Apple review frustration - in-app rejected

Targets iOS
1

Hi,

I wanted to share my frustration with Apple app reviews and hear your opinions or advices before I just give up.

Here’s the story.

I wanted to try to place an iOS on the app store to see how difficult it was, try in-app purchases, etc.

I chose a small app developed first for learning purposes and used by myself on a couple iPhones and iPads.
The app itself was approved in a couple of hours.

It’s a simple app, a clock, available here: app store

There is a single in-app purchase, non-consumable, to let the user decide to keep the clock on, disabling the screen locking.
The IAP was for weeks ‘in review’ then became suddenly ‘developer action needed’.
There is no message, no explanation, no feedback button, no way to know what action is requested. So I’ve send 2 mails and they finally called me today (it took 2 weeks).

The in-app purchase is rejected because it uses 'idleTimerDisabled’ to deactivate the screen locking, so that the clock stays on.
Apple says I’m not allowed to use it in « my use case ».
The doc says (here):

Important You should set this property only if necessary and should be sure to reset it to NO when the need no longer exists. (...) The only apps that should disable the idle timer are (...) or programs where the app needs to continue displaying content when user interaction is minimal.
My app is resetting this property when deactivated.
The user can activate this option or not. This setting can be changed at any time.
I want the user to be able to keep the iPhone/iPad on his desk as a clock if he wants to.

I’ve explained this, try to convince them that my app needs to continue displaying content, that the user can disable screen locking anyway, etc …

There are dozens of free clocks, alarm clocks, timers doing the same on the app store, but mine is rejected …

Today I just want to give up, remove the app from the store and … so be it.
Without the screen locking disabled this app is almost useless.

But I’m frustrated and not the the kind to give up.
Also, Apple communicates by phone about this, I don’t have a written/email decision (yet).

Is there any way to appeal an Apple’s review decision ?
If yes, how ? And more important, is it worth trying ??

2

You are sure you need the idleTimerDisabled?
It seems there is no need for it since it’s a clock, the system already has such a feature.

When you have a view that shows something to a user that should have no interaction but must remain visible then you can use the idleTimer disabling.

It’s taking battery life, that’s proabably their argument.

How would the app be useless without screen locking if the user is in front of it?

3

It’s like a night stand clock, if you have to raise and turn it on again to see what time it is it’s not a night stand.
Their doc says You should set this property only if necessary and should be sure to reset it to NO (1) when the need no longer exists. (...) The only apps that should disable the idle timer are (...) or programs where the app needs to continue displaying content (2) when user interaction is minimal (3).
it seems to me that:
(1) when disabled/terminated the app is re-enabling idleTimer
(2) a clock needs to display content
(3) user interaction is minimal

I have a list of dozen apps, free, recently updated on the app store, that are showing only a digital/analog clock and are disabling the screen lock. Just as I do. Most of them not even asking the user if he wants to.
One of them having, in the app description ‘Basic feature: Automatically unlock (Automatically does not sleep when launching the app)’.

My reaction is about fairness, why are many similar apps allowed to use ‘idleTimerDisabled’ and I’m not. Period.

4

I can understand your frustration. But is it really worth it to try to find a solution for this?

Look at the amount of downloads since the initial release and then calculate your potential income like this:

Downloads * 0.05 * Price / 1.2 * 0.7 = potential income
Explanation:
0.05: ~5% of downloads make a sale, can be much less, rarely more.
1.2: There is 20% VAT (or other taxes) in many countries on in-app sales
0.7: Apple’s cut is 30% on all purchases

The first app I released on the App Store took several months of hard work, it got 3000 downloads and made 15€ out of in-app sales the first 9 months. Was it worth it improving that app? definitely not.
But it was a great experience and greatly helped making my second app which now has several hundred thousand downloads.

My piece of advice: think about another app, make it even better than Babel o’clock was on initial release and release on the App Store.

5

@Jeremie Leroy
Thanks.
My frustration comes more from the fact that I found dozens of clock apps which are disabling idleTimer and they are published.
I’ve send an appeal to their decision, giving a lot of arguments, reasons and explanations, leaving a door open for improvements or changes …
Let’s see what happens…

If they refuse, I’ll remove the app and … maybe … create another one.
I’ll post a follow-up if and when they answer.

6

I completely understand your frustration, that has happened to me several times.

I hope your appeal goes through

7

[quote=490963:@Jeremie Leroy]I can understand your frustration. But is it really worth it to try to find a solution for this?

Look at the amount of downloads since the initial release and then calculate your potential income like this:

Downloads * 0.05 * Price / 1.2 * 0.7 = potential income
Explanation:
0.05: ~5% of downloads make a sale, can be much less, rarely more.
1.2: There is 20% VAT (or other taxes) in many countries on in-app sales
0.7: Apple’s cut is 30% on all purchases

The first app I released on the App Store took several months of hard work, it got 3000 downloads and made 15€ out of in-app sales the first 9 months. Was it worth it improving that app? definitely not.
But it was a great experience and greatly helped making my second app which now has several hundred thousand downloads.

My piece of advice: think about another app, make it even better than Babel o’clock was on initial release and release on the App Store.[/quote]
Serious question: how do you get to several hundred thousand downloads? I don’t even have a fraction of people even looking at my apps. Do you use Apple SearchAds?

8

It’s a multi step process and I never used Apple Search Ads. I guess I would get even more downloads if I did.

I recommended watching my XDC videos about iOS apps.
Then follow these steps:

  1. Make a good app!
  2. Localize app in English, German, French, Chinese, Spanish at first.
  3. Localize screenshots for each translation
  4. Optimize title, subtitle, keywords for each language
  5. If you have several apps, display self made ads for your other apps in each app, this is called cross-marketing
  6. Repeat steps 2 to 4 with more languages
  7. Release more apps and apply cross-marketing

The last new app I made was released in January. It now has 30.000 downloads per month (115.000 since January 1st), it is localized in 30 languages. The first month, more than 30% of all downloads came from cross-marketing ads in 2 of my other apps.

Feel free to send me a PM or email for more details

9

Appeal didn’t go thru.

[quote]The App Review Board evaluated your app and determined that the original rejection feedback is valid. Your app does not comply with App Store Review Guideline, 2.5.1.
[/quote]
I demonstrate every aspect explaining why I wanted to use this feature, and why it ‘is’ following the guidelines
I proposed to use IdleTimerDisabled only when device was on power cable,
I proposed to switch IdleTimer back on when battery level was below x%, even if device on power cable,
I mentioned a dozen ‘clock’ apps approved by Apple using the exact same feature

They don’t give a shit.
They give no reason, they don’t answer my questions, don’t accept any proposal made to counter the battery usage.
And of course, no name, no phone number.

Just unfair and highly frustrating.
Not willing to appeal the appeal.
End of story.

10

[quote=490931:@Olivier Colard]It’s like a night stand clock, if you have to raise and turn it on again to see what time it is it’s not a night stand.
Their doc says You should set this property only if necessary and should be sure to reset it to NO (1) when the need no longer exists. (...) The only apps that should disable the idle timer are (...) or programs where the app needs to continue displaying content (2) when user interaction is minimal (3).
it seems to me that:
(1) when disabled/terminated the app is re-enabling idleTimer
(2) a clock needs to display content
(3) user interaction is minimal

I have a list of dozen apps, free, recently updated on the app store, that are showing only a digital/analog clock and are disabling the screen lock. Just as I do. Most of them not even asking the user if he wants to.
One of them having, in the app description ‘Basic feature: Automatically unlock (Automatically does not sleep when launching the app)’.

My reaction is about fairness, why are many similar apps allowed to use ‘idleTimerDisabled’ and I’m not. Period.[/quote]

The purpose of the idleTimerdisable is keep the screen from locking, and keep it active. A clock is not something that one will watch for hours. You must have a more specific purpose where the user interaction is without using the screen/touch. Such as an app or game that has no user interaction while a video is shown or some action is done before the “actual” app features are show (but then again without user interaction as it’s sole purpose). A clock cannot be one of that as it’s always in the system bar, so keeping the screen unlocked and the battery draining doesn’t seem as a good idea.

While there may be other apps doing the same, they are released earlier. Apple changes it’s policies sometimes and want the devices battery to extend as long as it can. So there must be a true purpose for the idleTimerdisabling (it’s seems like an easy thing as in a boolean) but it’s not. It’s an advanced feature that keeps apps from draining battery life and people from keeping their phone unlocked.

Your app should be doing a background fetch to speak the time to the user, but since it’s Xojo it doesn’t seem possible. Apple should be more informative about this, but they sometimes don’t.

From the apple docs:

[quote]Important
You should set this property only if necessary and should be sure to reset it to NO when the need no longer exists. Most apps should let the system turn off the screen when the idle timer elapses. This includes audio apps. With appropriate use of Audio Session Services, playback and recording proceed uninterrupted when the screen turns off. The only apps that should disable the idle timer are mapping apps, games, or programs where the app needs to continue displaying content when user interaction is minimal.[/quote]
A clock is not one of them. So be more specific with your feature set or use some form of background stuff.

11

Even for games you can’t just turn it on while the game is active. Typically you only disable the idle timer in a pause menu. In the main screen the app should sleep, while playing the user will be constantly interacting, but when paused the idle timer can be disabled so the game stays active and progress through a level is not lost. As others have said Apple is quite strict on use for the idle timer in your app.

12

Strict or not, there are many clock apps doing this, some released in the last weeks and they are accepted.
I don’t mind them being strict as long as they are strict for everyone. Hence the frustration.

Anyway, let’s forget about this.