App Rejected for Guideline 4.2.2 - Design - Minimum Functionality

Hi There


I have developed an app for my company website which basically promotes there marketing by showing their content and their pricing packages to their clients. I have also added some functionality like click to chat with us and mailing facility as well, Also there are features like Contact US Form and Get A Quote Form which connects the customers with our backend servers via API call. I do not know why Apple rejects it for 4.2.2 Guideline issue. Which feature they need to be implemented in our App so that it will get approved by Apple. Struggling from the last 3-4 days, they usually replay in 24 hours via Resolution Center with no additional information. Is push notification enough for this App to be accepted or something else I need to implement?




Thank You
Manorama

Replies

Nobody here can say for sure (most of us are just developers like you) but if a web site can do everything your app can do, Apple often rejects apps like that.

I can understand, but If someone wants an app for their website then what is the possible way for that. We have provided some additional functionality as well which is not available on our website, but they do not even call us for a conversation from last 10 days. They are just playing some hide and seek game with us from last 10-20 days replying that "we look forward to talking with you" and this, that kind of thing. I do not know where to go from now If any suggestions please provide me so that I will resolve this ASAP. My Company completely depends on me and almost spent a lot of money on this app. I personally spent 4 months to complete this App and they simply reject it just by saying Minimum functionality. This is not a joke...

You need to add something that can only be done on a mobile device. How about directions to the nearest store or an alert when a new product becomes available or when new pricing becomes available or something that tells the store when the user has arrived at the store?

Definitely yes, I agree with your view as well, For this we have provided features like click to chat by opening WhatsApp, click to visit email app for sending an email and even there are features like Contact us form submission which is completely dynamic and API based, we are going to provide push notification for offer related and pricing related in near future for better app experience in the next version most probably. Though our app contains marketing contents because our main purpose is to Business with our customers, they simply refuse to accept it as per guideline 4.2.2. I do not know why they just refuse to release it, just for some marketing content !!! and which is purely our own content. Today I have received a call from Apple representative regarding the same and they simply highlight this point, There are a lot of apps available on the app store without any feature it seems still got approved, When I am highlighting this they simply guided me by saying please point out those apps and we are gonna remove it. I have developed my app just because I found similar apps have accepted by apple despite knowing that there is 4.2.2 guideline. Completely dissatisfied with Apple. If you wrong accept it. I hope you understand. I do not even know what is my next target as a developer.

You wrote:

"yes, I agree with your view as well"

and then referred to:

"features like click to chat by opening WhatsApp, click to visit email app for sending an email and even there are features like Contact us form submission which is completely dynamic and API based".


These however are NOT

"something that can only be done on a mobile device".


So, once again, add "....directions to the nearest store or an alert when a new product becomes available or when new pricing becomes available or something that tells the store when the user has arrived at the store". And highlight these features on the first page of the app before also allowing the user to browse the catalog, which, by itself, is a violation of 4.2.2.

You can't require WhatsApp to be installed in order for your app to work -- another thread here is discussing an app being rejected by Apple for that reason.

There is an alert showing if the WhatsApp is not installed in the user's device,It does not force a user to download WhatsApp it just showing a pop up that your device does not contain Whatsapp, If you want to chat with our representative you can even mail us or fill the form in contact us page for the same.

For the timing, I have added push notification, Login functionality, and direction to our service areas, Could you please provide me some valuable feedback Is there any chance of approval now? They simply call me regarding this and mostly highlighted that your app contains Marketing content which violates our Guideline 4.2.2 so we could not accept it. What next? I have not yet released the updated binary, I need more suggestion before submitting again.

I recently finally launched my app to the App Store. It was consistently rejected for the same reason (Guideline 4.2.2 - Design - Minimum Functionality) for about a month before the first approval. It was a very struggling experience. Below are the things I tried. I hope it could help people who are in a similar situation.

Context: My app is for reading tech news (e.g. TechCrunch) and Venture Capital blogs (e.g. YC, A16z). I also use ML to generate audio for articles so users can listen to them like a podcast.
More details: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1529509067

Here are the things I tried:
  • Explain to reviewers that by nature a news aggregation app will mainly include links. Failed.

  • Show thumbnails for articles. Failed. 

  • Load parsed content directly instead of showing the source websites. Failed

  • Add the "article bookmark" feature. Failed.

  • Explain to reviewers that "article bookmark" uses persistent storage and it can't be done through a website. Failed.

  • Add the "article commenting" feature. Failed.

  • Update the app metadata (description, screenshots) to highlight the "audio" feature. Failed.

  • Explain to reviewers that "audio" is a differentiator and the feature largely leverages native iOS functionalities. Approved!

Looking back, in my case, the original concept of "listen to articles" was probably already sufficient, but we just really need to help reviewers get it.