iOS App Distribution

Each submission to the App Store needs to follow the rules laid out in several different guideline documents.

This includes all apps, app updates, app bundles, in-app purchases, and in-app events.

There are 3 guideline documents you should read through to make sure your app is abiding by the rules.

The App Store Review Guidelines. This document gives you the best insight into the review process, and covers best practices for your app. In short, this document describes what is permissible in the App Store.

For instance, if your app provides user generated content, but doesn’t provide a way to filter out objectionable content, the app will get rejected.

Another example would be that if you offered loot boxes for your game, but didn’t state the odds of receiving each type of item, this would violate the guidelines and your app will get rejected.

Be sure to take a look at this document before you start on your app. It can save you lots of headaches down the road.

Human Interface Design Guidelines. The Human Interface Guidelines, or HIG, are guidelines centered around the design and look and feel of your app.

The HIG defines best practices for app development as well as how individual components should behave. This is to promote a consistent user experience across the app ecosystem.

For example, the HIG recommends that custom gestures should not be used to replicate built-in gestures. This can cause the user to become confused, since the gesture they are used to no longer does what they expect.

The built-in gestures also have been optimized to work with the other user interface elements, and a custom gesture for the same behavior may not share that optimization.

Let’s take a look at these 2 documents.

A link to a page about the App Store review process is located in the author’s notes for this episode.

Let’s open the HIG. Near the top you’ll see some of the new updates to the HIG, which in this case are guidelines centered around the Apple Vision Pro. Below that, several featured guidelines are shown, and below that you’ll see that there are guidelines for various topics. One of the topics is Apple platforms. This makes sense, as interactions on the iPhone are different from macOS.

If you select Platforms and then Designing for iOS, you’ll see a list of best practices and resources for developing for iOS.

The left hand side of the HIG shows the areas listed under “Topics” on the main page. If you choose Components, and then Menus and actions, you can read all about Buttons. A best practice for buttons is to ensure that each button communicates its purpose, either with text, a symbol, or both.

The HIG also covers system capabilities, such as notifications, which can be found under Components and then System experiences. There is a guide on how to design a great notification experience for your user.

Switch over to the App Store Review Guidelines. The guidelines are broken out into sections, and Before you Submit is a great one to read. It provides a checklist of things to make sure you do before submission, and provides links to a lot more guidelines than what you’ve learned about in this episode.

The other sections of the guidelines describe what is and isn’t permissible in your app. Make sure you read through these, and note any sections that might pertain to your app.

Finally, the After You Submit section provides resources on the process of app review and how to submit an appeal if you disagree with a judgement. Keep this page bookmarked and check it every so often to make sure your knowledge is up to date.

Continuing on with the guidelines documents, there is the Guidelines for Apple Trademarks and Copyrights. This document explains how certain trademarks, service marks, labels, and more, can be used in your app. For example, the use of the keyboard Apple Logo for commercial purposes may constitute trademark infringement. Only licensees of Apple trademarks may use them so make sure you aren’t violating any of the trademarks and copyrights listed here.

When you signed up for the Developer Program, you signed the Apple Developer Program License Agreement. This document covers various obligations and responsibilities you must abide by when using Apple software and services.

This can include items such as :

The number of devices you can use for Ad Hoc Distribution.

No illegal or unlawful use of Apple software.

What functionality In-App purchases may unlock.

Appropriate use of HealthKit data, including informing users how you intend to use the information.

There is a lot more, so be sure to check this document out based on what features are in your app.

There is one last thing to keep in mind about the review process. Behind every review is a reviewer - a human reviewer - and people make mistakes. What is a violation to one reviewer, may not be to another.

Just because your app has passed one review, doesn’t guarantee that it passes the next one, even if the new release is for something like a bug fix.

So what can you do? In the next episode you’ll learn about how to avoid some common reasons for App Store rejection before you submit your app.