App was rejected from App Store because of UIWebview - iphone

Question

This is the message I got from them:
We found that the experience your app provides is not sufficiently
different from a web browsing experience, as it would be by
incorporating native iOS functionality.
While your app content may differ from your web site or other existing
sites, the experience it provides does not differ significantly from
the general experience of using Safari, as required by the App Store
Review Guidelines.
You may wish to provide convenient access to a web property for a
select or niche group of users - and may enhance that experience with
features such as Push Notifications. However, such apps do not include
enough native iOS functionality to be appropriate for the App Store.
As an alternative, you may wish to provide instructions to your users
on how to create a Safari web clip to add to their iOS device Home
Screen. Or, if you would like to share the app with a select group of
users, we recommend the Ad Hoc distribution method. See the iOS
Provisioning Portal for details on Ad Hoc Distribution.
We encourage you to review your app concept and evaluate whether you
can incorporate additional features to enhance the user experience.
Has anyone gotten something similar? What types of native iOS functionality would work and how do you implement them? I'm new to the app store so I don't know if just by adding what they say about providing instructions on how users can create safari web clipping will get my app approved. Also, if the instructions can just be written in a pop up message?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Update
I see what you guys are saying, let me better describe what I'm doing and maybe that way you can help me.
My app is a radio app where I can listen to my favorite radio station and read the news at the same time with out leaving the app (news from a web view).

Answer 1

From that message (and since you didn't give a description of the app at all), it seems like you just made an app that encapsulated an UIWebView to load an specific page, since you can do that via Safari, they reject apps like that.
You can:
Make the app fetch the data from the web server, BUT, display it with native controls (with UITableViews, UIButtons, UIImages, etc). This would require quite a bit amount of work.
Drop the app and tell the users, on your site, that they can add that website as a web clip on their phones.

Answer 2

They're saying that you can't just make a UIWebView that is linked to a website and call it an app. You have to incorporate more features. According to the description, your users can accomplish the same tasks by just going to your website. Are you able to incorporate push notifications, tabs, any features that makes your iOS app unique?

Answer 3

As of 2018 App Store Review Guidelines:
4.2 Minimum Functionality
Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store. If your App doesn't provide some sort of lasting entertainment value, or is just plain creepy, it may not be accepted. Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes Store. Apps that are simply a book or game guide should be submitted to the iBooks Store.
Assuming:
Apps that are simply a websites should be submitted to the Safari. ;-)

Answer 4

They want to ensure that all app's include functionality beyond the base components in the SDK that they provide to you. It seems from reading their response that there is a UIWebView in your app, yet there is not really any new functionality provided to the end-user beyond the standard UIWebView.
Would need more details about your app to better understand the circumstance though. Could you expand a little on what it does?

Answer 5

just change it with WKWebView and it will be accepted cause its a new guidelines imposed by apple recently
import WebKit
var webView: WKWebView!
override func loadView() {
let webConfiguration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
webView = WKWebView(frame: .zero, configuration: webConfiguration)
webView.uiDelegate = self
view = webView
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let myURL = URL(string:"https://www.apple.com")
let myRequest = URLRequest(url: myURL!)
webView.load(myRequest)
}