I'm building an iPhone app for a restaurant and would like to implement also an administration area that should only be accessible/viewable to approved users (users will be approved on a server).
Will Apple accept an App which has functionalities hidden to the majority of its users?
Thanks,
Miguel
There is a "Review Notes" field when you submit your app to the app store. From iTunes Connect Developer Guide, "Use this field to give demo account information with full access
to Apple for purposes of reviewing your application." You need to provide detail information here. If you don't do this and Apple finds out later the hidden things, then they will remove the app from the app store. You can safely provide information here, as this information is only available to the review team. User won't see that.
They don't like this, and you could get pulled if they found out. When you submit your app you are able to provide information only visible to testers, which could be used to provide a login to your admin service.
Related
For last few days this cat and mouse game is going on between me and App Store Reviewers. And despite searching everywhere, I have not been able to find an answer to this question, so seeking help here.
I have submitted an app with auto-renewable subscriptions in it.
My app requires that users sign-in in order to see additional options, which includes subscription option as well.
App Store Reviewers keep rejecting my app citing this same text every time:
Regarding 5.1.1, we continue to notice that your app requires users to register with personal information to purchase non account-based in-app purchase products, which does not comply with the App Store Review Guidelines.
To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to make it clear to the user that registering will enable them to access the content from any of their iOS devices and provide them a way to register at any time, if they wish to later extend access to additional iOS devices.
We look forward to reviewing your resubmitted app.
Best regards,
App Store Review
What is non account-based in-app purchase products by the way?
I have also made it clear in my app what App Reviewer have asked above, i.e. make clear to the users that registering will enable them to access the content from any of their iOS devices. I didn't say iOS devices specifically, but said other devices since I'll have the same app on Android devices as well.
While I appreciate App Store Reviewers to help me improve my app, but I am totally lost here. I have submitted two updates to my app but every time it got rejected with the same reason.
Over this period I have also read their guidelines, read many similar cases online, but am still not clear what is required of me here.
Do they want the users to be able to purchase subscriptions even if they are not signed in? If so then technically how does this work? First it'll break the core functionality of the app since without registration I don't have user's info to create an account for them. Secondly how will I know which user purchased the subscription? I have to tie the subscription to the user's account on my backend. This means first I need to create an account for the user before user can purchase a subscription.
Please help me to get this right.
Currently I am waiting App Store's reply and my screens looks like these, with all other options removed when not signed in, and added text bottom of the Sign-In option, and help icon on top right of the screen where there is more information available for the user; and the one when user is signed-in.
If I would be a user of your app, I think I would find this behavior quite odd.
I would expect a login/registration screen when starting your app. If I decide to create an account, the Subscription button would always be visible within the settings.
However, there would also be an option "Continue without registration". If you do not create an account, the settings page could show some info text like "Some features are only available for registered members. Please tap here to create an account". Tapping the corresponding cell would show the registration page that is also shown when starting your app for the first time.
Maybe some users created an account in the past but forgot their passwort? Then they would not be able to restore their purchases, right?
Your login/registration form should also contain a "Forgot Password" option.
My app was eventually approved last year. The change I made was to remove the Subscriptions button from the Settings menu. And move it inside the user profile page. This means that user can see the Subscription option only after signing in and by going to their profile page. While this doesn't make sense to me, but that's how probably Apple wanted it. Subsequent updates to my app were also approved without any problem.
Please let me know Can we upload the template app on the App Store?
Because we are making a app, this is like a module based app so the buyer of that app can use the app code to use in their apps.
So please let me know could we upload this to the App Store?
If no, where can I publish this app to generate revenue?
I'm not sure I understand correctly your question, but if you want to publish a paid app that would require other app(s) to work, then it would be rejected.
Please see this section of the App Store Review Guidelines (emphasis mine) :
(vi) Apps should allow a user to get what they’ve paid for without
performing additional tasks, such as posting on social media,
uploading contacts, checking in to the app a certain number of times,
etc. Apps should not force users to rate the app, review the app,
download other apps, or take other similar actions in order to access
functionality, content, or use of the app.
Otherwise, please give us more informations about what you're trying to do.
DTMF call mechanism is my app.To access the app's feature first the user needs to sign in. If the user is new without any account created he can even sign up. The reasons to get rejected are the following.
11.13
We found that your app provides access to external mechanisms for
purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, which is not in
compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
New user registration is not appropriate. Please see the attached
screenshot/s for more information.
To be in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines, it would be
appropriate to remove the access to these mechanisms - including fully
qualified links to your site that could indirectly provide access to
these mechanisms, such as links to web pages for support, FAQ, product
or program details, etc.
On occasion, there may be apps on the App Store that don't appear to
be in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. We work hard to
ensure that the apps on the App Store are in compliance and we try to
identify any apps currently on the App Store that may not be. It takes
time to identify these occurrences but another app being out of
compliance is not a reason for your app to be.
Please help me by giving a solution for this problem. It will be very helpful if I could get the exact reason for rejecting my app.
You are probably trying to sell something, that could be part of your app. For that you should use the IAP api, that means 30% to Apple. You should demonstrate to them that what you sell is not a part of your application or a subscription service.
The whole 11 chapter of Apple store guidelines is about purchasing.
You must be really sure that what you are selling cannot be "part" of your application or you need to use In App Purchase.
Can the user sign up within the app?
If not (if the user needs to open a site to sign app) that is the problem.
You should add a signup procedure inside the app.
We are planning to submit our iPhone app for certification, but a friend of my suggested that if the application needs the user to login every-time to use the features, then the people at Apple would not certify the application. Can some one please guide me on this.
Its not true, you just need to provide a working username and password during the app submission so that apple can test the features.
You are definitely allowed to require a login for the app to function (I've submitted an app with multiple updates that presents a login screen as the initial dialog and locks the rest of the app until the user logs in).
You need to ensure you create a test account for the reviewer to log in with though, so make sure you provide them with a valid test Username/Password combo when you submit the app for review.
While submitting to appstore there will be option for demo account like Username/password credentials there you can give your credentials to test your application
My app was rejected for requiring a registration by the user before using any features once. I asked for a clarification on the same from the App Review team, stating that my app was based on user data, and cannot proceed without authentication. Also, I updated my review Notes in the itunesConnect to mention the same. And it was accepted. :)
For safe side, You can mention this in the review notes and do not forget to give them a sample username and password!
Good Luck!
Dontwory Your app will not be rejected by Apple. There is no restriction in apple guidelines for this. I have many live apps in app store with same scenario. So you can upload your app with worrying about app rejection.
Hope it helps you.
I am creating an iphone application that requires the users to have an account at my website.
But if i have to distribute it through apple store, how should I make the users of this Iphone Application first create an account with my website. There could be a few options like :
1) Ask the user to create an account when he/she tries to run the application on iphone.
2) Provide a 'Sign-Up' page in the Iphone application itself.
My question is "Is there any mechanism provided by Apple Store to make the user sign-up to my website before he/she can download the application".
Kindly give in your suggestions for the same. Which would be the best approach for solving my problem.
Thanks,
LG
There's no way to do this through the app store.
Yes: your two options are to create a sign in / sign up screen with cocoa, or to display your login webpage with a NSWebview.
I'd recommend the native control route...
No, you can't do that through Apples App Store.
You could provide the user with aviability to register to your site when opening your app, throug, say a NSWebView.
There are many ways to solve this, just not the one you might like.