How to Avoid App Store Rejection

Once you’re done with the draining task of designing and developing your app, you may be looking forward to finally catching a breath. But not just yet! You’ll still be facing the challenge of getting your app approved from the app stores. It’s definitely no walk in the park, but we have some tips to get you through this phase as well.

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How to Avoid App Store Rejection?

1. Follow the Guidelines

Never underestimate the importance of carefully reading the app stores’ guidelines well  before you start designing your app. It is important to have a clear idea of what to include or avoid if you don’t want to be penalised. This step is crucial for saving you lots of hassle later on.

Additionally, we also suggest you go through the guidelines throughout the app development lifecycle. The guidelines can change over time. A brainstorming session with the entire development team can prove useful because different people can often interpret things differently.

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2. Find and Fix the Bugs

Before wrapping up the app development process and submitting the app to the app stores, make sure that you double check and thoroughly test your work!

A bug is a problem within the code that can prevent the app from working correctly and results in a bad user experience. It goes without saying that if your app contains too many bugs, it will be rejected by the reviewing team.

Debugging can take a lot of time. While simple bug fixes may take only a few seconds, the more complex ones can take up to weeks. You could hire some beta testers to quickly find the bugs you overlooked.

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3. Add Relevant Meta Data

App’s Meta data consists of the title and description of your application along with the screenshots that you upload. If the details are not relevant to the actual app, it can lead to app store rejection. Often, when an app is refused, it’s either because the information is incorrect, or because it’s simply not enough.

Always make sure that you  counter check the uploaded information. And also ensure that all of the links are working properly. Otherwise, your app will be at the risk of being denied, and you’ll have to submit the app again.

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4. Add a Privacy Policy

Don’t forget to add a privacy policy to your application if you require personal information from your users. If they need to create an account or login through an existing one while using the application, you must add a privacy policy in the app, and link it to the app store listing in order to get accepted.

Only ask for personal information, like name, email address, date of birth, for app-related purposes. If you would like to gather information, let your users have an option to deny such requests to avoid app store rejection.

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5. Replace Placeholder Images and Text

Don’t forget to add a privacy policy to your application if you require personal information from your users. If they need to create an account or login through an existing one while using the application, you must add a privacy policy in the app, and link it to the app store listing in order to get accepted.

Check your app before submitting it to the stores.  You may have used placeholder images or “Lorem ipsum” texts during the development phase. Make sure that you replace all such content with the actual texts. Any apps uploaded with placeholder images or texts will usually end up being rejected.

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6. Originality

Many app developers believe that the key to being successfully accepted by the app stores is copying already accepted apps. But this is not the case.

Creating an app with a matching design or a similar name icon can lead to an immediate rejection of your product. So even if you‘re offering similar features in your app, make sure that you choose a different but relevant name and icon for it.

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7. Be careful with language and user-generated content

If your app contains  user-generated content, you must include a feature to allow users to flag offensive or inappropriate content. You should be vigilant and quick to block insulting users from the app.

If you take a closer look at the social media channels – the perfect example of  user-generated content – you will notice that all of these apps have this feature. For example, if your app contains a personal feed of images that are uploaded by other users, you must allow the users to block or report an image if it’s inappropriate.

Remember to add an appropriate system to your app that can sort and respond to such reports.

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What If My App Still Gets Rejected?

If you follow the 7 tips above, you will have a higher chance of being accepted in the app stores. But sometimes, despite following the best practices, your app may still get rejected at first attempt.

This can also happen when you introduce a new update. Most of the times, it is because of neglecting a seemingly unimportant guideline or rule.

If this happens to you, DON’T PANIC! Many apps get rejected from the app stores initially, but after fixing the issues most of them get accepted.

Read through the explanation of why the app was rejected in the first place, fix the issue and re-submit the app for review.

Sometimes the issues are minor and can be fixed easily. However, if the explanation you receive is too complicated or unclear, feel free to contact an experienced app development team.

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So if you have had an app rejected, we’re keen to learn more and help you through it!

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