In this post, we'll share tips to help you submit apps that deliver original ideas to your users. When working on your app, focus on creating interesting, unique experiences that aren't already available. Apps that actively try to copy other apps won't pass review, and accounts that repeatedly submit copycat apps or attempt to impersonate a service will be closed. The rules that prevent copycat and impersonator apps from being distributed on the App Store are described in App Review Guideline 4.1: 4.1 Copycats (a) Come up with your own ideas. We know you have them, so make yours come to life. Don’t simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store, or make some minor changes to another app’s name or UI and pass it off as your own. In addition to risking an intellectual property infringement claim, it makes the App Store harder to navigate and just isn’t fair to your fellow developers. (b) Submitting apps which impersonate other apps or services is considered a violation of the Developer Code of Conduct and may result in removal from the Apple Developer Program.(c) You cannot use another developer’s icon, brand, or product name in your app’s icon or name, without approval from the developer. These requirements help make the App Store both a safe place for people to discover apps and a platform for all developers to be successful. Best Practices Here are three best practices that will help you submit apps that follow App Review Guideline 4.1: 1. Submit apps with unique content and features. People want apps that provide unique experiences. Find areas that aren't currently being served and build compelling apps for those audiences. Do: Create apps that provide a new experience or a unique spin on an existing concept. Design original, delightful interfaces that elegantly meet your user's needs. Don't: Don’t imitate the features and functionality of other apps. Don’t copy the look and feel of other apps, such as using an identical user interface design. 2. Make sure App Store metadata only contains relevant information and content you either own or have permission to use. The metadata provided in App Store Connect is used to populate your app's product page on the App Store. People rely on this metadata to learn about your app and what it has to offer. Leveraging the popularity of another brand or app, either by including irrelevant references or protected content, is misleading and won't help your app succeed. Do: Use engaging, descriptive language to describe your unique app. Create original content that best represents your app, such as screenshots showing the actual app in use. Don't: Don't use protected material you do not have the necessary permission to use, such as app icons that are similar to icons of a popular app. Don’t include irrelevant references, such as popular app names or trademarked terms, in any metadata fields. 3. Provide information that is authentic and verifiable. People want to know the developers behind their favorite apps are who they say they are. It's important to continually review and provide up-to-date information, including the developer or company name listed on your Apple Developer Program account, the Support URL listed on your app's product page, and other helpful information. This will enable your users to contact you when they need help and it will also hinder people who may try to impersonate you, your app, or your service. Do: Make sure all information, resources, and documentation related to your account and apps are current and accurate. Don't: Don’t provide inaccurate information or resources, such as directing people to outdated support pages. Don’t provide fraudulent documentation. Accounts that submit fraudulent documentation will be removed from the Apple Developer Program. Support Incorporating these best practices into your app's development will help you submit apps that follow App Review Guideline 4.1. If you need additional assistance, consider taking advantage of one of the following support options available from App Review: If your submission has been rejected, reply to the message from App Review in App Store Connect and request clarification. Request an App Review Appointment to discuss the results of our review. Appointments are subject to availability, and take place during local business hours in your region on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you believe your app follows the App Review Guidelines, consider submitting an appeal to the App Review Board. Resources Learn about foundational design principles from Apple designers and the developer community. Learn how to create engaging App Store product pages. Note that apps that violate intellectual property rights are subject to removal through the App Store Content Dispute process. If you believe an app on the App Store violates your intellectual property rights, you can submit a claim.

应用ID(id6754838125), A week has passed since I added in-app purchases to the already listed application, but it's still under review and I haven't received any result. I sent an email to inquire and asked me to keep waiting We used Contacts Us There is no result. 2. The call has been made for expedited review. It was submitted on December 11th and is still under review Previously, the result of the app review was available within 48 hours Now, I don't know what solutions can be made to this problem. The company is in a hurry and needs to use the App to release a new movie

Hi, I’ve been waiting for App Store review since December 3, and the submission is still in Waiting for Review status. The update itself is very important for the app, but technically simple, with no unusual changes or new permissions. In the past, reviews were completed much faster, so this delay is concerning. Is anyone else experiencing similar review times recently, or is this a known slowdown? Thanks.

I would like to ask for clarification regarding my app submission with Submission ID: d293828f-8f9a-4a6d-b138-9650258ab3f3, which has been in “Waiting for Review” status for more than 7 days. I understand that review times may vary depending on queue volume and other factors. However, this extended waiting period is impacting our release timeline, and there have been no status updates or requests for additional information. Could you please help check the status of this submission or let us know if any further action is required from our side? Thank you for your time and support. I look forward to your response.

Hello App Store Review Team, I would like to ask for clarification regarding my app submission with Submission ID: d293828f-8f9a-4a6d-b138-9650258ab3f3, which has been in “Waiting for Review” status for more than 7 days. I understand that review times may vary depending on queue volume and other factors. However, this extended waiting period is impacting our release timeline, and there have been no status updates or requests for additional information. Could you please help check the status of this submission or let us know if any further action is required from our side? Thank you for your time and support. I look forward to your response.

My app's Custom Product Page (CPP) submission has been stuck in "Waiting for Review" since its initial submission on Decemberr 28th, for over two weeks now. Key Timeline and Troubleshooting: Initial Wait and Self-Check: Initially thought it was a normal queue, but there was no progress after several days. Comprehensive Troubleshooting: I have confirmed: Developer account agreements and tax status are normal/valid. This CPP is associated only with the live, published version of the app and is not linked to any pending new version. There are no "Issues to Resolve" prompts in the App Store Connect backend. Attempted Standard Solutions: I have tried "Withdraw and Resubmit" multiple times. The operation completes successfully, but the status always reverts to "Waiting for Review" and never progresses to "In Review". Contacted Official Support: I have reported this issue multiple times through the App Store Connect "Contact Us" form and via email, explaining the suspected technical fault. However, I have not received any substantive feedback. My Core Question: Could this possibly indicate that my account or this specific CPP submission has encountered some rare "lock" or data synchronization failure within the backend system? APP INFORMATIONS APP NAME:Phàm Nhân Ngự Linh Truyện OEG APP ID:com.oeg.bgyn.ios CPP SUBMISSION ID:8e5813d2-c823-4168-a2c3-7030230f11c7 I'm reaching out in desperation because this review delay has already forced us to postpone a critical marketing campaign by nearly 20 days. I'm at my wit's end and genuinely don't know what else to do. Any guidance or insight from the community would be a lifesaver—this situation is putting my job at serious risk. Please, if anyone can help, I would be immensely grateful

Dear Apple Support Team, I am adding new subscriptions to my app and tried to submit them for review. However, I received the following error message: "Your subscription could not be submitted for review. Please provide a privacy URL in App Privacy." I have already provided the privacy URL and changed nothing in the past.. Could you please advise how to resolve this issue so I can submit my new subscriptions for review? Thank you for your assistance. Best regards :)

Hi, We have submitted our app appeal on 13 November, and it has now been over a month without any update. We understand that investigation can take time, but this appears to be taking longer than expected. Does anyone have such experience before?

Hi, 2-3 weeks ago i submitted an update for two of my apps (one of them being a critical update to a bug that doesn’t allow the app to work) and I am still waiting, I contacted Apple support and they said that i just have to wait. But for how long?

My app has been in “Ready for Review” for about ~2 weeks with no new messages in App Store Connect. I’m trying to figure out if this is normal right now or if there’s something I should do on my side. Thanks, just trying to sanity check timelines.

Hello, I’m looking for advice from developers who may have encountered similar App Review situations. I have an iOS game (“Next Run Game”), a fantasy roguelike RPG. App version 1.0.13 was reviewed and approved by App Review, but it was not released publicly on the App Store. Later, I submitted version 1.0.14. This update contained only minor changes: small balance tweaks bug fixes localization text fixes No changes were made to metadata or presentation: app name icon screenshots description branding overall concept After submitting version 1.0.14, the app began to be rejected under: Guideline 4.3 (Spam) later also Guideline 4.1 (Copycats) The review messages are generic and state that the app or its metadata “appears to be misrepresenting itself as another popular app,” but no specific example, reference app, or concrete issue has been provided. What is confusing to me: The same app (version 1.0.13) was previously approved by App Review. Metadata did not change between the approved and rejected submissions. Appeals to the App Review Board and App Review Support requests were submitted (Nov 18 and Nov 28), but no response was received beyond automated confirmations. Replies in App Store Connect result only in repeated template responses that do not address the points raised. Questions: Has anyone experienced an app being approved and later rejected under 4.1 or 4.3 without metadata changes? Is it expected that App Review can reinterpret “copycat” or “spam” issues retroactively when nothing has changed? Are there known practical steps in such cases besides renaming the app or fully rebranding? Is there any effective escalation path when appeals receive no response for multiple weeks? I’m trying to understand whether this is a known pattern and what realistically helps in practice. Thank you for any insights.

Hello everyone, I’ll be honest with you, the kind of honesty that comes when you’ve run out of places to turn. My name is Donovan, I’m a French student, and I’m writing here because at this point, I truly don’t know what else to do Two years ago, I started a small project to learn mobile development. Nothing ambitious at first just a personal exercise, a way to grow. But after countless late nights, weekends sacrificed, and lines of code no one will ever see… that small project became a real application. I finished it. Refined it. Carried it like something that genuinely mattered. And for the past two months, I’ve been fighting with App Review. Always for the same reason: Guideline 4.3(b) – Design – Spam. Each time, I respond. Each time, I explain. But each time, the door closes with the same cold, impersonal message: “We encourage you to reconsider your app concept and submit a new app that provides a unique experience not already found on the App Store.” Unique. Such an easy word to use… especially when no one seems willing to look closely at what’s actually in front of them. My application is a dating app, yes. I know there are many on the App Store. But I implemented a feature that no other dating app currently provides, and more importantly: the app is 100% free, no paywallsno mandatory subscription. As far as I know, there is no completely free dating application on the App Store. I even added features that were never planned, just to avoid being dismissed as “spam.” But nothing has changed. Two years of work. Two years of progressing 4–5 hours per week, between classes, exams, and everything else life throws your way. And now, it feels like all of that can be wiped away by a single generic sentence. So here I am, turning to you, the developer community, the only people who truly understand what it means to run into an invisible wall. I need your help. Your advice, your experiences, your strategies. How can I get Apple to finally accept my app? How can I avoid throwing away two year of work because of a vague, unexplained guideline? Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply

It's been a week waiting for the review Despite requesting a quick review and contacting technical support via email, there has been no change so far. What can I do? Apple ID: 6756184295

Hello, I submitted an app update (submission ID: 3bbbd08f-6ca9-40a2-bdc1-a2f33061f647) that was rejected for Guideline 4.0 - Design (about ad frequency issues). The rejection message included this option: "The issues we've identified below are eligible to be resolved on your next update. If this submission includes bug fixes and you'd like to have it approved at this time, reply to this message and let us know." I replied on December 11 at 10:21 PM asking to approve the current version as a bug fix, and that I would address the ad frequency in my next update. It's now been over 35 hours with no response. Should I resubmit my binary for review? Typically, when I reply to the App Review message in such a scenario, my app gets approved in a few hours.

Guideline 3.2.1 - Business - Other Business Model Issues - Acceptable The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the financial institute name "Payments" in the app or its metadata, as required by Guideline 3.2.1(viii) of the App Store Review Guidelines. How can I solve this issue? Where will I find Seller Name and Company Name? Do I required to provide same company/organization name as app name? Can anybody provide me steps about how to solve this issue? For now I am using individual account. Do I need to change it to organization account?

Hi, I am trying to get an app approved. In app purchases say that I need to fix something without saying what needs fixing. I can't add the in-app purchases to the app review and that one does not pass because there are in-app purchases missing. How can I fix this issue? I assume that during review someone could just write whats missing but obviously they won't. The message I received said: One or more of your In-App Purchases has been returned for the following app: Literally nothing else. Regards,

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some help or clarification regarding repeated rejections under Guideline 3.1.3 - Business - Payments - Other Purchase Methods. In earlier versions of our app we did experiment with using in-app purchases for our eSIM-related service (which App Review treats as a physical good/service). After the first rejections, we fully reworked the payment flow. In the current build we have: Completely removed any use of the in-app purchase API / StoreKit and removed all UI elements and wording mention in-app purchases. Detached all in-app purchase products and marked all previously created IAP products as “removed from sale”, so they are no longer available to users. Moved all payments to an external outside of the in-app purchase API, which (as I understand it) is exactly what Guideline 3.1.3 requires for physical goods/services. Despite this, the app is still being rejected with the same 3.1.3 message about using in-app purchases for physical goods, without any new details or updated screenshots that point to the actual problem in the latest build. One thing that might be related: in App Store Connect there are still some legacy in-app purchase products stuck in an “In Review” state. We can’t delete or fully edit them from our side, even after removing the previous builds. They are not attached to the current version and are not referenced anywhere in the code or UI, but I’m worried they might still be confusing the review process. Has anyone run into a similar situation? Can these legacy IAP products in “In Review” status still trigger 3.1.3 rejections, even if they’re not attached to the binary and removed from sale? Is there any way to get App Review or Developer Support to reset or clear these products so we can fully remove them? We’re a small team trying to launch, and at this point we feel a bit stuck in a loop where the feedback doesn’t seem to reflect the current implementation. Thanks in advance for any help or insight.

Hello, I recently was rejected for the following reason: However, your app does not comply with: Legal 5.1.1 We noticed that your app requires users to register with personal information to access the app’s content and purchase in-app purchase products that are not account based. Apps cannot require user registration prior to allowing access to app content and features that are not associated specifically to the user. User registration that requires the sharing of personal information must be optional or tied to account-specific functionality. To resolve this issue, please revise your app to not require users to register before purchasing in-app purchase products that are not account based. You may explain to the user that registering will enable them to access the purchased 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 devices. Resources See guideline 5.1.1(v) - Account Sign-In to learn more about our requirements for apps with account-based content and features. I replied: We require the user to login/sign up because it relates directly to the core functionality of our App. If the user deletes the App and chooses to reinstall it, his data will be saved on our server because the sign up system allows their data to be saved. This allows the User to restore all his in-app purchases and for our database to always keep track of the User’ in-app purchased consumable items. Apple requires a restore feature for in app purchases and we allow the user to restore his in app purchases by tying their account to an email or social media login. The login is required to prevent users from hacking the app. The diamond and coin systems are stored on our back end database servers. Once a user logins in, the back end stores how much coins and diamonds are associated with that account. This prevents users from manually altering how many coins or diamonds they have. It preserves the integrity of the app and the Apple App Store itself. Our servers store all user progression and data. Without the login / sign up system, we cannot sync the back end database. The login / sign up feature is crucial to the functionality of the app to prevent hacking and to keep track of the users database and more importantly, keep account and restore capabilities available for any in app purchases. To which the review board responded with: Although requesting that users register to for tracking users’ purchases and game progresses is acceptable, requiring users to fully register for an account before entering the game is not. Users should be allowed to access none account-based features before registration and login. You may also choose to alert users that accessing game without binding an account may result in losing game progress or in-app purchase items. To resolve this issue, please revise your app to let users freely access your app’s non account-based features, such as accessing the game, prior to registration or login. Once the user decides to use account-based features, the app may present the registration or login feature at that time. My understanding is this... I need to implement a "play as guest" mode where Users do not need to register. This will automatically generate an account for that User. However, am I allowed to require the user to register before conducting any in-app purchases, or other activities on the app?? What is this asking for? Do I need to allow the guest user to be able to purchase and do all the things a registered user can?

My app has been waiting for review for over 7 days. I know it's nearing the holidays but at most I think it should take 5d. Should I maybe developer reject my app and resubmit it? I have already tried expedited review.

Hi there. I work for a company that develops a SaaS service. Users have to register before using the SaaS as all the data they save in the application must be linked to their account. Why that? Because it is a multi-platform SaaS currently running on web and Android, so, the user must have access to his/her contents on every platform he/she intends to use. Also, some features depend on our back-end system to process the data and return an analysis based on them. That said, Apple is rejecting our app claiming that we should not require the user to register an account before purchasing a subscription. The problem is: how can the user store their data in our servers without an account? We do offer a free tier account, but the users must be logged in to have access to their data and have the analysis performed by the back-end service. Does anybody have gone through a similar issue? I need clarifications on how to solve this. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I am seeking urgent advice or attention from the App Review team regarding a Pending Termination Notice I received for Section 3.2(f). The Situation: I recently acquired a portfolio of apps from another developer to start my business on the App Store. Three months after the transfer, my account was flagged for removal because one of these acquired apps "repeatedly violated guidelines to evade the review process." The Problem: I am being punished for the previous owner's actions. I have never submitted a new build, metadata update, or review request for this specific app since acquiring it. The Timeline (Proof of Innocence): August 4, 2025: Last update submitted by the Previous Owner. September 6, 2025: I signed the Purchase Agreement to start my business. September 9, 2025: App Transferred to my account. December 11, 2025: Termination Notice received. As the timeline proves, the alleged "evasion attempts" via submissions occurred before I even owned the app. Regarding "Unresolved Issues": I am aware the app had an old "Unresolved Issue" flag from September 2024. However, the previous owner successfully released multiple updates throughout late 2024 and 2025 despite this flag. As a newcomer to the App Store, I reasonably interpreted this as a system glitch in App Store Connect, given that Apple continued to approve new versions for a whole year. My Appeal: I have submitted an appeal via the Contact Us form, stating: I am a bona fide purchaser with legal proof (Purchase Contract & Bank Transfer records). I have never touched the code or submitted a build for this app. I am willing to immediately remove the problematic app to save my account and the other legitimate apps I am operating. Request: If an Apple Staff member sees this. Please review the transfer logs. I am a victim of the seller's hidden violations, not a participant in fraud. Has anyone else faced a termination for an acquired app they never updated? Thank you.