Hey, this is the Daily Overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today, I wanna talk about what the Apple 4.3 guideline is really all about!
So today I'm a little bit annoyed!
But first, let me say thanks to everybody for subscribing and for liking the videos
and for commenting, I really appreciate it!
So today, I'm a little bit annoyed because I'm a bit upset with one of the app stores.
And without me saying anything else, can you guess which one it is?!
It's not Google, it's Apple.
I am having trouble with Apple approvals again.
Back at the end of last year I was having lots of trouble with the Apple 403, the spam,
errors, and everything that was coming through saying "a lot of your apps are similar, you
need to combine them into container apps", and I said "ok, I'll do that at some point
in the future.
I won't submit anything new".
So now, if I have a bug or anything like that, I just let it go because, you know...I still
leave those on the app store because consolidating all my apps into one application doesn't make
sense from a marketing point of view.
They don't share the same audiences, they don't share anything the same, but it still
was a thing.
Someone asked me recently if I'm still having the same problem with that, and the truth
is, I haven't been submitting to Apple a lot.
I mean, I have, but I've been doing it for clients.
So I've been submitting apps for clients, and sometimes the client apps are very similar
to each other.
So I've been doing that and they must have eased off on 4.03, the 4.03 error - the spam
one, because I haven't had any trouble with it lately.
Even some of the apps, I'm surprised that I actually didn't get caught for that kind
of thing.
So I thought we'll try, we might have to combine these apps if they're having trouble with
it.
So I explain that to the clients, they say "yeah, we'd rather try to put this as a separate
app because it makes sense for the user", so I said fine and I haven't had any trouble.
But, I was talking to another client - it was actually a bit of charity work, so I was
doing a pro bono for somebody - and they said that they had this thing, they had this process
and they needed an app for it but they didn't have any budget so I don't usually do this
but I thought "yeah, we'll help out".
And I did it because it was a really simple one.
It was nothing like anything else on the app store so I thought ok.
It was nothing like anything in my account especially, so I thought "yeah, we'll do it
real quick", and spent three or four days on it.
We got everything ready, went through testing and everything like that, submitted it to
the app store and guess what I got?!
4.03 error!
And they said "you have very similar apps, this looks like other apps on your account",
all this kind of stuff, which was not true.
There was none of the same code, none of the same anything!
It was unlike anything else on my account, right.
So I raised it to them.
I said "hey, I understand what you're saying about the container apps, I have several language
learning apps which are targeted at different languages, I could consolidate all those into
one application if I'm a moron!"
I could do that.
I tell them I'll do that at some point in the future, but it doesn't make any sense,
so I've been trying to put that off, but they rejected the new one saying it looks like
the old one, and I said "no, it does not!".
I said "I challenge you to find another app on my account that looks anything like this.
This one we did for a charity, it's nothing to do with any of the other applications I
have on my store.
I think what you're doing is you're penalising me because I have too many apps on the app
store.
Is that the case?"
And then they responded back saying "well you have several apps on your account that
do need to be consolidated so they're rejecting this one".
So they were rejecting an app which had nothing to do with any of the other apps, saying they
won't improve anything else on the app store unless I consolidate some of the other applications.
The reason I don't wanna do that is because they're all targeted towards specific audiences
with really tight SEO.
So they all have different keyword targeting, different ways of doing things.
if you know anything about ASO, you know that you have to think about who your audience
is and there's no overlap on the audience on these apps. but some of them might be a
little bit similar to each other so they're doing it.
And really, what it is...see i started to think that maybe they had a point, maybe I
need to do that.
to me it's like saying "let's take all the shoe shops in a mall and move them into one
shop, and give them one sign, and they can't brand themselves differently".
But it's apples game, it's their store, they don't particularly like developers, so I thought
- ok so I'll just live with that.
But I thought, I'll put this other app out there.
It's not for me, it's for another group of people.
So I think what I'm gonna have to do is, I'm gonna have to get this client to set up their
own app store account, so if we push it out that way, there won't be any trouble.
So I'm convinced now, just based on this, that the 4.03 error has nothing to do with
having similar apps on the app store, it's the amount of apps that you have.
So if you're a prolific app developer, Apple's not the store for you.
They don't like prolificy, they don't like someone who puts out lots of things.
They'll just start rejecting things because they say "obviously you're just spamming the
app store".
If you have one or two apps that's fine.
So, I'm just a little bit upset.
I get a lot of grief for a video that I did about the ionic framework saying if Apple
ever starts rejecting those things, then we'll all be in big trouble, and everybody says
"no, Apple would never do that because blah blah blah".
you know what?
Apple will do anything.
I think it's lazy reviewers.
This is one where I'm dealing with a lazy reviewer, I've had this in the past where
you have to keep going back and back and back to them, so I don't know what to do.
I don't wanna be the kind of person who has multiple Apple accounts, multiple app store
accounts, for this kind of stuff.
I might just have to go through and do a cull.
The thing is, all the apps make money.
Through Apple, we get a lot more through in-app purchases.
I might have an app that makes 2 or 3 dollars a month as opposed to a couple of hundred,
but that's still 2 or 3 dollars a month.
There's still the potential for that to take off, but now I'd have to go through and do
something on that.
So, I knew that I couldn't do any more language games because they'll say "it's too similar
to the other ones, you have other language games", even though they're not similar, there's
lots of variations in the code and the algorithm and all kinds of things.
And to put everything into one application - imagine going to a bookstore and you bought
a book, and they said let's put all the mystery books into one book, or all of the mystery
books by a single author into one book, because that makes more sense!
e just has to market it however he wants to!
That's what it's like.
Anyway, Apple, you know what, I'm sick of buying Apple products because I need them
for the app store!
I am sick of Apple's review process!
I am sick of feeling like Apple doesn't want me there as a developer!
It's ridiculous the way that things work, but anyway, I'll get that off my chest!
I try to be really positive in these videos, I apologise for today.
Grrr Apple!
4.03 has nothing to do with having similar apps or spamming the market, it has to do
with having too many apps. i have clients that have apps that are very similar to each
other, we put something out that I think is gonna get rejected but they only have half
a dozen so it's fine!
But if there were more - I don't even know what the limit is to be honest with you!
I have spoken to people who have gone through and done a major cull of their apps and cut
all their apps in half and all that stuff, and that might be something I have to do too.
Despite the fact that people are downloading them, people are leaving good reviews, people
are paying for them, I have to go through and limit them because the reviewer doesn't
want to review them.
Anyway!
For those of you guys who say you only do Android and you don't do Apple, I envy you
to a certain point.
The reason I stick with Apple and I haven't given up on them is because it's still a lot
of money made from that.
It's a small percentage of downloads, but about 50% of revenue - it's a lot more revenue.
So anyway, that's it today.
Sorry for the rant, I'll be a bit more positive tomorrow, I hope!
That's it for today, I'll talk to you tomorrow!