Hey, this is the Daily Overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today let's talk about overcoming app rejections!
Alright, a couple of days ago we got a new comment from our good friends at XdebugX games
who has been commenting on this channel for years.
He said "Hi Eric, I just made a new game and tried to release it on Apple's App Store and
ran into the dreaded 4.3 guideline (spam apps).
The game is a slots game and I know there's a ton of these games already on the store.
But it was my first slots game, completely written from scratch, no reskin.
Also the gameplay mechanic is a bit different from every other slots game.
Do you have any advice on how to approach Apple on this issue?"
I would say first of all, don't panic.
And this is a thing about the rejection - you put so much work into it, especially if it's
something from scratch.
You could spend weeks or months or however long working on something, you put it through
to Apple, and then you get the rejection back, and don't panic.
I was talking to somebody this morning who just released an app and it came back with
a rejection, and it was just a simple one to fix, it was like a p-list entry, and then
we just resubmit it, but he was like "what am I gonna do if they don't approve it?
All my clients are gonna freak out!", all this stuff, I said "don't panic, just resubmit
it, it's fine!"
And for the 4.3 one, this one -my first advice here would be to just resubmit it.
Don't let go at that.
Respond under the comment where you put the response and say "I can see why you might
think that, but if you have a look at all the other apps on my account, this is unlike
any of them.
If you look at all the other apps on the app market, this one is different because of X,
Y and Z.
Can you please review it again?"
Keep the thing alive!
And they might come back in a day or two saying "Ok, we reviewed it again and we're sticking
by 4.3.
We are still gonna stay by this", because they don't wanna admit they were wrong, and
then you say "I would like to speak to a reviewer", and then get a reviewer to give you a call.
And that takes 3-5 business days or something like that.
And then you'd explain to the reviewer why this is happening and ask the reviewer "what
do I have to do to make this pass?"
And just put it on their side.
Because you have to look at it from the reviewer's side.
I'm always thinking what it must be like to be a reviewer.
They probably sit there and there's just hundreds of apps.
Thousands of apps get submitted every day, I have no idea how many reviewers there are
but they probably just sit there and they check the metadata, they check the screenshots,
they have to download the app, they have to log in, they have to test a few different
things, and then give the approval or the rejection.
And I think that 4.3 is the way that they can save themselves a lot of work.
i think it's like the easy disqualification early on - they can just look at it and go
"yeah, 4.3!"
And I know this for a fact.
I was rejected for 4.3 a month ago, I just did a favour for a friend, they had this app
and they wanted to put it on the app store, they didn't wanna create their own account
so I said you know what?
That's fine.
You're not making any money from it or whatever, I'll just put it on my account and all that
stuff and it was completely different from anything else on my app store!
Because sometimes they'll hit me for 4.3 and while I don't agree with it and it's completely
different audiences and stuff like that, I say I see where you're coming from.
But this time, it was nothing, it was like they were just penalising me for no reason!
So I did the same steps.
First i said "can you review it again please", and they reviewed it again - they stuck by
it.
Then I said "I wanna speak to a reviewer", and then I had the reviewer call me up and
he said "ok, yeah, I've had a look at it and I'll put a note on it, all this kind of stuff".
So, at least get somebody on the phone because what they're trying to do, I think, is save
time, and what you wanna do is make them not save time.
Keep pushing it back and just wear them down, I think it's just someone being lazy.
And the reason I'm talking about this is this is like the third time this week I've spoken
to somebody, or I've heard from somebody, who's had 4.3 issues.
I was talking to somebody the other day who had 4.3 issues and it was like an app that
they put onto their app store, but they also had a client which they put another version
of the app on their store, so it wasn't even on the same account and they were getting
the 4.3 issue there, which was like...first of all, that's you client, that's completely
separate code base, that's completely different marketing, and the code was different enough
and everything like that, but they were still getting hit by it!
And the truth is, even if your slot game is similar to other ones out there, you cannot
be the person who goes through and checks the whole rest of the app store every time
you release something to find out if someone somewhere has a similar app to yours.
So, I would say resubmit it.
And please let us know how you get on with that because I think it's just a reviewer
being lazy.
They're trying to save themselves a bit of time, and I get this all the time!
It seems like at least 30% of the time, i get that first initial rejection.
Sometimes it's a nice easy metadata thing, so alright fine I'll change this thing.
Sometimes it'll be like oh, you have to add something else in there.
Sometimes they'll reject it for a reason that just doesn't make any sense and I'll appeal
it and then they'll just reject it through.
So you are dealing with people, sometimes I think they'll stick to their guns because
they don't wanna admit that they just were being lazy and everything.
So xdebugX games,
please resubmit it, and anybody else - if your app gets rejected, don't panic!
If you have clients and you tell them that you submitted your app to the app store, don't
tell them it's gonna be a day or two, tell them it's gonna be at least 5 days - it used
to take 10 days so you've given yourself a bit of wiggle room there because if you have
clients and then they find out that it's been rejected, they freak out big time sometimes!
They'll be like, what are we gonna do if it's rejected, this is our whole business model
and stuff!
You're like "calm down, it's fine.
We just need to resubmit it!"
And this kind of stuff just happens!
So I hope that helps a little bit, and for those of you out there who have had an initial
rejection and you've appealed it, please put it in the comments too, because anybody else
who's had a rejection and they might be freaking out a little bit, let them know how it is
actually overcomable - you actually can overcome it and it's just a part of apple developer
life I think!
So anyway, that's it for today, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow!