I see some Phonegap or Native apps in App store which has no user registration inside the app but it has login. Once I had an app rejected stating My app does not have registration and I am having membership payment on the website. So, we included an registration inside the app.
Is there any specific process to have apps in appstore without registration, because I see few without registration and has login. Is is legal as per Apple guidelines.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
This is a difficult question, especifically taking into account your comments.
If your app lets paid users login, Apple could reject it since you are providing digital goods without their having any part on them.
However, it is also normal that you could have a community of users, and it's not necessary you told Apple all about them (e.g. whether they paid or not). You should give them a demo account though. Even if you have guest access, you should give Apple a demo account so you help them in their review process.
After all, the most important thing is they are human reviewers, so they can say yes or no when they are not sure about approving an app.
As an example, it wouldn't help you cite other apps that have been approved and which have the same characteristics. It's better to focus on explaining your app.
Registration may or may not be required inside the app. It depends on the reviewer. Many apps have been approved without in-app registration, but the guidelines encourage the opposite.
If you're not in a hurry about the review process, I suggest you send the app with the aforementioned tips. If you need it to be approved at the first review step, then I would recommend you following he guidelines as strictly as possible: registration inside the app, in-app payment for subscription.
Related
Apple rejected my app with an :
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We have started the review of your app, but we are not able to continue because we need an expired demo account to fully assess the subscription feature.
Next Steps
To help us proceed with the review of your app, please provide us with a link to a demo account in the App Review Information section of App Store Connect and reply to this message in Resolution Center.
I really don’t understand what kind of demo account they want from me. There are no any login screens in the application. Active subscription needed to access pdf share function.
Should I give them a test sandbox account with which we tested the subscriptions or something else?
TL;DR
You have your premium feature (features that can be accessed only with your subscription) available for non subscripted users, so they are asking you for expired account to check what happens if they don't have subscription.
Long story
We had subscription which was giving access to training videos for our users inside app. Someday we realized that we want to make this feature free and did it through our backend without releasing the app. So, the next review we've got the same reject:
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We have started the review of your app, but we are not able to
continue because we need an expired demo account to fully assess the
subscription feature.
Next Steps
To help us proceed with the review of your app, please provide us with
a link to a demo account in the App Review Information section of App
Store Connect and reply to this message in Resolution Center.
After struggling around we've revealed that the problem is that Apple App Review team couldn't test the case where a user DOESN'T have subscription and CAN'T access our premium online training videos. I guess they get confused and asked as to share with them an expired demo account, so they can test this case.
At the end of the day, we've removed our subscription properly from App Store Connect and got our app passed through review. Therefore, I think you have your premium feature (features that can be accessed only with your subscription) available for non subscripted users, so they are asking you for an expired account to check what happens if they don't have subscription.
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.
I would like to create an iOS App for a limited set of people.
It should be possible to download the app for free from App Store, but in order to use it
the idea is that you are required to be a member of the organization, which in this case is a local sports organization.
To solve the problem I thought of giving away activation keys to members that can be entered when they create an account, and therefore only members will be using the app.
Will the app be rejected by App Store? If so, is it possible to go around this in some away?
Thanks.
No you will not be rejected by the App Store.
During the review you will only need to give the access to demo account.
Your app will be available to anyone but you are free to give the credential to any person you want.
edit
Fyi I have such apps. The AppStore only block 'discriminating' app based on carrier or location (you can choose the countries anyway), but you are perfectly in the rules if you give access only to your clients...
edit edit
2.22 like I said is against arbitrary criterias, not linked to the login mechanism
for 11.1 and so on, I understand the point, but in my case (and I think yours) there is no problem if
you sell your service before, the app is just complimentary
you dont sell anything within the app
you dont charge for the app itself or anything within the app, you charge only the use of the server/back office/whatsoever
I guess that Apple dont care, they just don't want to bypass the applestore but I dont think that it is your case.
You should try Enterprise distribution for such purpose.
Yes your app may be rejected. Check the App Store Review Guidelines. In 2.2 it says
Apps that arbitrarily restrict which users may use the App, such as by location or carrier, may be rejected
There are different alternatives.
You can opt in for the Apple Developer Enterprise Program, this'll cost you 300$ a year and requires you to be a legal entity.
If you want to test it with a limited number of people (<1000) try looking into Testflight it was bought by Apple and is deeply integrated in the development process.
No, there will not. You need to to give some demo account info as test data to review while submitting to app store in the iTunes Connect portal.
Demo use case(worked for me): Implementation is like, there need some userid/unique pin to the registered account holders to start the application. At the time they input this pin, authenticate the user with our server and give the permission to let in to the app.
Otherwise you need to go for enterprise distribution. Find more about enterprise distribution here.
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).
Reasons
11.13: Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, such as a “buy" button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected
11.13
We found that your app provides access to account registration. As this also provides the user access to mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, this is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
Since the app includes access to services already purchased or subscribed by your existing users through means other than IAP, this is considered as a form of external mechanism.
Please see the attached screenshot/s for more information.
To be in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines, it would be appropriate to remove access to account registration.
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The hotscreen is regist and login.
We had delete all links from App in 'about' ViewController.
And it just has a regist/login page in my App that is not have function of 'buy'.
But there is can pass with regist/login page in My other apps.
My App is free app that is to show some video in iPhone.
The Video is also free in App that is not need to buy.
The user can regist a user to comment or favorite some video.
I also have a web side for this. and user can buy some Charges Video in it.
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I hope someone can help me！！！
It seems that a registered user of yours can access stuff they bought on your website.
That is what apple is complaining about.
If you remove the login/register it will go through or use it just for commenting - maybe you can trick apple by renaming it to login-for-commenting/register-for-commenting (and for the time until it passed, disabling the "view-my-bought-stuff" from your website, so you can enable it without re-submitting the app)
I assume purchases are done at some external web-site of yours.
You cannot refer to Buy in your app, if purchases are not done via App store.
You have to look for alternatives, like use DB at your web-site for user purchases validation.
User can login and their purchased items shall be available for download.
You can have an information button or something which tells user to have a look at your web-site for more information/ "you might also like".
Please note selling your stuff via App store shall be made on Apple inc terms only.
This do not restrict you to sell your stuff outside App store, but you cannot have selling links in your app.
You should not have user registration in your app, until you are using IAP.
This is stated in 11.12.
However I still feel you can have login in your app, and do registration /selling outside the app. This gives you liberty as your app is not selling content/neither doing any user registration.
I am having a couple of apps with my developer license and doing this i passed all validations of app submission both legally and review process as well.