Hi devs community,
I've run into an interesting situation with App Review that I'd like to get the community's perspective on.
My Safari extension "Protego for Reddit" (a content filter for Reddit) was rejected under Guidelines 2.3.7 for using "Reddit" in the name/subtitle, citing potential customer confusion.
What's puzzling is there are many established apps using the same naming pattern for the app name and subtitle, all currently on the App Store:
Narwhal 2 for Reddit - "Highly customizable Reddit app"
Sink It for Reddit - "Upgrade Your Reddit Experience"
Reno for Reddit - "instagram styled Reddit app"
Dystopia for Reddit - "A Better Way to Reddit"
MultiTab for Reddit - "Best viewer for image/video"
Nano for Reddit - "The wrist-based Reddit client"
Focus for Reddit - "A unofficial app for Reddit"
Monocle for Reddit - "A comprehensive Reddit client"
Redirect for Reddit - "Redirects to old.Reddit.com!"
Alerts for Reddit - "News"
rex for Reddit - "Lurk with ease!"
Comet for Reddit - "Fast, Robust, and Beautiful"
Redista client for Reddit - "Entertainment"
Readder for Reddit - "Entertainment"
lurkur for Reddit - "a new way to browse"
Pics HD for Reddit - "Entertainment"
Apollo for Reddit - "Closed. Goodbye and thank you!"
and more
I submitted a reply to the app review rejection and they told me that if I disagree with the outcome of their review that I need to file appeal to the App Review Board.
I've already submitted an appeal pointing out these precedents and explaining that the name accurately describes the app's functionality without implying any official association. While I wait for the response, I'm curious about a few things:
For those who maintain apps with "for [Platform]" in the name:
Do you face this rejection with every update?
Did you only have to appeal once, after which subsequent updates were approved?
Was there any special process to get your app "whitelisted" for this naming convention?
Has anyone noticed if this is a recent change in enforcement? The number of existing apps with similar names suggests this wasn't always strictly enforced.
For those who successfully appealed similar rejections:
How long did the appeal process take?
Did you need to escalate beyond the initial appeal?
My concern is whether I'll need to go through this rejection/appeal cycle with every update, which would significantly impact our ability to push out timely fixes and improvements. I've had to delay two updates due to this issue.
Context:
App description: Safari extension for filtering Reddit content on Mac
Current name: "Protego for Reddit"
Subtitle: "Filter your Reddit Feed"
Version: 1.3
Status: Awaiting appeal response
Many of these established apps even use "Reddit" in their subtitles, which makes the rejection of my subtitle "Filter your Reddit Feed" particularly confusing.
Thanks in advance for any guidance or shared experiences!