App Store Review

App store review is the check that Apple and Google run on an app before it is allowed into their store. Every new app goes through it, and so does every update you ship afterwards. Each time, a reviewer and some automatic tests open the app, tap around it, read what you wrote, and answer yes or no.

Apple checks by hand more often and is the stricter of the two, yet most apps hear back within a day or two, sometimes within hours. Google leans on automatic checks and usually replies quickly, but a first release from a brand new developer account can take a week or more. Neither company promises a date, so plan for a week and be glad when it is faster.

The common rejections are boring and they repeat, which is good news, and the first is a missing test account. If your app has a login, the reviewer needs a username and password that work, plus a way to receive the code if you send one. Without that they cannot see your app at all, so the refusal usually lands within the hour.

The second is the privacy text, since both stores want a list of what the app collects, such as name, location, contacts or purchases. They also want a privacy page at a real web address, and a list that does not match what the app really does sends it straight back. The third is a login wall on an app that does not need one. If a person can look round your shop without an account, do not make them sign up first. The fourth catches many small businesses: an app that only opens your website inside a frame, with nothing added, is refused for offering nothing an ordinary browser already does.

So put the review inside the calendar rather than around it. Linkysoft submits a first version at least three weeks before a launch date, because a rejection costs a day to fix and another to be seen again. For the same reason Linkysoft keeps the test account alive for the whole life of an app. The privacy answers go in early too, while the mobile app is being built, rather than on the night before. Being straight about the data an app touches is ordinary security work, and reviewers can tell the difference. The mistake that still costs real money is announcing a launch date to customers before the app has passed.