Here's a good question.. If best practice is to change the release date to the current date once you've been accepted.. Say you are accepted at 8:00am. It would make sense to release it the same day. But what if you are accepted at 10:00pm, wouldn't it be best to release it the next day so it spends more time on top?
Your release date is either the date on which the app is approved, or the date that you've specified, whichever is earlier. The best practice is to make sure that your release date is always the approval date, so that you maximize your visibility on the most recent releases list.
Just submitted my first app a day ago. I have to ask, if my Paid Contract doesn't have a green tick yet, will my app still get approved? I mean I completed all the needed info of the Paid Contract already, just that there isn't a green tick at the end yet.
I submitted my app three times.
First two times it got rejected, after 7 days in the queue.
The last time in got approved, again after 7 days.
It is now in the store.
iFlatter i-Flatter : Go ahead, flatter yourself. You deserve it.
I've submitted 8 apps to the store now. Not a single one was approved in less than 7 days. I remember, a LITE version of one of my apps took them 3 MONTH to clear :-(
My latest app has been in the queue for about 15 days now and still no sign of approval. It's really frustrating for a developer to be put on hold that long. Even worse is the fact, that your app gets listed by submission date and not by approval date. So, if you have to wait for one week or longer, your NEW app might show up on page 5-10 and can hardly be found. Anyway, Apple really needs to work on this. I've heard wonder stories of 24 hours (and less) approval time, but that ain't happening to me and most of the others here. I also wonder, if apps from the US clear faster? Got no evidence though.
New theory -- maybe the app store queue is severely backed up right now because of an issue that caused sorting by release date to be broken for an extended period of time late last month: https://devforums.apple.com/thread/9559. It sounds like apps submitted earlier this month were basically undiscoverable until they were many pages deep in the recent releases section.
As a result, tons of developers are resubmitting their apps so that they pop back up in the app store?
I am on 12 days now, and I got an email from them today saying they were trying to contact me but to no avail. I am currently working outside of the USA, so I called them at about 6:30pm their time, but no one answered at the agents desk who asked me to call. I left a messaged and emailed him back. Not sure why I need to call, but seems something is up. Anyone else ever been contacted by them via phone?
Here's a good question.. If best practice is to change the release date to the current date once you've been accepted.. Say you are accepted at 8:00am. It would make sense to release it the same day. But what if you are accepted at 10:00pm, wouldn't it be best to release it the next day so it spends more time on top?
Eh, no it's not a good question - this has been said a lot of times in this thread (and other threads), guess it needs to be said again... it's the EARLIEST date that counts - the somewhat confusing term "release date" means nothing more than when you want your app to fysically appear on the appstore... If you wait for the next day then that will only mean one thing - lack of visibility for your app untill that date (which of course differs all over the world) - Your position in the release date-list will still be according to the date when your app was approved... You wouldn't spend more time at the top if you wait, you would spend less time at the top and you would get less visibility (since you hold your app back from the appstore even though it has been "released")...
No point in waiting...
I'm on day 8 for the update to my app. It's really interesting to hear of people who submit an update and it's approved within 24 hours and other updates taking weeks.
Well, it's been about 2 months since submission. At the beginning we battled with trademark issues...and at the end we battled with "obscenity" issues. I think the moral of the story was, if you want your app approved don't try to be clever and use a play on words like "Call Girl" for an app involving a girl making phone calls.
In the end we renamed to "Oh My Girl" and finally got in.
The wait times have gotten progressively longer, with this last one being the most we've ever waited; 8 days.
One interesting thing to note...the day they announced the 3.0 firmware we began getting email correspondence back from the dev program. I'm talking like...I send an email and get a reply within 15 mins..and back and forth for a half hour. It lasted only for that night really...it was strange.
Regardless, we're in the store now! Check us out if you want a laugh.
App link: Oh My Girl
Well, it's been about 2 months since submission. At the beginning we battled with trademark issues...and at the end we battled with "obscenity" issues. I think the moral of the story was, if you want your app approved don't try to be clever and use a play on words like "Call Girl" for an app involving a girl making phone calls.
In the end we renamed to "Oh My Girl" and finally got in.
So in looking at your app, I also noticed another one that just arrived today called "Naughty Nurse" -- how is it that they got approved and you didn't with the name "call girl" ?
I have called the guy twice that asked me to call him - got his voice mail twice - left messages twice. This system is so wild, and being the very impatient American I am, I am going crazy waiting on their response emails for everything. Currently on 13th day waiting for my update to get approved....
Post updates on March.30. Count 16 days now, and still waiting. The reviews for my app is a now a mess, since it have a serious memory leak issues in the app.
So in looking at your app, I also noticed another one that just arrived today called "Naughty Nurse" -- how is it that they got approved and you didn't with the name "call girl" ?
WEIRD.
Don't even get me started I exchanged a dozen emails with the dev program trying to get them to explain to me what objectionable content was. I have no problem at all with apps like "Naughty Nurse" or the high number of sexual apps in the entertainment category. My problem is with the arbitrary nature in which they seem to select them. I also will never understand their rating process for games...when I asked them if we could just slap a 17+ rating on our app and be done with it they told us no, that'd be appropriate to remove the offending lines.
Anyway, we wrote up a blog post telling what the last two months of the review process was like. You can check it out here if you like:
Hopefully it'll provide some help to developers here...or maybe we were just too green in the development world to understand trademarks, objectionable content etc.
App submitted last Friday -- approved tonight. Total time: 7 days, 5 hours. (Note: This is not the same set of apps I was whining about a few days ago.. those are still pending after my re-submit).
By the way, this app is called "Steamy Fantasies for Women" (**** for women -- it's quite funny, actually). =)
I'm shocked apple would not approve the name "Call Girl" but they had no trouble approving this one -- although the content in this app is not even a tiny bit questionable, the title sure is. =)
Finally my first update approved after 13 days. I was able to get in touch with the agent who was trying to contact me. The reason for the delay? I had some text in my application description that they did not approve of. I was mentioning in the description that "The application is much more censored then that content on our website due to appstore content restrictions."
I guess they don't like you saying things like that, so they kindly and very simply asked me to remove that, and the application update would be posted. So I removed it after I got off the phone with him and like magic, the app was approved today.
App submitted last Friday -- approved tonight. Total time: 7 days, 5 hours. (Note: This is not the same set of apps I was whining about a few days ago.. those are still pending after my re-submit).
By the way, this app is called "Steamy Fantasies for Women" (**** for women -- it's quite funny, actually). =)
I'm shocked apple would not approve the name "Call Girl" but they had no trouble approving this one -- although the content in this app is not even a tiny bit questionable, the title sure is. =)
Steamy Fantasies are Legal and Fun!
Another factor may be the complexity of the app. Since our app (Oh My Girl) plays the audio clips on a random basis (actually, it's less random than it seems), it is more difficult for the reviewer to screen. By comparison, with something like the Naughty Nurse, the reviewer can simply flip through the whole thing rather quickly.
In the original version, we had one of our strongest (read best, worst, or most questionable) audio clips right up front. With the default settings, it would be either the first or the second clip the user would hear. You can hear this clip in the first video on this page.
Imagine being a reviewer, already wary because of the name, and wondering how you'll get through all of the random clips. Right away the "Call Girl" spits out this crazy line. Of course, you'd reject the app.
It makes me wonder about games though. Surely they don't try to play out every possible game scenario, do they?
Last edited by mackillerapps; 04-19-2009 at 04:52 PM.
Reason: Typo
My app took 8 days to get approved (sports category) then I realized I had a bug so I resubmitted. It has been 5 days since then, and I'm still waiting.
I'm curious though.. when I resubmitted I removed the old version from sale. Once the update is approved do I need to make sure both the older and current version are checked available for sale in iTunes Connect, or should I not worry about the older version?
Apple sent me one of the dreaded "We need more time to review.." emails but a day later they called me to tell me that they needed the promotional text tweaked (I offered money back if users had any good suggestions) so I removed it and it was approved the next day (Saturday).
If anyone is a photographer feel free to take a look. It's called Helios and it's designed for professional filmmakers and photographers to pinpoint the position of the sun anywhere in the world at any time to within a thousandth of a degree.
Submitted version 2.0 of Binary Game late on Sunday (8 days ago)..
Today I got:
Your application Binary Game is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.
Awesome! No real new functionality introduced that should break anything... added a new mode, did some cosmetic changes and some other minor things..
Is it worth contacting them (via email or Phone)? Do they respond?
Appstore wait
Linear Mode
