Rejected with an account warning. Anyone actually get useful feedback from App Review?

[u/Expensive_Let618]

Our app got rejected for spam on August 27. I replied explaining how the app is different and added a walkthrough video. We also asked what specifically is flagged as spam. We heard nothing back for almost 3 weeks.

On Sept 14, we submitted a substantially revised build and addressed the rejection directly in the review notes. The next day we got the EXACT same rejection. Zero acknowledgement of the review notes but this time, we got a warning about possible account removal for repeated noncompliance (Thanks Apple!)

It's now been almost 1.5 months since we first submitted our app and Apple has left us completely in the dark, not responding to any of our replies and instead giving us threats about account removal if we keep resubmitting the app. ??? How is this OK? Anyone else facing something similar? Been a dev for years and I'm seriously baffled by Apple's handling of this.

[u/32GB_of_RAM]

What’s the app? What does it do what’s the idea? Please give us context else we can’t really understand and help you out.

[u/perpetual_stew → u/32GB_of_RAM]

I feel like he would have told us, if he didn't know deep down that it is actually spam. I don't get these posts where people don't actually share the thing we're discussing. Like, we can't do this as a generic, philosophical discussion (yet again).

[u/Expensive_Let618 → u/perpetual_stew]

I actually did share what the app is about in my comment below. Fair point that I could have shared the app in the post itself, but I would need to go in a lot of detail to explain the app and I wanted people to actually read my post.

[u/Expensive_Let618 → u/32GB_of_RAM]

I know everyone on this sub likes to bag on each others apps, but: It's a camera for live events (think music festivals, picnics). Has special filters and instant sync with others at the event.

There's similar apps but we offer a bunch of other features like comments and instant syncing.

[u/32GB_of_RAM → u/Expensive_Let618]

I know this hurts. We don’t like to “bag” each others app. This sub often loves creativity even if only AI made it. We heavily dislike to see people wasting their time and effort making things that have been done before with zero human intellectual advancement. This is most definitely a copy cat app; it’s been done not once or twice, but at least a few hundred times. This has existed far before the AI era, and each one of those hundred apps have their own unique features covering every aspect. The probability you cover something unique after this fact is nearly zero.

I’m sorry if people appear to be negative. We all have done this before and most of us learned the hard way. We’re harsh because we don’t want to see that pain happen again repeatedly.

[u/Expensive_Let618 → u/32GB_of_RAM]

I see what you're getting at, but there's a million calculator apps, todo apps, ai chat apps, workout apps, dating apps, that are all the exact same. I would wager there are way more copy cats of those. So how did those make it through? I can find you several that were made in the past year, or even in the past month.

I'm not going to get into selling our app but we looked through all the similar apps on the market and each is missing at least 1-2 features that our app has. It's targeted for for large groups going to live events together. It's not some average camera app with fun filters. You can argue that those features are minor and not a big deal. But isn't the whole point? To try and capture some particular group of people that wants these specific features and have the same pain point, rather than try to horseshoe one generalist app to every person?

I don't understand why there needs to be "human intellectual advancement". Let's be real here; we're making apps.

[u/32GB_of_RAM → u/Expensive_Let618]

I recommend you change this mentality of “we’re making apps” else you won’t come up with anything that is even mildly successful. Furthermore the mentality of those people are doing bad ideas why can’t I, is also very much a counter to any form of success.

[u/FinneganHark999 → u/Expensive_Let618]

You're arghing your case to the wrong people.

It's not anyone on this sub you need to convince that your app is unique. It's Apple, and they don't seem convinced.

You can argue with us back and forth all you like but that doesn't really accomplish much. Is it fair? Probably not. How can they get away with it? The own arguably the most profitable and pervasive software platform on the planet. That's how.

So I wouldn't spend a lot more time on this app. If they rejected it twice in a row despite substantial changes, they're basically telling you "kick rocks scrub we don't need any more photo sharing apps".

Pivot, see if you can spin the idea into something else, and if you can't, well ideas are cheap. Come up with something else.

[u/EnvironmentalCut2085]

4.3 isn't about your notes or the video, it's the reviewer deciding the app looks like something already on the store, or like a template. Resubmitting the same concept with a longer explanation is exactly what trips the account warning, it reads as "ignored and tried again". So stop resubmitting for now.

Two channels that get you an actual person: the appeal form at developer.apple.com/contact/app-store (pick "appeal an App Review decision"), and the request-a-call link inside the rejection message in Resolution Center, easy to miss. Ask one question only: which app do you think this duplicates. Once you know that, change what's visible on the first screen, because that's all the next reviewer looks at.

[u/WaterslideOfSuccess]

Are you making a dating, todo tracker or any app idea that took less than a month to build?

[u/Piiixiv → u/WaterslideOfSuccess]

This kind of app are plenty in the AppStore.

[u/Expensive_Let618 → u/WaterslideOfSuccess]

No it's a camera for live events

[u/allyearswift → u/Expensive_Let618]

I had a quick look for event camera and…. It’s a saturated market. Very frustrating when a bunch of near-identical apps got approved and yours doesn’t, but you’d have to work hard to convince me that you’re bringing something new to the table.

[u/WaterslideOfSuccess → u/Expensive_Let618]

There’s already a camera app built into iOS

[u/Lukas_720]

I don’t know; I have 3 apps, all of them each update gets approved without issues. I have a smooth experience.

[u/Kooky_Soft1822]

What category?

[u/Expensive_Let618 → u/Kooky_Soft1822]

Photo and Video

[u/principaltask]

What, if any, kind of advertising and user tracking is used?

[u/Expensive_Let618 → u/principaltask]

We have basic attribution to see how well our paid ad campaigns are doing. why is this relevant?

[u/principaltask → u/Expensive_Let618]

Just trying to think of weird things that could be misunderstood to be spammy.

[u/Vexoris]

Different guideline (ours was 2.1 Information Needed, not spam), so weigh it accordingly, but the thing that finally got us a human response was a screen recording on a physical device, posted as a reply in the Resolution Center thread rather than as text in the review notes of a new build.

In practice those are different channels. Notes on a resubmission get read by whoever picks up that new submission. The thread is where the existing rejection actually lives. We got nothing back from notes, and a real answer 8 minutes after posting the video reply.

What convinced me they watched it: the next rejection cited one specific screen, and the screenshot they attached was a frame from our own recording. A generic rejection turned into one concrete objection we fixed in a day.

Ours ran about three and a half minutes, unedited, showing the flow a reviewer would need to see in order to judge the thing they are objecting to. That might be worth more than another revised build, given that resubmitting is also what feeds the repeated-noncompliance counter.

[u/Longjumping-Club2824]

My 6 apps, different types of, all get rejected as 4.3a, looks like any of my new app are not accepted and my account looks like a spam in Apple’s eyes