Can Apple Fix the Universal Negativity Toward iTunes Connect App Reviews?

Why is it that everyone we talk to who has ever developed iOS apps cringes when you say, "My app is in review." We feel the same pukey feeling in our guts when our app is "Waiting for Review" or "In Review."

Dear Apple: any time that hundreds of thousands of developers all feel the same negativity towards something, it seems like it's something you could maybe look at fixing?!? I fully agree with the idea that your quality control makes the iTunes App Store a much better experience than all the other app stores out there. That said, I think you could improve the experience of having apps reviewed and still maintain the high level of quality.

Here are my thoughts for how you could make the process better:

1. Tell us how many apps are in front of us.  Let us see them being counted down.  Progress bars help people feel patient because they know how much is left.
2. Be transparent about average review times. It's OK to put all your disclaimers out there about all apps being different, not having guarantees on time, etc. but it's nice to know how long things are taking now.  The fact that http://appreviewtimes.com/ exists and gets tons of traffic means you're not being transparent enough with your information.  We know you track the average review time.  Share it, and developers will know what to expect.
3. Have more consistency with your reviewers. At lunch today, we were joking with some developers from another local company about how you never know what you're going to get--it depends on the mood of the reviewer, the alignment of the stars, and the price of tea in China. This one is easy to suggest and hard to implement.
4. Have a TSA Pre-check. I can't believe I'm going to say that you should do something that the government is doing, but that's how bad the experience is right now.  Allow developers that have had several clean reviews in a row to automatically go through an expedited line, where the reviewer can be a little bit less thorough.  If you need to do a follow-up, consider a two-stage review where you allow the app to be sold while the second stage is waiting for review.

Metadata Rejected

Argh!

Day 15 - Rejected again.  We got the following email from iTunesConnect App Review:

Hello Benjamin,
Your app Name Shark has been reviewed, but we are unable to post this version. For details, or to directly contact the App Review team, visit the Resolution Center in iTunes Connect. Do not reply to this email.
Regards,
App Review

We logged into iTunesConnect, and found our app status was

Metadata Rejected

Upon visiting the Resolution Center, we learned the following:

Reasons

• 3.14: App previews may only use video screen captures of the app, voice-overs, and textual and design overlays, or the app will be rejected
• Information Needed

----- 3.14 -----

Your App Previews include content that does not sufficiently reflect the app in use, which does not comply with the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, your previews still displayed other apps. It is necessary to remove this content from your previews.

Also, your app still did not display any ads during the review. Please provide us with access to a video that demonstrates the ads shown in your app.

To provide a link to a demo video:

- Log in to iTunes Connect
- Click on “My Apps”
- Select your app
- Scroll down to “App Review Information”
- Provide demo video access details in the “Notes” section
- Click Save
- Click Submit for Review

Once this information is available, we can continue your review.

This was extremely disappointing.  We were rejected for the same two things we were rejected for the first time, and we thought we fixed the one that was actually wrong.

Issue #1 - App Preview

The only thing we can think they mean when they say, "your previews still displayed other apps," is that we show the home screen with app icons when we show our app launching.  If that is what it was, it's pretty frustrating.

The part we suspect is the first 2 seconds.  We already changed out the twirling iPhone at the end of this one:

Developers take note! No matter how much you like your icon, you can't show it in your App Preview!

We are having the guys at Mango Creative give us a new version that starts at the splash screen.

Issue #2 - Information Needed about Ads

The reviewer said, "your app still did not display any ads during the review."  We looked at our Flurry logs, and found that the reviewer logged in as the same user as last time, despite our specific instructions to create a new user if they wanted to see the ads.

They asked us to provide video that demonstrates the ads shown in our app and gave us instructions on how to do that.

I'm kind of bugged by the lack of effort shown by the reviewer to follow the instructions we submitted, but at least he/she provided an easy way for us to solve the problem.

We'll upload the new App Preview and the Video showing the ads tonight and then resubmit.  Fortunately, this state -- Metadata Rejected -- shouldn't need a new binary.  I'm hopeful that means that the next iteration of the process is quicker than 8 days.

Rejected!

Nine days after submission, we received an email stating

"Hello Benjamin,
Your app Name Shark has been reviewed, but we are unable to post this version. For details, or to directly contact the App Review team, visit the Resolution Center in iTunes Connect. Do not reply to this email.
Regards,
App Review"

After visiting iTunesConnect and clicking on the link to the Resolution Center, here is the text on why the app was rejected:

Reason #1 - App Preview

--------Begin---------

Reasons

3.14: App previews may only use video screen captures of the app, voice-overs, and textual and design overlays, or the app will be rejected

Program License Agreement

----- 3.14 -----

Your App Previews include content that does not sufficiently reflect the app in use, which does not comply with the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, your previews:

- Included device images and/or device frames. 

- Displayed other apps.

It is necessary to remove this content from your previews.

---------End---------

Apparently Apple is pretty strict with the enforcement of this guideline.  The only place we showed devices was in the outro of the video.  See the original version of our Name Shark iOS App Preview video here:

It was just the spinning iPhone at the end of the video.  We have asked the guys over at Mango Creative to change the outro of the video so we can resubmit.

Reason #2 - Ad Identifier

--------Begin---------

PLA 3.3.12

Additionally, we found that your app uses the iOS Advertising Identifier but does not include ad functionality. This does not comply with the terms of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement, as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, section 3.3.12 of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement states:

"You and Your Applications (and any third party with whom you have contracted to serve advertising) may use the Advertising Identifier, and any information obtained through the use of the Advertising Identifier, only for the purpose of serving advertising. If a user resets the Advertising Identifier, then You agree not to combine, correlate, link or otherwise associate, either directly or indirectly, the prior Advertising Identifier and any derived information with the reset Advertising Identifier."

Note: iAd does not use the AdSupport framework, ASIdentifierManager, or the Advertising Identifier. Therefore they are not required for iAd implementations and should not be included in your app for iAd support. 

If your app is serving ads, please:

- Ensure that you have tested your app on a device, not just the simulator, and that you have removed all previous versions of your app prior to testing

- Provide us the steps to locate ads in your app

If your app does not serve ads, please check your code - including any third-party libraries - to remove any instances of:

class: ASIdentifierManager

selector: advertisingIdentifier

framework: AdSupport.framework

If you are planning to incorporate ads in a future version, please remove the Advertising Identifier from your app until you have included ad functionality.

---------End---------

This one was simple.  When the reviewer reviewed the app, the first thing he/she did was purchase the pro features.  This removed the ads, so the reviewer never would have seen them.  We probably just need to give them instructions to make sure they see the ads.

We are showing Amazon Mobile Ads banner ads and iAd banner ads.  We are also showing Amazon Mobile Ads interstitial ads.  We are not using the ASIdentifierManager at all, but both frameworks use it, so we had to check the box.

I believe that with instructions on how to see the ads, this one will easily be resolved.

I will give an update as soon as we submit and hear back.