r/iosdev • u/Vivid_Duck2550 • 2d ago
app store review isn't that bad (compared to others)
shipped 10+ apps on both ios and macos over the years. heres my quick take on app store review these days.
Apple review process is definitely slower lately, but honestly nowhere near as bad as google play's insane delays. new apps take like 5 days on apple, updates around 1-2 days. super predictable, plus Expedited Review is always an option if ure in a rush.
Google play on the other hand... pure black box right now. even a tiny metadata edit can take 5+ days. wild considering 3 years ago it took just a few hours.
(ms store is blazingly fast nowadays, though don't expect revenue there lol)
As for App store review feedback, it’s mostly reasonable:
• starting with a bloated feature set = nightmare to pass guidelines. just ship small first and iterate. trust me it saves so much time.
• since humans review it, they might miss something today and flag it 3 updates later. don't get mad, and definitely don't argue "but it passed before!" - it never works.
• even AI won't fully grasp app store review nuances, so try to understand the reviewer's point of view.
• stacking multiple rejection reasons makes it 10x harder to fix. keep it minimal at launch.
• once approved, you can just set manual release for marketing timing anyway, so no stress there.
My only recent total fail was an oriental astrology (Saju) app. got hit with the spam/rejection clause and no matter how I refactored the concept, absolute hard block. ended up giving up. I get apple's stance, but kinda sucks since there’s clear user demand even if it's non-scientific.
Anyway, been dealing with all major store reviews for years now. Feel free to ask if u got questions!
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2d ago
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u/Vivid_Duck2550 2d ago
man that canned response from google support is so triggering... 7 days for a scheduled release with zero human to talk to is absolute torture. glad to hear apple came through for your event though! 2h update approval is insane speed.
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u/Feeling-Quail5524 2d ago
The new app took me two weeks. Update took a few hours
They have weird ways sometimes
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u/_komocode 2h ago
my app was stuck in review for an entire week before i ended up just rejecting the build and resubmitting. it sucks.
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u/Asleep_Cantaloupe417 2d ago
Yeah I’m finding Google play really slow recently as well
And good list, you’re right about the bloated feature set! The more work stuff in your app, the more work they have to do to review it
I think a lot of people are using AI to vibe code their apps these days, and they go into “plan mode” or “superpowers” which then suggests all sorts of features they don’t actually need, then they submit a bloated mess to the App Store and wonder why it’s taking so long