Apple Rejections on Guideline 4.3 - App Spam
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Apple Rejections on Guideline 4.3 (The Daily Overpass #173)
Today, I talk about some problems I am having with Apple reviews and Guideline 4.3.
Apple Rejections on Guideline 4.3
#OverpassApps #AppBusiness
#Overpass Apps #appdeveloper #indieappdeveloper #wantage #oxfordshire #android #ios #admob #googleplay #appstore #googleplaypolicy #appleguidelines #ionic #reactnative #thedailyoverpass #mobileappdevelopment #appindustry #softwaredevelopment
Apple representatives are nuts and likely not creators with any firm understanding of what it takes to make an app. They just follow company drivel without question. That's why they work for apple as representatives.
most of them are probably interns
They are diversity hires
I had this exact same issue last night. I appealed and they passed the review. I told them it's strange that it hasn't been a problem for the last 3 years.
I am getting rejected for spam. This is the first app I am developing. Apple is claiming there are too many similar apps in the app store. My argument is it should be a free market and the consumer should decide which app to download and/or purchase. Apple has nothing to lose by letting me launch. I stand to lose if my app isn't downloaded. Any advice?
This is very tough and I've gotten this error before. Keep submitting and making changes. Get them on the phone to tell you specifically what needs to be done or why it is rejected. Request a phone call.
@@OverpassApps how can i get a in a call with them? seems that the app reviewers are very "important" people and we cant reach them, which honestly they seems to be the usual dumb ass user.
I publish a bunch of different guides in the "make money" niche. Such as a Guides for CZcamsrs, Day Trading, Uber Drivers, AirBnB Hosts and so on and so on. After around 40 apps Apple started rejecting anything new I wanted to submit and slowly they took down my entire portfolio!
Similar to you, they also want me to bundle everything within 1 app. All of my apps are guides but CZcams and Investing in Stocks are completely different things and marketing that would be difficult.
I know someone who has multiple developer accounts and divides his portfolio that way. That's something I'm testing right now. Either way, we have no choice but to change our strategy.
+FutureSuccessors The thing that upsets me is that if I only did one language game it would be fine.
We are developing apps targeting different states of USA with different content theme icons etc. But we got rejected for section 4.3 saying "We noticed that your app provides the same feature set as other apps submitted to the App Store; it simply varies in content or language, which is considered a form of spam." It's really frustrating. :(
I had the same with my language learning games. They are saying because the code is similar, I should combine the. But the audience is completely different. It makes no sense. Apple is making these decisions... but we could easily say that the iPhone and iPad are so similar, they should just combine them... but they know they have different audiences. i feel your pain here. I really do.
@@OverpassApps Good point with the iPhone and iPad thing. Hahaha. Thanks for the reply.
Yes...Apple is extremely strict on app that's look similar. If possible, do not submit similar game play or layout within a short period of time.
So f*cking annoying. I have published 6 games on android and everything is ok upon request from my subs i spent months on making a iOS version and the first app I submit is rejected for spam. How disappointing could be that?
I makes me wanna break every sing apple product I have
I just got this rejection. I am so angry
I didn't have a problem re-skinning games until about a couple months ago. (I have 140 apps that are mostly re-skins, and a few original ones) It seems Apple is cracking down on it now a ton, and small casual games, or obvious clones are being rejected more. A couple lessons I've learned is never have more than one app waiting for review, and to space out apps, even if you can make them fast. Also, a lot of it just depends on whoever reviews your app, and if they're having a good day or not. Even though I have a lot of apps on the App Store, it's only a few of the good ones, that are in unsaturated categories, that make the most money. If developers can find a niche and get in the top search results they'll get way more downloads then being average in a sea of other similar apps.
140 apps... dude, do you have a social life? :D no offence
Little confused why it happened to you, could you appeal? I have some English Language learning apps on the App Store, 2 or three of them are reskinned matching or scramble games. I have done it because they are aimed at schools and teachers/classrooms, so teachers want something that is easy to use, familiar and sticks to the subject.
Me making them similar is, in my mind, part of the attraction as teachers want to teach the subject not how to use a different app each time.
I have an ongoing project to consolidate a little more, but the feedback i got was that having them simple and engaging and on topic worked better in class that something thing more difficult to navigate through. ( basically the chances a student of a students pressing the wrong button and needing help goes up exponentially with the number of options presented to them! :P)
I have appealed, but think maybe it needs to be stronger. My complaints so far have fallen on deaf ears. But, something has to be done about this. I'm really disgusted with Apple over this one.
Sounds unreasonable. I suppose if other language learning apps such as Busuu (they have separate apps for learn Spanish, learn French, learn German, with virtually identical icons) have the same rejection, then it's fair. If they don't, then you have a case.
Hi,
Thanks for the video and sharing.
My very first app is currently rejected because of the so called 4.3 Guideline. My app is to learn French (I am French:D) and is based on quizzes with 3 levels. Player needs to satisfy a minimum performance to unlock levels 2 and 3. The app is a single app but ts interface is available in 5 language. I tried to publish the app in 5 languages from the app store. And here I am, stuck with this rejection wondering how/what to do... It seems like Apple do not want to have the exact same app on each of the linguistic app store ?
hello Eric Your videos is very informative and good. Please made video on reskinning. Which apps and games are good for reskinning
I had the same problem because I created a new app instead of my old app with new name 😬😩😡
Yikes. Did you appeal? And tell them you are removing the old app?
Hi I created the app but rejected and I put that in apple business manager to test that it works , but unfortunately it’s only download from the AppStore where the organisation located. So I created a target and few modifications done and I upload in AppStore with new design login screen and app icon they rejected and point out 4.3 in that . Is that the case they point out as spam.if I remove the old will it be resolved?
How did you fix this problem?
Unfortunately, I never did. I just moved on to other apps. But I was able to appeal a few times and get them restored. But never able to update them when needed.
@@OverpassApps , this is Apple’s way to decline every app who are unwelcome. With 4.3 apple have the right to decide against any developers ideas.
My game got rejected for the 2nd time. They say it's a spam issue yet I developed my game from scratch only to get rejected by Apple. (didn't copy or duplicate anything, personally I hate copying). I appealed apple, waiting for response.
Did they respond?, how did they approve??
Completely agree with you. Not all apps can be combined, same happened to me for my app as well. I also developed educational apps for 30 languages, reuse the codebase but UI and features same. Some of my apps are in top 10 in many countries. But now they are saying 4.3 spam and I have to make a container app. Very stupid idea from them. What they can do if an app has very few downloads, no update for long time they can make some way to penalize. Now lots of indie developers are affected like you, like me and we don't know what to do. I am thinking to give more concentration on android from now.
It really messes me up. I've started creating a container app, but I know it's no use. I have 27 language courses. I can't even list them in the 100-character keyword field (let alone the title). If I only focused on one language, I would have a better chance at marketing... it appears Apple wants us to think small. The user is the one who suffers. Apple can't handle the scale and probably has algorithm problems. If I were reskinning the same app over and over, I could understand, but they are all different and have different audiences. There is no crossover.
In terms of marketing definitely you can't do well by a container app. Suppose someone search Arabic Learning, he sees 2 apps, arabic learning and universal learning (may contain arabic) he will definitely download the first one. Also 100 character limit for marketing is also very important, if you make a container app of 30 language, even 100 chars cant fill all the language name. Anyway, I am not creating a container app, I still hope soon or later they may soft about this policy. In the meantime I am trying to learn different things. Whatever happened I understood, only depending on apple platform may not be good idea in future as well.
Guideline 4.3 - App Spam deosn't make sense at all. This is nonsense. OMG
+Kinsola King It is the biggest pain and is causing me all kinds of problems.
This is unreasonable of Apple. A game geared toward learning Chinese is by its very definition NOT a clone of another game about learning French, because the language difference is a significant difference in and of itself.
And their solution with having just one mega app with the ability to purchase and download modules from an online source, is not an acceptable solution either because it's inconvenient for the user to download and start your app, only to find out that he/she has to purchase and download more modules after that in order to make the app usable at all, which could also be a security concern given the fact that they have to download those modules from potentially harmful third-party sources, unaffiliated with Apple (I think this is enough to make some users angry and to uninstall your app right away, leaving you some nasty reviews on their way out).
This is kinda infuriating, and your overly-understanding attiutde seems a bit too permissive, although I realize that you don't have much recourse and you have to go with whatever Apple decides.
I think the semi-'anarchy' of Google Play Store is better than this unreasonable 'order' of Apple Store.
I'm selling game template and system, But I agree with the app store review team because people who re-skin a lot of the same apps are making the store pollution.
they should do more work on it just not like reskin, adding ads and put it to store just for a luck.
Today I've sent a 2nd appeal on review board :D
Has anyone ever succeeded? I know about one local developer company, their apps were almost the same, but each one was available one specific country only.
+Martin Mazanec I haven't. I appealed one decision before and had to rename an app.
@@OverpassApps "Had to rename an app" - eg if my app was rejected after an appeal, does renaming it kinda gives it a clean slate start?
You still have google market so thats fine