My experience with Apple approval process!

[SpaceHunter]

Hello Folks,

After several weeks Apple has finally approved my latest game, Meteor Mission III. Some of you may find the following history of events useful, some may not. In any case, this is not a post to bash Apple, it's just a post of my findings and experience.

- Game submitted: 04/11/2009
- Game refused: 04/17/2009

- Reason (excerpt from Apple):

Your application, Meteor Mission III, cannot be posted to the App Store at this time because it does not adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.5.

When the device is not connected to a network, Meteor Mission III does not load its contents and stays blank. This behavior might lead to user confusion. It would be appropriate to display either a notification or an alert stating that internet connectivity is required.

Please take a look at the Reachability iPhone program sample which demonstrates the use of the System Configuration Reachability API to detect the absence of WiFi and Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) services. Your application can then take appropriate action at the first point where network services are required.

Please review the Handling Common Tasks section of the iPhone's Human Interface Guideline here:
<https://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG>

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Should you require more assistance with resolving this issue, Apple Developer Technical Support is available to provide direct one-on-one support for discrete code-level questions. Please be sure to include any crash logs, screenshots or steps to reproduce this issue in your request.

Apple even attached a screenshot of the offending content. It's a screenshot of my hi-scores page but since there is no network connectivity the screen remains blank (no scores displayed).

Good catch and one that should have been trivial to me. I really thought that the QA team wrote a very comprehensive email.

- Game re-submitted: 04/18/2009
- Game refused: 04/23/2009

Your application, Meteor Mission III, cannot be posted to the App Store because it violates section 3.3.6 of the iPhone SDK Agreement:

"Any form of user or device data collection, or image, picture or voice capture or recording performed by the Application (collectively “Recordings”), and any form of user data, content or information uploading, syncing, or transmission performed by the Application (collectively "Transmissions") must comply with all applicable privacy laws and regulations as well as any Apple program requirements related to such aspects, including but not limited to any notice or consent requirements. In particular, a reasonably conspicuous visual indicator must be displayed to the user as part of the Application to indicate that a Recording is taking place."

Please make it clear to the user that their personal user data is being uploaded to your server by way of an alert upon first launch or a text label before the score submission.

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Again, straight to the point why my application failed. But, this particular failure comes as a surprise to me. Every game I have played that supports hi-score submissions DO NOT state anywhere that personal data will be submitted to a 3rd party server. I find this to be quite inconsistent of Apple based on other applications that have been approved.

Game re-submitted: 04/23/2009
Game approved: 04/30/2009

Finally!! Apple approves, but where's the email notification? Apple sent no such email. I just happen to checked my managed apps tab in iTunes connect and seen that it was approved and ready for sale. Also, because my submission date was April 11th, my app showed up in iTunes on page 3 or 4. Bummer

All I can say is whew! My game is out hoorah!

If you get anything from this post be sure to read up on the iPhone's Human Interface Guideline. It may save you some time and frustration.

Thanks and Good Luck!

-Joe
MM3 dev

[panzeriti]

Gotta love it! They send emails to give you a hard time, but no congratulatory emails... just like work lol

[marraboy]

This is good heads up... I didn't even know that the Apple Human Interface Guidelines existed!

I am now well prepared for my first submission failure!

Ta

JT

[ChunkyChickenApps]

Something happened this week that and at least approval emails on 4/30 didn't go out. I didn't get one for my update of Pichirp which was released on the same day

[erichamc]

any idea what time of day they usually approve/reject apps? I submitted mine on the 25th and haven't heard yet :-(

[dot]

hey spacehunter,

I just got the "user data collection" rejection email for the first time. Weird, isnt it? How did you fix it?

[SpaceHunter]

Originally Posted by dot

hey spacehunter,

I just got the "user data collection" rejection email for the first time. Weird, isnt it? How did you fix it?

I added a note to my hi-score submission dialog that states that any user information that is entered will be passed to our web server.