Apple Reveals Common Reasons for App Rejections on New Developer Page

I for one appreciate most of the reasons, except for the exclusion of apps like Pathfinder...

6%: Guideline 10.6: Apple and our customers place a high value on simple, refined, creative, well thought through interfaces. They take more work but are worth it. Apple sets a high bar. If your user interface is complex or less than very good, it may be rejected

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Why do I still see too many HTML-wrappers then?

Glassed Silver:mac

These are part of the reasons why the majority of apps (that I've used) were of a high quality and not garbage. I'm glad Apple has standards for apps and applies them to devs.

MacRumors said:

8%: Guideline 2.2: Apps that exhibit bugs will be rejected

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I've downloaded apps before which are bugged to the point of being virtually unusuable.

5%: Guideline 22.2: Apps that contain false, fraudulent or misleading representations or use names or icons similar to other Apps will be rejected

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There are about 50 apps in the App Store that claim to be a Cydia tweak.

APlotdevice said:

I've downloaded apps before which are bugged to the point of being virtually unusuable.

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Less than a month ago PayPal broke there app entirely if you were using the 12hr clock (was perfect with the 24hr clock). Couldn't login using a pin or password. I had to revert to an old version in iTunes that worked perfectly.

Took two more updates to correct the issue.

How do these very broken apps pass checks, not one but twice within two weeks.

Even Apples countdown timer has this bug on my 5, 5s and Mini Retina (iOS 7.1.2). Set the time to a 12hr clock and the timer reads as 00:00 on the locks screen, set the clock to 24hrs and the lock screen countdown works fine.

Even Apples own software has very obvious bugs that I really don't know how it passed testing. Actually worked perfectly on the original release of iOS 7. It broke after the first update and it's never worked properly since.

I really wish Apple would allow you to revert to a previous version of an app, when you try to install it you could have a simple list of why you are reverting, if Apple get a lot of the same feedback then they could pull the broken app quickly or force the developer to revert to an older version while it gets fixed.

That's good, they don't want to become the Google Play Store which is filled with bogus crap.

APlotdevice said:

I've downloaded apps before which are bugged to the point of being virtually unusuable.

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So have we all. The reviewers only spend a couple minutes with each app, if that. That means that if they can find bugs in that time the app really doesn't deserve to be there. Apple isn't taking on the role of being the developer's QA department, but as a user of the device I'm glad they toss out at least some of the bugged apps.

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Radeon12345 said:

I really wish Apple would allow you to revert to a previous version of an app, when you try to install it you could have a simple list of why you are reverting, if Apple get a lot of the same feedback then they could pull the broken app quickly or force the developer to revert to an older version while it gets fixed.

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This isn't a good idea. Allowing the user to revert would take pressure off developers to fix bugs quickly and to test thoroughly. It would also mean that developers would have to deal with even more users being on the previous version and the resulting support complexity that comes from that. And it would mean disabling automatic app updates for that app until the user remembers to re-enable them, which many people wouldn't causing them to miss the very update that is supposed to fix the bug! Finally, some apps would actually be further destroyed by the reversion process. For example, any app that uses Core Data would not be able to access any of its stored data if it was reversed after a Data Model update. If you don't understand what that means don't worry about it, just know that having users randomly deciding to revert would not improve the quality of iOS apps overall.

I broke rules 2 and 4 and still got my first app in. Maybe I didn't break them hard enough.

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APlotdevice said:

I've downloaded apps before which are bugged to the point of being virtually unusuable.

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The darn FiOS remote. OMG. Apple was the last line of defense against Verizon making such a horrible app, and they let it in.

proline said:

This isn't a good idea. Allowing the user to revert would take pressure off developers to fix bugs quickly and to test thoroughly. It would also mean that developers would have to deal with even more users being on the previous version and the resulting support complexity that comes from that. And it would mean disabling automatic app updates for that app until the user remembers to re-enable them, which many people wouldn't causing them to miss the very update that is supposed to fix the bug! Finally, some apps would actually be further destroyed by the reversion process. For example, any app that uses Core Data would not be able to access any of its stored data if it was reversed after a Data Model update. If you don't understand what that means don't worry about it, just know that having users randomly deciding to revert would not improve the quality of iOS apps overall.

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I imagine Apple could handle this pretty easily. Developers could allow users to move back to specific versions of their apps if new versions have bugs, the users opt in to the temporary downgrade, and then developers can mark updates that fix their new versions so that the users using that old version automatically upgrade to the new one when it's released. Heck, Apple can require that the newest version fixes all the bugs that might cause users to want to downgrade to the old ones.

Could be neat if Apple enforced version control too... force developers to actually be able to roll back their code to any submitted version.

ArtOfWarfare said:

I imagine Apple could handle this pretty easily. Developers could allow users to move back to specific versions of their apps if new versions have bugs, the users opt in to the temporary downgrade, and then developers can mark updates that fix their new versions so that the users using that old version automatically upgrade to the new one when it's released. Heck, Apple can require that the newest version fixes all the bugs that might cause users to want to downgrade to the old ones.

Could be neat if Apple enforced version control too... force developers to actually be able to roll back their code to any submitted version.

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Oh yeah, they could do all that. Or they could just tell devs to test their code.

In all seriousness, Apple has been adding new debugging features to each and every version of Xcode.

If only there was a simple, straightforward way to report an app from within the App Store app...

Hi

Thanks for sharing this information..

I'm sure none of Apples software would've gotten on the app store with these rules

proline said:

Oh yeah, they could do all that. Or they could just tell devs to test their code.

In all seriousness, Apple has been adding new debugging features to each and every version of Xcode.

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They should put it to good use it on their own apps then!
Honestly they still have bugs in their own software that need fixing, look at some of the threads regarding Mail on ASC.

I would like to see the amount of apps that get admittance into the store after being rejected once already.

Or even a few anecdotes of apps that have been rejected before and how much they had to add or change to gain admittance.

When will apple begin accepting submissions for iOS 8 apps ?

a few days after the event right?

I plan to be submitting my first 2 apps then! and I am really excited

2% Guideline 2.9: Apps that are "beta", "demo", "trial", or "test" versions will be rejected

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Isn't Apple introducing that "Test Flight" feature with iOS 8?
Will this guideline still apply?

But those fake lock screen apps are all ok


Lol

The lack of demos in the app store is the reason I bought so little from it. I like to try before I buy. Personally I think its a really bizarre rule to have. The app store should have a 'trial' or 'demo' button for developers who want to let users try their apps.

ILikeAllOS said:

Isn't Apple introducing that "Test Flight" feature with iOS 8?
Will this guideline still apply?

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Test Flight doesn't distribute through the app store. It just streamlines the existing beta testing process.

Radeon12345 said:

Less than a month ago PayPal broke there app entirely if you were using the 12hr clock (was perfect with the 24hr clock). Couldn't login using a pin or password. I had to revert to an old version in iTunes that worked perfectly.

Took two more updates to correct the issue.

How do these very broken apps pass checks, not one but twice within two weeks.

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And now paypal has broken it again by not allowing 2 step authentication so anyone who uses that can't use the app. So all this apple rejects apps and checks them to ensure a good user experience is ********.

Yeah that's great and all, but let's be honest... If you look carefully in the dark corners of the Appstore you can find a huge amount of ****. Such as countless Flappy Bird knock-offs, etc.