IOS app approvals
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Submissions for
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
s for
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
are subject to approval by
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
's App Review team, as outlined in the SDK agreement, for basic reliability testing and other analysis, before being published on the
App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...
. Applications may still be distributed
ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...
if they are rejected, by the author manually submitting a request to Apple to license the application to individual iPhones, although Apple may withdraw the ability for authors to do this at a later date.
Non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish ...
s have always forbidden developers from publishing the content of their rejection notices, but Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with an explicit non-disclosure warning. Apple later changed the NDA citing that "it has created too much of a burden on developers" but they did not reverse the decision to forbid publication of rejection notices. Some applications are not available outside region specific App Stores at the request of the developer. In addition, Apple has removed software licensed under the
GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...
(GPL) from the App Store after complaints from one of the program's developers (the
VLC media player VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client and commonly known as simply VLC) is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for desk ...
), claiming that the App Store's terms of service are inconsistent with the GPL.


Functional restrictions

Applicants have been denied apps for fundamentally duplicating Apple apps, for example by providing an email interface with no added functionality or use, or having the same elements as the built in SMS app. Applications have also been rejected for duplicating the functionality of
iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
. Applications may be rejected if they are of only "limited utility". Some reports indicate that toolbars must be placed at the bottom of the screen, and the vibration function should only be used for alerts.


Approval process

Launched in July 2008, the App Store averaged about $1 million in application sales a day in its first month of existence. To get applications into the App Store, developers were required to submit their app and wait for approval or rejection by Apple. Rejected apps were given feedback on the reason they were rejected so they could be modified and resubmitted. The approval process for Apple has changed over time in terms of its feedback to developers and the time delay for apps to be approved. In July 2009, the application could take weeks. Apple streamlined the process at the end of 2009, and some apps were processed in a few days. In addition, in December 2009, the App Store began providing detailed feedback to developers on the approval process rather than simply showing "Waiting for Approval" and "Approved" or "Rejected". Over time, requirements have evolved as trends have appeared in application development. For example, applications accessing the user's location for advertising were valid prior to the fall of 2009. After this point, apps were rejected that did not provide more robust user experience beyond simply using location data for advertising. Other requirements, such as using undocumented
API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...
s, have always led to rejection. In 2010, the iPad app approval process could have been lengthy, similar to the weeks experienced previously for iPhone applications. In June 2010,
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
at
WWDC The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in th ...
2010 said 95% of apps were processed within 7 business days. According to Apple's developer portal as of 3 July 2014, 98% of new and updated apps were processed within 5 business days.


Review guidelines

On September 9, 2010, Apple published official App Store Review Guidelines for developers.App Store Review Guidelines – App Store Resource Center
/ref> At this time several development restrictions were lifted and many developers of previously rejected applications were asked to resubmit their applications under the new guidelines. The App Review Guideline Document is a living document that Apple can change at any time. Essentially the guidelines are put in place to prevent problems with pornography, violence, legal issues, user experience, and other more specific guidelines in apps. Apple checks each app against these guidelines before approving it for sale and inclusion on the App Store. Apps that get featured will get promoted by Apple within the App Store, typically within a specific app category. There are no specific guidelines for getting an app featured, but in some notable cases, app developers that gather feedback directly from Apple before releasing their app have indicated that this improves chances of getting featured.


Notable rejected apps


Newspaper and magazine content

In May 2009, Apple rejected the first version of 'Newspapers', an iPhone app that let users read content from 50+ newspapers around the world, including the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
's ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
tabloid '' The Sun''. The app was rejected because the topless "
Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishing ...
" girls daily features were described as "obscene". A second version of the application was submitted, removing access to ''The Sun'', and adding a price tag of £0.59. The app was made available in the summer, after the release of the
iPhone OS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
3.0 software. Another application, of similar nature to 'Newspapers', called 'Eucalyptus' allowed users to download
e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
to their iPhone, though was rejected by Apple because one of the e-books that could have been downloaded was the ''
Kama Sutra The ''Kama Sutra'' (; sa, कामसूत्र, , ; ) is an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment in life. Attributed to Vātsyāyana, the ''Kama Sutra'' is neither exclusively nor predominantly ...
''. The ban has since been lifted. The App Store has ''
Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...
'' and ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'' adult-rated apps that have yet to be removed, while some apps by others were removed citing adult content which has resulted in accusations of hypocrisy. Despite this, adult sites continue to market for iPhone and iPad users. In November 2009, the application of ''
Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
'' (a mainstream German weekly magazine with a print circulation of about 900,000) was deleted for several weeks without warning. In January 2010, Europe's largest newspaper, German tabloid
Bild ''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper ''Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...
, removed content from the iPhone version of its print edition at the request of Apple, and later it had to modify one of its applications – like in the ''Stern'' case because of nudity.Mercedes Bunz
German publisher in row with Apple over pin-ups in iPhone app
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 9 March 2010
The Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) warned that with such interventions Apple might be moving towards censorship. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described rejection of explicit content by Apple as analogous to that of the distributor
WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
, a main distributor which for many years imposed content restrictions on British publishers. Workers at the fashion magazine '' Dazed & Confused'' have nicknamed their iPad edition the "
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
edition".


Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoons

In December 2009, Apple banned a cartoon app called NewsToons by cartoonist Mark Fiore, on the grounds that it "ridiculed public figures." In April 2010, Fiore won the Pulitzer prize for his political satire cartoons, making history as the very first internet-only cartoonist to win the prestigious journalistic prize. Following public outcry after the story broke in the wake of the award, Apple asked Fiore to resubmit his app, and it was subsequently accepted. Fiore said, "Sure, mine might get approved, but what about someone who hasn’t won a Pulitzer and who is maybe making a better political app than mine? Do you need some media frenzy to get an app approved that has political material?"


''Baby Shaker''

In April 2009, a game called ''Baby Shaker'' was approved for the App Store then later removed due to complaints. The game allowed the user to shake their phone in order to quiet a crying cartoon baby onscreen. The app was criticized for making light of
shaken baby syndrome Shaken baby syndrome (SBS), also known as abusive head trauma (AHT), is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than two years. Diagnosing the syndrome has proved both challenging and contentious for medical professionals, ...
, a condition where shaking a baby results in severe brain injury.


Nine Inch Nails

In May 2009,
Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...
of
Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...
announced, via his
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account, that Apple had rejected an update to the Nine Inch Nails application due to "objectionable content". The developer posted a message on the Nine Inch Nails discussion boards explaining the situation further:
v1.0 is live. v1.0.3 got rejected due to content yet the app has no content in it. This was mainly a stability release to fix the bug that crashes the app for international users. The bug was fixed 24 hours after 1.0 went live and we have been waiting for Apple to approve it ever since. Meanwhile the app continues to get a growing number of 1 star ratings from international users understandably frustrated by the bug, "but looks like our hands are tied".
Apple later permitted the update.


iPhone eBook

In December 2009, Ted Lando's eBook app "Take Control of iPhone OS 3" was rejected by Apple. The app was not permitted back into the App Store until all references to jailbreaking were removed.


Drone Strike Alert

In August 2012,
Josh Begley Josh Begley may refer to: * Josh Begley (artist) * Josh Begley (footballer) {{hndis, Begley, Josh ...
created a
drone strike Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakista ...
iPhone app that sent out a
push notification Push technology or server push is a style of Internet-based communication where the request for a given transaction is initiated by the publisher or central server. It is contrasted with pull/get, where the request for the transmission of informat ...
whenever a US military
drone aircraft An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
struck a target. The app was rejected, Apple finding the content "objectionable and crude".


HKmap.live

In September 2019, an anonymous developer submitted an app called HKmap.live to App Store, which is tracking police vehicles, armed officers and incidents in which people have been injured during 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. But Apple had rejected the app, and reversed its decision on October 4. ''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'', the official media in China, has criticized Apple's action. On October 9, Apple announced that the app was removed.


''I Am Rich''

''I Am Rich'' was a 2008 iOS application developed by Armin Heinrich. When launched, the screen contained only a glowing red gem and an icon that, when pressed, displayed the following
mantra A mantra (Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ma ...
in large text: The application is described as "a work of art with no hidden function at all", with its only purpose being to show other people that they were able to afford it; ''I Am Rich'' was sold on the App Store for , (equivalent to €934.74 in 2021), and , the highest price Apple allowed for App Store content for the time.


Security

All iOS App Store applications must support
sandbox A sandbox is a sandpit, a wide, shallow playground construction to hold sand, often made of wood or plastic. Sandbox or Sand box may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Sandbox (band), a Canadian rock music group * Sandbox ( ...
ing and list all permissions required for the correct functionality. During the review process, each application is manually tested, and static analysis is run on its binary code. In 2013, a test
malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...
application, that was using dynamic code reassembly techniques and named "Jekyll" in reference to the Stevenson
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
, was approved and released on the App Store. Apple claimed that unspecified changes were made to iOS in response to the attack. In September 2015, infected programs were published for public download on the App Store. The malicious code had been embedded into Chinese legitimate software through a modified version of
Xcode Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 14.2, released on December 13, ...
(see
XcodeGhost XcodeGhost (and variant XcodeGhost S) are modified versions of Apple's Xcode development environment that are considered malware. The software first gained widespread attention in September 2015, when a number of apps originating from China harbor ...
). Some of the bigger applications that had the code were ''
Angry Birds 2 ''Angry Birds 2'' is a 2015 puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment and is the twelfth game in the ''Angry Birds'' series, and is the direct sequel to the original ''Angry Birds''. It is a free-to-play with optional purchases for in ...
'', CamCard, TinyDeal.com, among others. Apple confirmed the attack and stated to be working with the developers to make sure they were using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild the apps. In October 2015, Apple also confirmed having removed applications from the App Store due to the privacy concerns. They commented that applications could be used to compromise
SSL/TLS Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securi ...
security solutions.


References

{{Apple Inc. ITunes Apple Inc. services IOS jailbreaking Online content distribution