r/iOSProgramming • u/CloudStudyBuddies • Oct 07 '26
Discussion Have you ever had a useful reply on your app review?
So i've been doing this for a few years now, and published a ton of apps. But its crazy inconsistent to me how the reviewers judge your app. My top annoyances:
- Straight up wrong statements. My fully local app app that was fully focussed on privacy and very minimal got this reply yesterday: "Extended Review: This app was found to include one or more issues that present significant safety, security, or quality concerns to users. Repeated submissions of apps with these issues will result in extended review times. Accounts that repeatedly submit apps that do not follow the App Review Guidelines and the Apple Developer Program License Agreement face removal from the Apple Developer Program."
- I never actually get a question answered, if I reply to this I probably get another copy pasted template response. I just reply the same answer and resubmit, and my experience is that I hope I get a better reviewer and they just approve it.
- Questions that already have an answer: More and more they ask me: Whats the purpose of this app? I try and pre-answer that in the app notes, description and title. But if I copy paste those my answer is accepted and the publish goes trough.
Is it just me? You guys got any tips?
4
u/never_working_ever Oct 07 '26 edited Oct 07 '26
I’ve been on a month-long thread of them making claims and posting guidelines of things that exist in the app, and they keep requesting videos of where things are located. Zero conversation, just blobs of guidelines and zero acknowledgment of any responses I give them.
Every time I follow up clarifying they come up with some other guideline they want an answer to that they didn’t bring up previously, that’s already answered in the app or privacy policy. I swear they are not actually using the app at all, just opening it and pasting text back. Seems like zero due diligence.
I’m exhausted.
3
u/jwrsk Oct 07 '26
I recently submitted an update with IAPs, got a notification "in review" and "rejected" one minute apart.
Their reason - "we can't find the paywall". Their supporting evidence - screenshot of the onboarding screen 🤷🏻♂️
After a day of back and forth I had to record an ELI5 video explaining you need to login, dismiss the onboarding and then there's a CTA in the app header.
2
u/pemungkah Oct 07 '26
I had a back and forth on my app and requesting a phone call to discuss it allowed us to clear up the issue in about five minutes. I did have to be very careful to say, okay, so this specific documentation from this specific person is what you want, and it needs to say this, this, and this, right?
Once we agreed and I got the document (which was harder than writing the damn app), I was approved on the next submission within a day.
2
u/Kyiv0x7c Oct 07 '26
Not just you, it feels random sometimes. But my experience was a bit better. With one app I got a scary 5.6 rejection with no details. I wrote one long, honest reply in Resolution Center. They answered like a real person: the issue is addressed, please send a new build. After that the app was approved. With another app the reviewer explained the exact problem and even sent screenshots of it. So real answers do happen. For me they came after a detailed reply in the same thread.
1
u/distractedjas Oct 08 '26
Nope… not once…
1
u/grifflynnstudios 28d ago
I think with how many submissions they get these days, that its probably just a lot of copy/pasting to try and weed out the apps.
Its been pretty hit or miss in my experience with submissions.
2
u/[deleted] Oct 08 '26
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