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Apple Reveals the Most Common Reasons That It Rejects Apps

Posted by timothy on from the too-fat-too-thin-too-talkative dept.

mrspoonsi writes One of the great mysteries of the App Store is why certain apps get rejected and why others don't. Apple has let a surprising number of ripoffs and clones through the store's iron gates, yet some developers face rejection for seemingly innocent apps. "Before you develop your app, it's important to become familiar with the technical, content, and design criteria that we use to review all apps," explains Apple on a new webpage called "Common App Rejections." Rejections include: 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; Apps that contain false, fraudulent or misleading representations or use names or icons similar to other Apps will be rejected.

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Things Apple Apparently Enforces at Random by Galaga88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's not enough fingers in the world to count all the awful apps that violate most of Apple's so-called "standards."

    My favorite are the apps that have a string of words from other popular apps' names in them, just to muck up the search results. And they make sure to periodically change the icon to look like another app as well.

  2. Eh, not quite by hsmith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've had an app in the store for years now that requires a login. We provide two to apple to test (one success one fail). I don't recall the last time the accounts logged in (perhaps version 1.0.0.0), their last login date has sat the same for years. So, not hard if you get in and sit there to slowly change to something malicious.

  3. All about the brand by sideslash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have dealt with App Store rejections on various projects, and it was quite a culture shock coming from the desktop development world. In many ways it reminded me of college. Giving the right answer is not important per se, but rather just providing the answer you know the professor/grader wants to hear. As a programmer, it rankles me for someone else to dictate major issues of app architecture that touch on quality in a debatable way.

    But it's their way or the highway if you want to sell to iOS users. And yes, you do want to sell to iOS users. Android users never spend any money. /slight-exaggeration