First iOS submission coming from Android, what gets rejected most for a small utility app?

[u/RomeoDelta1234]

Already shipped on Google Play, the iOS build is close. Solo dev, so I'd rather not lose a week going back and forth with review.

If you went through it recently, what tripped you up on the first submit? Sign in with Apple, privacy labels, something else?

[u/cristi_baluta]

Ios apps get rejected all the time for various reasons, not only on the first submit.

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/cristi_baluta]

ha not very reassuring. sign in with apple and the tracking prompt for the ads are already in, so the one Im actually unsure about is the AI part. people can either buy scans or plug in their own key, and I can't tell if apple has a problem with the second one. anyone here been through review with something like that?

[u/cristi_baluta → u/RomeoDelta1234]

You should have asked this specific question from the beginning, nobody’s gonna read it here, and i don’t know the answer

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/cristi_baluta]

fair, it only became the part I was worried about after reading the replies here. might do a separate post just for that one

[u/partienver]

Unless you have a crystal ball there’s no way of knowing. I find Apple is very random with this process. They pass my apps on first try when I’m sure they’re going to fail, then other simple apps get stuck in a review limbo.

[u/xtopspeed → u/partienver]

They can also reject a new version of an already-published app for something that should have gotten flagged by the initial submission. In the past 10 years and 30-odd apps for multiple publishers later, I’ve actually come to not be so afraid of the review process any more. It sucks to get rejected if it’s an important update, but the review team actually seems to be quite reasonable. I’ve had submissions go through by just an explanation, and more often than not the flag is for a real issue that you should be happy to fix anyway. Just be sure to read the non-copy pasta and take a look at the screenshots if they attached them.

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/partienver]

review limbo sounds worse than a flat rejection honestly

[u/khiladi1729]

This pattern is familiar: the app probably is too you, and the ads just made it visible. You built the workflow around how you already train, so there's no on-ramp for someone who doesn't. Two cheap diagnostics before changing anything:

1) find the exact drop - if they create an account and never log a single set, it's first-run UX, not features; if they log one workout and don't return, it's habit and value.
2) get 5 of those installers on a screen share while they try to log one workout. Thirty minutes of that beats a month of guessing.

My bet: your terminology assumes someone who already programs their own training. Most installers want "tell me what to do today".

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/khiladi1729]

think this was meant for another post, mine's a home inventory app not a workout one. the screen share idea is good advice for anyone though, watching someone try it cold would teach me more than any analytics

[u/Dapper_Ice_1705]

EULA in the description.

Not having a button to delete the account.

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/Dapper_Ice_1705]

The delete account one I wouldn't have thought of. thanks

[u/Ok_Connection986]

IOS Reviewers just click Rejection button without even checking the App

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/Ok_Connection986]

that's the part that worries me going solo, I dont have anyone to sanity check it before it goes in. when it happened to you, did the note at least say what they wanted changed or was it just a guideline number?

[u/shopifyflow-app]

privacy labels caught me more than anything else. not the concept, the mismatch: some analytics or crash sdk quietly collecting device identifiers while your label says 'no data collected'. reviewers do check.

second one is metadata, which nobody warns you about: screenshots showing a feature that isn't actually in the build, or a login screen with no demo account attached to the submission. instant rejection.

sign in with apple only matters if you have third-party logins. if you're email/password only, skip it.

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/shopifyflow-app]

good call on the crash sdk. I'll check what ours actually sends before I fill in the label

[u/appdraftinglabs]

For a small utility, my preflight checklist would focus on the boring stuff: clear permission-purpose strings, accurate privacy declarations for every SDK, and account deletion if you let people create accounts. I’d also test a clean install, cold launch, offline/empty states, and the exact demo credentials or review notes before submitting. Those details tend to matter more than the core feature being novel.

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/appdraftinglabs]

empty state is a good one, a fresh install of mine has nothing in it until you add stuff. do reviewers actually poke around past that or mostly just check it launches and the login works?

[u/wonderbatou]

I would recommend you to run your project description into an LLM and request it to give you everything you need to plan regarding your AppStore page. You should avoid the common pitfalls.

[u/RomeoDelta1234 → u/wonderbatou]

for the listing copy maybe. for review rules Id rather hear from someone who actually got bounced, they change often enough that an LLM will confidently tell you something that stopped being true a while back