject my app ?
We never show the list or that files anywhere in side the app.

It is not possible to answer "can apple reject my app?", with a simple "NO.", as apple very clearly says in App Store Review Guidelines
This is a living document; new apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your app will trigger this.
However, in the same document, under User Generated Content (section 1.2) apple suggests
Apps with user-generated content present particular challenges,
ranging from intellectual property infringement to anonymous bullying.
To prevent abuse, apps with user-generated content or social
networking services must include:
A method for filtering objectionable material from being posted to the app
Meaning, what you are doing is not only ok, but is an expectation from apple, and your app should be accepted.
So, submit your app for review, and in case your app gets rejected for having these words in the code/bundle, be ready to very clearly explain
how are you using these words
(as you mention in this question) you never show the list or that file to the user anywhere inside the app

Related

How do I implement deferred deep linking in an iOS app?

I want to implement deferred deep linking in my iOS app as a means of tracking referrals. When a user of my app wants to refer a friend, I'll generate a URL that has a unique referral code. When the other person receives the link and opens it, I want it to take them to my app's page in the App Store. Then if they install my app, when it first opens, I need a way for it to read the referral code from the original URL.
I've found may pages about deferred deep linking on the web but none that really explain how to do it. Instead, these pages all end up telling you to install some third-party code or use some commercial service. This isn't what I'm after. I want to learn how to do this myself.
There are lots of old pages out there that recommend convoluted and error-prone solutions, like tracking the user's IP address, putting the referral code into the clipboard, or somehow obtaining it from a cookie in a web view. I don't think these are the correct solutions to be using in 2022.
If anyone can recommend the appropriate resource, I'd appreciate it.
If it is the case that Apple simply doesn't want us to do this and doesn't provide any support for it, then I'd like to know that too. I was under the impression that they did, but maybe I'm wrong.
Thanks,
Frank
Apple's Universal Links allow for this (would understand the difference between the typical URL Scheme and Universal Links as threshold). This assumes you're willing to do some lifting server-side along with other hurdles on the iOS side, largely administrative.
A benefit of Universal Links and the server-side work is that you're provided a fallback webpage if a user does not have the app installed. Since the app should open if downloaded, you could typically just redirect to the app store from this URL. In this case, though, before any redirects, you could execute an operation to decode the unique params passed in the URL and persist it in a remote data store. The data encoded needs to be required and verifiably unique during your registration -- email seems ideal.
If that's feasible, your standard registration flow could require email verification with a link to the app as a mandatory entry point (think slack magic link). When the user submits his/her email to verify, you could first check that email against your data store to see if it maps to any previously decoded referrals saved from the flow above. If so, you could generate a unique link for this email to your app with params that will direct the deferred/deep link.
The good news is, I found a solution. I could construct a web page that redirects the user to the app store, but before doing so, copies some text into their clipboard (without telling them or asking them to do anything). Then later if they install my app I can get the text by pasting from the clipboard. I tested this idea and it works.
The bad news is, starting with iOS 16, Apple now asks you for permission to paste. So if you try to do this, your user will launch your app and immediately get promoted with a message asking them to allow a paste from Safari. I expect most users will deny the request and just the fact that they saw it will erode their trust in the app (I know I wouldn't trust an app that tried consume my clipboard without a direct command from me).

Apple keeps rejecting app with AdMob because of bluetooth notification string not correct

Since IOS 13 came to live old 3 party APIs stopped working, In my app i needed to fix few because of that so i needed to fit it to IOS 13.
Since then Apple keeps rejecting my app because of Bluetooth user notification is not correct.
I just don't know what to write there, It is so annoying. I have to add it because of AdMobs and there is nowhere to say what to write over there.
I don't user BT in my app, it is just the AdMobs beacons that needs it probably.
I've tried:
and
And i will probably will have the same issue with the calendar message also.
When i try to remove it they demand it and then not approving it.... I understand maybe the first one but what wrong with the the second one? why is that no clear enough for them?
10x
see apple docs below: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/app-architecture/requesting-permission/
Explain why your app needs the information. Provide custom text (known
as a purpose string or usage description string) for display in the
system's permission request alert, and include an example. Keep the
text short and specific, use sentence case, and be polite so people
don't feel pressured. There’s no need to include your app name—the
system already identifies your app. For developer guidance, see
Protecting the User's Privacy.
you're not explaining exactly why you need access to bluetooth. you must be specific. saying, "XYZ app needs access to bluetooth to interact with beacons to serve you location based advertisements"
something like that should do. no cutting corners, no trying to put it off on Google, just say it like it is and you'll likely pass through app approval without a problem.

How to flag content and block user with app that manages Facebook content? rejected by iTunes store because of safety guidelines

We created a video sharing app with unity, crazy right, but we did it. Not to give any IP away, the app allows users to upload videos to a public page. unfortunately apple rejected our app and this is there response.
From Apple
Guideline 1.2 - Safety
Your app enables the display of user-generated content but does not have the proper precautions in place.
Next Steps
To resolve this issue, please revise your app to implement all of the following precautions:
- Require that users agree to terms (EULA) and these terms must make it clear that there is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users
- A method for filtering objectionable content
- A mechanism for users to flag objectionable content
- A mechanism for users to block abusive users
- The developer must act on objectionable content reports within 24 hours by removing the content and ejecting the user who provided the offending content
So i asked them to call me because i don't understand why i should have built in precautions if Facebook already has a team that does this, the content is saved on a Facebook public page. Long story short the apple agent told me that it is my responsibility to do so. Who am i to argue with apple right? So off to Facebook developer site i went and i can't find anything in the reference that will allow me to do so. which makes now sense because why would i want to block someone on my app but on Facebook side you would still be harassed by said person right?
I also went looking for apps that manage Facebook content and they seem to be able to do it. here is the image and I'm trying to block my friend. this app is called Friendly if anyone wanted to know
Can anyone please assist or at least point me into the right direction. Thanks in advance!
Christoph Broeckmann on the Facebook Developer community page wrote this as a reply to the same question;
There is no API to unfriend or block users. Any 3rd-party app you see
doing this is likely achieving this in a non-allowed way.
Those guidelines from Apple primarily apply to stuff that happens
inside your app - if you display content within your app, then you
need to provide the user with ways to report it, block it, or block
the app user that created the content - all within your app. They can
hardly demand that your app removes friendships between users on
totally different platforms.
Maybe they did not understand correctly that you do not show content
within the app itself. But if they did understand what your app does
correctly. and still think those rules should apply - then there is
little you can do about that.
so i think I'm going to build it into my own app and upload to apple. Thanks peeps!

How to enable app on apple app store to view-able on browser?

This is the first time I upload an app to apple app store. After weeks for reviewing, finally, I get my app listed on apple app store. But the problem is, now seems like my app app-store page is only viewable from iTunes. When I try to open it in a browser, it will shows "Connecting to the iTunes Store...". Why is it my app can't be the view from the browser? Why did another app can? How to fix it?
Short answer: It seems, you cannot fully predict the behavior of an app store link for a certain user. You being redirected doesn't mean other people will be redirected right away as well. Your app's country/language availability, users' app store region and language settings, the specificity of the app store link (which has optional components and alternative styles), and the browser cache all seem to have a say.
Added details: After experimenting with this a lot, it seems to me that the behavior of the link (or rather the response from the Apple server to requesting it) depends on the language/country version being requested, my own current country/language defined in iTunes/my app store account, plus some caching issues. So, whether a preview page is shown in the browser, or iTunes is attempted to be opened right away depends on several factors and doesn't always have the same result (for different users). In fact, two consecutive attempts to open the same URL can have different redirect behavior.
I noticed that a full app store link like https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keynote/id361285480 more likely leads to the preview web page, if the app is available in the language/country referenced ("us" in the example) and there is no prior request cached in which I clicked through to the app in iTunes. If the app isn't available in the referenced location, or any other information is missing in the link for the Apple server to identify a particular language version on the preview website, or there is cached data that makes Apple confident enough to redirect you to iTunes directly (or it's Friday 13th and the moon is right behind the sun by pure chance...) then you may see a redirect instead.
For posting app store links in the likes of Facebook, Apple's app linker seems to produce URLs with the nicest preview snippets (and not: "Connecting to the iTunes store"), when putting in the right country. So, these generated URLs seem to be most complete/specific.
If your app is intended for a specific region, AppStore connect will still give you a URL with .../us/... in it. Changing it to the respective local region seems to fix the problem for me.
For an example,
given URL: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yourcompany/id123456
If the app is for Norway region, change the URL to: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/yourcompany/id123456

Apple Approval for saving all the User-Data (including images) to iCloud

I want to develop an iOS app which consists of array of items and each item will have some text data along with the Image. I don't want to use the external server and want to make use of iCloud to store all the user data. User will be provided with any option to enable/disable the iCloud sync. Each item's data (text and image) will be wrapped inside the directory and gonna synced to iCloud, for this I'll be using UIDocument approach.
I went through the internet and found that unless we are storing NON-USER GENERATED DATA in iCloud, we won't be facing any problem in Apple Review Process. Please let me know whether my understanding is right here and is there any possibility of rejection from Apple. Just want to be double sure before proceeding towards the implementation.
Also, are there any other important points I need to consider?
Please let me know whether my understanding is right here and is there any possibility of rejection from Apple.
The first thing to understand is that there is always the possibility of Apple rejecting your app, for any reason. Their terms basically say that they can reject anything they want for any reason, even if you're not doing anything that violates anything on their list of rules. There is no guarantee that Apple won't reject your app, ever, full stop.
As you describe your app there is nothing obviously breaking any of Apple's rules, so it sounds like you're OK. That assumes that the images are not something that could be re-downloaded at some point, e.g. that they're photos or some other kind of image created on the device and not downloaded from somewhere. No guarantees, but odds of Apple rejecting you specifically for this reason are low.

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