9 reasons your app might not ‘make the cut’ in the Apple App Store
As we all know. The Apple App Store compared to Google Play is a completely differently animal. Apple has a review process that is designed to keep the app ecosystem ‘healthy’ and to ‘protect users’ from low-quality or hostile apps. And, for the most part – it works.
Side note: Google Play allows you to update your app with a much shorter review/wait time giving you the ability to test different implementations and make quicker iterations.
In either case, for iOS before heading down the road of developing an app that is ‘on par’ with Apples Developer Guidelines, and then getting rejected for who the heck knows why..
Here are 9 things you may want to consider..
1) Use of the word “beta” or associated words is a no-no.
While Google has made it standard practice to launch services into indefinite “beta,” ..Apple can be very strict about any indication that an app is unfinished or unready for launch. There are countless stories of apps get rejected for being labeled “Beta,” “Preview,” and even “Version 0.9.”
2) Cut the load time.
First of all, people in today’s society are EXTREMELY impatient. A wait time longer than 4 seconds, you may as well uninstall the app, because chances are you just lost the majority of your users, their attention, and future engagement.
All mobile operating systems – iOS, Android, and even Windows – enforce a maximum app startup time. For iOS, the limit is about 15 seconds, so if your app isn’t running by then the operating system will kill it.
Even if your app loads within the limits during your local testing, slower network connections, slower hardware, and other differences in the environment may cause your app to start too slowly during the review process. It’s important to to solely rely on iOS simulators alone – be sure to test (and double test) on actual hardware, keep a few older phones around to ensure sufficient startup speed on all devices.
There is nothing worse than a slow app for your first impression.
3)Don’t link to outside payment platforms.
Apple requires that all digital content be sold through the built-in iTunes-based in-app purchasing mechanism. This applies to one-time purchases as well as digital subscriptions.
A quick way to get your app rejected is by having an alternative where your app accepts other payment mechanisms for digital content. Surprisingly, this rule even applies to Web pages linked from within your app.
The Dropbox app was famously rejected by Apple because the Web-based login screen contained a link to purchase additional space. This not only affected the Dropbox app, but all apps that used the Dropbox SDK as well!
Always double check your workflow to ensure that all purchasing goes through Apple, or is just removed altogether.
This rule does not apply to non-digital services or merchandise, which is why Apply doesn’t get a cut of your Uber rides or hotel rooms booked through an app.
4) No mention of the other platforms.
There are no other platforms. Just Apple. Remember?
This rule actually applies across the board, not just to Apple – no one likes it when apps mention rival platforms by name. So if your app does happen to be available on Windows or Android, advertise that on your Web site, NOT in the app or the app store description.
5) Localization glitches
Remember, apps are global.
If you haven’t localized your app for multiple languages, it will look amateur if 300 YEN comes out looking like $300.00 for in-app purchases. Using add-ons such as:
NSNumberFormatter
or
Invariant Culture
..and a simulators to test the UX in different geographic’s to make sure dates and other data conform to the user’s location.
6) Improper use of storage and file systems.
After iOS 5.1, Apple rejected an app update because developers had unpacked the 2MB database from the app bundle into the file system, violating the iCloud ideal of backing up only user-generated content.
Any data that can be re-generated because it is static, shipped with the application or easily re-downloadable from a remote server, should not be able to be backed up. For non-user data, choose a cache storage location or mark with a “do not backup” attribute.
7) Crashes from users denying permissions
In iOS 6 users must give permission for apps to access their information – and any related platforms that accompany it (facebook/twitter). If the user denies an app access to any of these services, Apple requires that the app continue to function anyway.
This will certainly be tested during review and will be an automatic rejection if it fails to work properly. You should test all combinations of “allow” and “deny” for all the data your app uses, (including if the user allows access but later denies it in Settings).
8) Improper use of icons and buttons
Many iOS apps have been rejected because of small UI issues, and had nothing to do with performance or functionality. Make sure your built-in Apple icons and buttons are uniform in appearance and functionality by using a standard UI Button Bar System Item also, familiarize yourself with Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines. Apple wants apps to behave in predictable ways and are therefore understandably strict about this.
9) Misuse of trademarks and logos.
Don’t use trademarked material or Apple icons or logos anywhere in your app or product images.
This even includes having icons that feature a drawing of an iPhone! There’s been apps get denied for having trademarks in the keywords of the app. Also make sure your app does not obscure the attribution information in any embedded maps – this is also an automatic rejection.
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At the end of the day, if your app gets rejected, don’t panic, see what’s wrong, fix it, and resubmit. Make sure to avoid the 9 above, and you’ll be well on your way to making the coolest app ever created.. by you. 😉
Kevin is an Online and Mobile Marketing Strategist who has worked with companies of all sizes over the last 6 years. You can follow Kevin on any of the social platforms below.
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