I submitted a Real Estate App (Category: Business, secondary: Shopping)
My app include:
Sign up/Sign in to be a user.
Create product and post it to the server. (I use CloudKit)
Save products that user like.
Call to another (seller, requester ...), share to FaceBook (or Twitter ... - UIActivityController)
But Apple rejects it cause Minimum Functions:
"We noticed that your app’s main functionality is to market your
service, with limited or no user-facing interactive features or
functionality. Apps that are primarily marketing materials or
advertisements are not appropriate for the App Store. We encourage you
to review your app concept and incorporate different content and
features that are in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
We understand that there are no hard and fast rules to define useful
or entertaining, but Apple and Apple customers expect apps to provide
a really great user experience. Apps should provide valuable utility
or entertainment, draw people in by offering compelling capabilities
or content, or enable people to do something they couldn't do before
or in a way they couldn't do it before."
I read App Store Review Guidelines but I think that my App has the user experience, cause I free for everyone to post their topic to my app server. So anyone can access to their topic and call or share or email or send the message to each other.
But it's rejected.
What can I do now?
Login to your iTunes account. Where you are viewing the error or apple rejection message there is an option "Reply Submit an appeal to the App Review Board", after selecting that option you will have some more option, selects the one which you find suitable and contact the apple review team. Schedule a call with apple review team and you can explain them on call about you application functionality, if they find it OK they will approve else they will explain you lackings.
Your app provides a limited user experience as it is not sufficiently different from a mobile browsing experience. As such, the experience it provides is similar to the general experience of using Safari. Including iOS features such as push notifications, Core Location, and sharing do not provide a robust enough experience to be appropriate for the App Store.
Related
I don't know where to answer these questions. I uploaded the answers in app review information note section but didn't work. What should I do?
The review message is attached below.
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We’re looking forward to continuing our review, but we need a bit more information about your business model and your users to help find the best distribution option for your app. Our preliminary review of your app suggests that your app may be a good fit for our Apple Business Manager program, which is designed specifically for business apps.
Next Steps
Please review the following questions and provide as much detailed information as you can for each question.
Please describe which kinds of users you expect will use your app. Some common kinds of users are:
Users who are part of a single company (including its partners, employees and contractors)
A limited number of companies which are clients of the developer
The general public
Identify the specific countries or regions where you plan to distribute your app.
What features in the app are intended for use by general App Store users?
How do users obtain an account?
If there are any paid aspects of the app, such as for opening an account or using certain features in the app, please explain how users access the paid content.
Who pays for the paid content?
Since your App Store Connect status is Metadata Rejected, we do NOT require a new binary. To revise the metadata, visit App Store Connect to select your app and revise the desired metadata values. Once you’ve completed all changes, reply to this message in Resolution Center and we will continue the review.
You need to navigate to the app in Appstore Connect, click on "Version History" and then click on "Resolution Center". On that screen is a form where you can reply to the inquiry from Apple. It took me longer than expected to find it.
I'm changing one of my Mac apps from a paid model to a subscription model, by using auto-renewable subscriptions (IAP).
However, as the app is B2B, some users need to reimburse costs via their employer. While this is acceptable with payments only occurring once, with recurring payments this is simply annoying and sometimes even impossible.
Apple has a B2B Volume Purchase Program that supports companies to purchase a number of licenses and distribute this to their employees. However, IAPs (including auto-renewable subscriptions) are not supported.
I see this as a big limitation (especially knowing they take a 30% cut of sales) and the only way to solve this is to offer an additional mechanism to offer subscriptions next to IAPs, specifically for business needs.
My biggest concern is whether my app would be rejected because of this. I have been going through the (updated) guidelines and found some related items:
If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. [...] Apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP.
This will be the case, but not exclusively because of the above mentioned limitation. I won't include a "Buy" link to the alternative method. However, I will include a text indicating that if a company wants to purchase multiple license for its employees, it can do this via our website (using a payment processor such as Stripe). Via this website codes will be made available that can be entered in the app to activate the license.
Apps distributed via the Mac App Store may host plug-ins or extensions that are enabled with mechanisms other than the App Store.
The app is distributed via the Mac App Store and it seems that they are more flexible here. However, it's a vague guideline and I'm not even sure if it's related to the problem I'm facing. What does it mean?
Hoping to read your opinions and experiences here. Thanks.
I have been emailing Apple about this but they have never replied. Also asked this question on the Apple Developer Forums but didn't got any help there too.
Decided to simply implement it and submit it to the App Store. They have accepted it without asking questions so apparently it is allowed. Important to mention is that I have not included the payment mechanism in the app. It asks for a license code that will be validated using my own service. This service also handles the payment via a web page.
Hope it helps others.
We're a small company and have developed an iPad app we would like to give to our customers. I've read through the B2B option but don't like our customers having to register their DUN info with Apple.
Should I just load it in the App store and put in the description that it's a private App? It requires a login so it doesn't matter if other folks download it.
Currently, we're using it in house via the internal tester scenario.
No one but Apple can say for certain what Apple will do in any specific case, but your description suggests it will be rejected.
From Apple's App Review Guidelines (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/):
17.2: Apps that require users to share personal information, such as email address and date of birth, in order to function will be rejected
If you don't have a base functionality that applies to the general public, you will, in all likelihood, need to go Enterprise delivery.
Distributing publicly might be the best option, but I don't think you would get an approval if you describe it as a private app in your description.
Without knowing too much about your business or the nature of your app, it's hard to suggest, but possibly you could add some public usefulness on the front-end of your app, even if that's business info, contact information, a news feed, etc... with the real intent of the app being tucked behind a login portal. (all total speculation).
Distributing the app outside of the app store has a lot of limitations as well: http://mobiledan.net/2012/03/02/5-options-for-distributing-ios-apps-to-a-limited-audience-legally/
I would just submit to the app store and see what happens. Apple may reject it, but that is true in any case. I have an app of this nature, submitted with a couple of test accounts, no problem getting it approved. When the app launches, it pops a logon screen, and has a short message about where to get an account (which won't make much sense to people not in the intended audience).
We are a startup that provides cloud storage (www.zapdrive.com). Our iOS app was rejected, and the reason given was the clauses 11.12 of the App Store Review Guidelines, which specifically says:
"Apps offering subscriptions must do so using IAP, Apple will share the
same 70/30 revenue split with developers for these purchases, as set
forth in the Developer Program License Agreement."
Please note that we are not offering any subscription from within the App. We do not have any links or buttons in the App that take the user to any external website, whatsoever. It is a very basic app, that lets the users view their files stored in "ZapDrive". To see what the app looks like, you can see it in the Google Play Store
One thing that we see could be close to a violation of the above rule is, on the first page of the App (which is the login screen), we have a text that says:
"Don't have a ZapDrive Account? Go to www.zapdrive.com to sign up for a FREE account"
However, the above-mentioned line is just plain text, and does not "link" to the actuak website.
Also, the rejection notice says:
While your app maybe be intended to enhance the experience of your
existing subscribers, with the exception of the content specified in
Guideline 11.14, if the subscribed product is used within the app, the
subscription must be offered in the app using IAP.
Please not that we are not selling any content, or offering a subscription to any content. The users already own the content, and they copy it into their "ZapDrive". The app lets them view/stream the said content.
Although, Apple says that just because other apps are doing this, doesn't mean you can do it too. Still, a lot of other apps (DropBox, Google Drive, Box etc) offer subscriptions, but do not offer IAP.
Can someone please tell us, how are we violating the App Store Guidelines? And what can we do to make it compatible? Is it the text on the login screen that's causing this violation?
My guess is the link. Does the kindle app have a link in their app? Does Dropbox? I don't think so... Take out the link and resubmit and see what happens. Or you can ask apple for more details.
Your question is not a programming one; there's no better place to ask this than Apple themselves. All iTunesConnect rejections have a corresponding textbox you can communicate with them specifically about that rejection ticket.
For these 2 rules:
11.1 Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected.
Is the applicability of these rules reduced/removed if the enablement/disablement of the features/functionality (11.1) or the content purchase (11.2) does not actually occur within the app on the device.
For example, you write an app that requires free registration but if you visit a website outside of the app (and not linked to from the app) to "upgrade" your registration (by paying money) the app gains some more functionality or content next time you use it.
Thoughts?
My thoughts: you'd be violating the guidelines, but your app could get approved, of course. The payment does indeed not occur inside the app, but the application "utilizes" such a system (which is very broad) thus is in violation.
This reminds me of the Newsstand/subscriptions discussions going on before. Basically, if you offer something outside an app, you have to make the same (or better) offer inside the app (via IAP subscriptions). Perhaps this is applicable in your case, too. Although, according to 11.3, you may not offer services outside your app if purchased via IAP (so you may not unlock features on e.g. a website too.)
You'd also try and offer a free app. Once users (somewhere, somehow) upgrade their account, they can access the members only app, a new, separate app. But approval is still questionable, which brings me to my last part:
"We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it."
— https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
In short: submit, pray and find out.
What you describe sounds similar to the situation that resulted in apps that used Dropbox being rejected (Link). Apple determined that since the apps that used Dropbox functionality required the user to visit the Dropbox site to sign up those apps were in violation of those rules and were thus rejected.