Hi All,
first of all wish you all Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Just lately , as one of those who received this, I have been very keep to know more about this topic, but been unable to have a clear picture for my case.
Background
I am a 15+ year developer which has always worked for ofthers and decided to put all myself in the business with mine idea and product. I have decided that the product has to be an app distributed on both the platforms, Apple and Android.
I have been working for alomost two years on having that done and as per the Apple part, I have started in advance to have the app tested in testflight from almost the start.
First release in testflight was on August 22 , 2018 , since then I have done 32 releases and I have almost 150 testers. All the releases: minor and major version have been passed through with no issue , and all the crashes that went along were fixed providing feedback to the testers.
The product has reached that maturity to be released , starting from few countries, and then by the time globally , so I decided to submit my first app for review.
I have checked the steps needed to submit the app, read all the documentation on https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
but , my bad, didn't go through all the points one by one that strictly that now I think it needs, so reading it now again multiple times I see that some of them are not followed correctly on both the App Store and the app, not much big things anyway.
Genuinely knowing that I would have never submitted the app at that time , 18 December, 2019.
I spent so much time and effort as it should be to offer a good product free from bugs, that has a good idea, and checked all the details, that one month more of waiting didn't change for me.
But as I said, testflight releases were all passing through, crashes were at minimum , functionalities were all in there , quality of the product was great.
Waited few more days , checking what the keywords on the Appstore are about, gather few suggestions on how to optimize, trusted those sources, then ready to submit.
Details filled
From when I started the testflight releases I have had to add:
- Subtitle
- Pricing and Availability
- Screenshots/videos for iphone (6.5 inch + 5.5 inch)
- Promotional text
- Description
- Keywords
- Support URL
- Marketing URL
- Copyright
- Login details
Spend another good week to make the screenshot/videos , uploaded them , then filled what was left. Now I tink here relies the first mistakes:
1- Privacy Policy was in there from when I started testflight , and from that moment I decided to remove some functionalities and add some others, this live document wasn't updated , and I forgot to check on it, genuinely , as my background is more technical and for the last 2 years focused on the App itself
2- Based on what found on the web regarding ASO , I added the keys, some of which are competitors names, my bad again , only after reading the guidelines again I discovered this is forbidden, at that time, not knowing that, I was thinking was the best thing to do.
3- The app is NOT an universal app, I do not have an ipad at home, and for a while at least, I do not plan to have the app on ipad, so all the customizations are for iphone only , checked one by one with simulator and with the different iphones I have. My bad I discovered that: a- in this case the app needs to be displayed on an ipad in compatibility mode. b- App review team uses ipad to check the apps
I do not see any other mistakes on the Appstore side.
The App review team went through as I have the tracks of the login , and they went through using an ipad , 6th generation.
Sequence of events and comunications , time is in GMT
As received in icloud email:
17.12.2019 - 16:08 - The status of your app has changed to Waiting For Review.
18.12.2019 - 11:10 - The status of your app has changed to In Review.
18.12.2019 - 11:41 - We've sent you a new message about your app
18.12.2019 - 11:41 - During our review, we noticed a few things that you'll need to address before your app can be approved for the App Store.
On the resoultion center:
18.12.2019 - 11:41
Hello,
We are unable to continue this app’s review because your Apple Developer Program account is currently under investigation for not following the App Store Review Guidelines’ Developer Code of Conduct.
Common practices that may lead to an investigation include, but are not limited to:
- Inaccurately describing an app or service
- Misleading app content
- Engaging in inauthentic ratings and reviews manipulation
- Providing misleading customer support responses
- Providing misleading responses in Resolution Center
- Engaging in misleading purchasing or bait-and-switch schemes
- Engaging in other dishonest or fraudulent activity within or outside of the app
During our investigation, we will not review any apps you submit. Please do not create a new developer account or make any app transfers while waiting for the investigation to be completed. Once we have completed our investigation, we will notify you via Resolution Center. Due to the nature of the investigation you will be ineligible to receive an expedited review until the investigation is completed.
We do not require any additional information from you at this time, nor do we have any additional details to share. We appreciate your continued patience during our investigation.
Best regards,
App Store Review
The app changed status to rejected.
Where I am now
Ok I thought, I have made some mistake and now all will be fixed and sound.
I believe rules are essential, I know any company has is own rules and I think is correct to follow them, so I tried, but I think I failed, but failing is human, while making the same mistake forever is evil. I learn every day from mine and I do not make them twice.
With that in mind I start searching around the web and found I wasn't alone, but surprisingly many people was left alone in the dark, on a purgatory for weeks or months without knowing what went wrong and what to fix to solve the problem. This happened for people who never published any app before or for people with many apps, or just few of them , no distinction.
I speak for me, can't speak for others , certainly one or all the three mistakes done has triggered this, but being I need more informations to understand what went wrong. From the points provided I can see only the below can apply as I do not have any other app in the store:
- Inaccurately describing an app or service
- Misleading app content
What done next
I sent a message on the Action Center, apologizing for the inconvenient and saying that as I wasn't aware that the app has to be able to run also in ipad in compatibility mode and seeing they have been connected with an ipad the UI was probably messed up and not representing what seen on the screenshots and videos.
I have tried it on the simulator after that and the bottombar was meessed up.
I have received a generic response to wait until the review is completed.
Thoughts and next steps
I can't be sure of the internal procedures of the App review team and is not my duty to judge it, but I speak as a customer that wants to make business with Apple. I totally understand that the amount of new reviews that needs to be done every day is huge, and that some or many apps are malicious and done with the intent of damaging or scamming or create other issues , but
- This is my first submission , no other apps with my ID were published
- I tried to communicate with the review team to expedite the resolution of the issue/s and got a generic response to wait, no details or any ETA on the completion of the review
The more i search around the web the more this scaries me , because of not knowing what to expect and when to expect. Meantime , my bad again, the 15K app followers in the socials who love this idea are epecting this to go live in January 2020 , and who knows when that will happen.
I dedicated all myself in this idea and will continue to do so , I am keen to resolve this as soon as possible, but what chances I have left?
- From the email received on 18.12.2019 - 11:41 - We've sent you a new message about your app, I can read:
If you have a question about your app's review, send us a message in Resolution Center. If you would prefer to speak over the phone, just let us know in your message, and we'll schedule a call.
Is it true that if I will ask to have a call back that will happen or I will receive another message to wait?
- Based on what known , and considering the three faults I have done, chances are that my account will be suspended? If so, for how long? forever? 1 year has I read around?
- What is the mean time of waiting? Has anyone got a response with an ETA via resolution center or via phone? Or we have to live in this limbo indfinitively?
- The business plan is to have a company and the app published as a company. With that in mind and knowing that this has just happened and that all the code is genuine and done by me , may I register the company now, create a new account with the company and , after fixing and reviewing once again all the guidelines to be aligned with what neeeded, let it review the app? Do I need to change the bundle ID? Do I have to change the app name? Do I have to change the logo? The app has not landed the stores yet.
- Is this happening also when an app has been published and reviwed ok for long time? The guidelines are a live documents , if that changes or a new feture added on the app triggers an "developer account under investigation"? If that happens and customers are waiting for a new feature added in that release they have to wait for how long?
- Why if an app is rejected there is an explanation straight away , not always clear, but at least there is one, and if there is an investigation not? In a case like mine in which there are no apps from me on the store and outside the Apple world they can check the screenshots and videos done with the beta so that to confirm the intention is genuine and the people likes it , why the investigation is not done straight away , a response done so that the developer can work on it and fix it ASAP?
This are the questions for me now, and as the documets say , the process is evolving and will improve, I hope this helps me to clarify those doubts. My product to go live as soon as possible, Apple to make every day better and all the genuine developers like me to have success and continue to believe in what they do.
Sorry for the long post, but what I found around was lacking on the details, hope this has a bit more of them, which I think is needed.
