In this post, we'll share tips to help you submit apps that deliver original ideas to your users. When working on your app, focus on creating interesting, unique experiences that aren't already available. Apps that actively try to copy other apps won't pass review, and accounts that repeatedly submit copycat apps or attempt to impersonate a service will be closed. The rules that prevent copycat and impersonator apps from being distributed on the App Store are described in App Review Guideline 4.1: 4.1 Copycats (a) Come up with your own ideas. We know you have them, so make yours come to life. Don’t simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store, or make some minor changes to another app’s name or UI and pass it off as your own. In addition to risking an intellectual property infringement claim, it makes the App Store harder to navigate and just isn’t fair to your fellow developers. (b) Submitting apps which impersonate other apps or services is considered a violation of the Developer Code of Conduct and may result in removal from the Apple Developer Program. These requirements help make the App Store both a safe place for people to discover apps and a platform for all developers to be successful. Best Practices Here are three best practices that will help you submit apps that follow App Review Guideline 4.1: 1. Submit apps with unique content and features. People want apps that provide unique experiences. Find areas that aren't currently being served and build compelling apps for those audiences. Do: Create apps that provide a new experience or a unique spin on an existing concept. Design original, delightful interfaces that elegantly meet your user's needs. Don't: Don’t imitate the features and functionality of other apps. Don’t copy the look and feel of other apps, such as using an identical user interface design. 2. Make sure App Store metadata only contains relevant information and content you either own or have permission to use. The metadata provided in App Store Connect is used to populate your app's product page on the App Store. People rely on this metadata to learn about your app and what it has to offer. Leveraging the popularity of another brand or app, either by including irrelevant references or protected content, is misleading and won't help your app succeed. Do: Use engaging, descriptive language to describe your unique app. Create original content that best represents your app, such as screenshots showing the actual app in use. Don't: Don't use protected material you do not have the necessary permission to use, such as app icons that are similar to icons of a popular app. Don’t include irrelevant references, such as popular app names or trademarked terms, in any metadata fields. 3. Provide information that is authentic and verifiable. People want to know the developers behind their favorite apps are who they say they are. It's important to continually review and provide up-to-date information, including the developer or company name listed on your Apple Developer Program account, the Support URL listed on your app's product page, and other helpful information. This will enable your users to contact you when they need help and it will also hinder people who may try to impersonate you, your app, or your service. Do: Make sure all information, resources, and documentation related to your account and apps are current and accurate. Don't: Don’t provide inaccurate information or resources, such as directing people to outdated support pages. Don’t provide fraudulent documentation. Accounts that submit fraudulent documentation will be removed from the Apple Developer Program. Support Incorporating these best practices into your app's development will help you submit apps that follow App Review Guideline 4.1. If you need additional assistance, consider taking advantage of one of the following support options available from App Review: If your submission has been rejected, reply to the message from App Review in App Store Connect and request clarification. Request an App Review Appointment to discuss the results of our review. Appointments are subject to availability, and take place during local business hours in your region on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you believe your app follows the App Review Guidelines, consider submitting an appeal to the App Review Board. Resources Learn about foundational design principles from Apple designers and the developer community. Learn how to create engaging App Store product pages. Note that apps that violate intellectual property rights are subject to removal through the App Store Content Dispute process. If you believe an app on the App Store violates your intellectual property rights, you can submit a claim.

Hi, I am writing to you today with an urgent request regarding the review status of my application. My app has been in the "Waiting for Review" status for a full month now, since August 21st. While I understand that first-time submissions can sometimes take longer, a delay of this length seems excessive and is significantly impacting my project's launch schedule. It would be very grateful if you could look into submission and provide an update on its status. Please let me know if there is any additional information we can provide to help move the process forward. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Best regards,

Hi, I am writing to you today with an urgent request regarding the review status of our application. My app has been in the "Waiting for Review" status for a full month now, since August 21st. While I understand that first-time submissions can sometimes take longer, a delay of this length seems excessive and is significantly impacting my project's launch schedule. It would be very grateful if you could look into our submission and provide an update on its status. Please let us know if there is any additional information we can provide to help move the process forward. Thank you for your help in resolving this situation. Best regards,

Hello, Our auto-renewable subscription products are currently showing as “In Review” in App Store Connect. However, they are not visible in the “In-App Purchases” section of the app version submission, so we cannot confirm or re-attach them to this app version. At the same time, we cannot delete or edit these products while they are in this state. This has left us in a situation where: The IAPs are stuck in “In Review” status, We cannot re-submit or re-attach them, And your review team cannot complete testing because the subscriptions are not yet approved. According to Apple’s own documentation, IAPs that are released with an app version only move from In Review to Approved when the app itself is approved. This means they must be reviewed together. Could you please: Confirm that our IAPs are correctly attached to this app version and will be reviewed together, or Reset their status back to “Ready to Submit” so that we can re-attach them properly to this app version? We want to make sure we are not stuck in a loop where the IAPs cannot be approved until the app is approved, but the app cannot be approved because the IAPs are stuck. Thank you for your help in resolving this situation. Best regards,

Guideline 5.1.1 - Legal - Privacy - Data Collection and Storage The app does not meet all requirements for apps that offer highly regulated services or handle sensitive user data. Specifically: The account that submits the app must be enrolled in the Apple Developer Program as an organization, and not as an individual. The guideline 5.1.1(ix) requirements give users confidence that apps operating in highly regulated fields or that require sensitive user information are qualified to provide these services and will responsibly manage their data. Next Steps To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to take the following steps: The app must be submitted through an Apple Developer Program account enrolled as an organization. You may either enroll in a new Apple Developer Program account as an organization, or request that your individual account be converted to an organization account by contacting Apple Developer Support. Please note that you cannot resolve this issue with documentation showing permission to publish this app on behalf of the content owner or institution.

Hello, I made a post on here last night about some issues I was having with review of my app update getting stalled. This morning, the update submission was rejected because of a small error in my app's App Store metadata (that was a accidental mistake on my part), and the app review said to just change that small thing in the meta data. I did that and replied to the app review at roughly 7:30 am to say that I'd corrected the issue. I asked if the update was ready to go out otherwise, and there wasn't a response, so I asked if there's anything else I need to do at about 3:00 pm. It's now 9:00 pm, and I haven't heard anything. I apologize for the urgency. I just really need to get this update pushed out before the weekend because I know app review slows down when it's not a weekday. Thank you, Jake

Hello, Our app gets rejected for the reason that the reviewer cannot purchase the subscription with the message, "Guideline 2.1 - Performance - App Completeness We found that your in-app purchase products exhibited one or more bugs which create a poor user experience. Specifically, we were unable to purchase Auto-Renewable Subscriptions. The app launched back to the rendering when we tap on the "Get started"" When we test this with our sandbox accounts in test flight version, we can see the subscribe pop up showing and purchase successfully. But turns out they cannot. Unfortunately we cannot see the reason why and even after requesting further explanation regarding how to move along, we are not getting any explanations. Our subscription products are submitted in the first time with the app and they are in "In review" state for more than a week. We requested phone calls and wrote messages to reviewers many times but unfortunately there's no help yet.

My app was in the waiting queue for 3days and then got rejected because in my latest update I don’t use SDK for ads anymore. When I wanted to change the data type in app privacy it gave me errors. I replied to the rejection in app review and is waiting for a solution for over 30 hours. Can anyone help me with a solution?

Hey, I originally submitted a very small but important update of my app on Sunday night. It shifted to "In-Review" on Monday but then remained like that for about a full day. Therefore, I canceled the submission and sent in a new one on Tuesday morning. It is now Wednesday night, and the app is still sitting in "Waiting for Review." I just wanted to see if there have been changes to the way apps are reviewed recently, as I know there was a change to the actual app submission UI. I really want to get this update out to my users because it includes an important feature for retention. Thank you

Hello everyone, We are facing repeated Invalid Binary (1.0) rejections for our iOS app during submission to App Store Connect. Here’s what we have already tried: Added a properly formatted PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy file under the Runner target. Covered all third-party SDKs used in our project, such as: audioplayers_darwin, connectivity_plus, device_info_plus, flutter_local_notifications, fluttertoast, shared_preferences_foundation, etc. Verified that the manifest file is indeed included in the .ipa package (Payload/Runner.app/PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy). Opened the file in Xcode — it loads as a valid property list (plist) with the required keys: NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypes NSPrivacyAccessedAPITypes NSPrivacyThirdPartySDKs Confirmed that Target Membership is set to Runner (iOS) only (not test targets). Despite these checks, App Store Connect still rejects our binary with the same "Invalid Binary (1.0)". My question: Are there additional requirements for Flutter-based apps, or do we need to use specific SDK identifiers/names for Apple to accept the privacy manifest? Any guidance or experiences resolving this issue would be really helpful, since this is currently blocking our app release. Thanks in advance!

Our app has been in review for 7 days with no updates. We’ve followed up by email, phone, and even submitted an expedited request, but haven’t heard back. Can someone clarify why it’s stuck and what we can do to move it forward?

Hi there, My app update submission was stuck in "Waiting for Review" state for over 80 hours. Yesterday I canceled and resubmitted it again after 3.5 days of inactivity, but this time it still hasn’t moved forward. I'd like to be sure that there is no issues on my side during sending build to review, cuz I noticed that submit app flow was slightly changed a week ago. Usually app update was verified in 10-20 hours, but now it's stuck. Thank you in advance.

During these 60 days, we have attempted to communicate via email and phone, and have also submitted an expedited review request, but we have not received any proper feedback. Could you please let us know why this situation has occurred, and what information we should provide in order to move the review process forward?

I submitted 2 subscriptions along with my new iOS build, reviewer rejected my build because I didn't mention the EULA terms of use link in my app's metadata (description). Now I have added the Terms of use link in description and I have the option to resubmit the app for review, but when I scrolll down on the version page I am not able to see the in-app purchase section anymore as they are in rejected state. When I opened the subscriptions, they showed the "developer action needed' status, I changed the localization description and saved it, now for localization it shows 'Preparing for submission', but the subscription's status still shows 'Developer action needed'. Now, how am I supposed to reattach these subscriptions back to the same build, as the rejection reason was not the issue in my build, so, I want to resubmit the same build with same subscriptions. Help me out.

Lately every app that I submit (games) with in app purchases, always coins , the app gets rejected with: Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase Your app uses intermediary currency to purchase items that function as non-consumable products but still does not include a restore mechanism. Users restore transactions to maintain access to content that they've already purchased It baffles me that reviewers think buy different number of coins is non-consumable. I have tried to explain that coins will be used to buy weapons and skins and they will also be earned at the end of every level yet for some reasons they are still rejecting the app. It is absurd. This is the second app that I have to go through with this. The first one they eventually figured it out but this one no.

Hello, My app was rejected, with the reason being given: -- Parts of the app's user interface were still crowded, laid out, or displayed in a way that made it difficult to use the app when reviewed on iPad Air (5th generation) running iPadOS 26.0. Specifically, when viewed on iPad, your app uses only a portion of the screen. It is the same layout as the iPhone 16 on the iPad air, and I know of multiple apps that follow this scheme. I have even sent images. I believe that I am absolutely in the right here. Please do let me know.

My app update submission has been in the Waiting for Review status for over 72 hours. A few days ago I already canceled and resubmitted after 3 days of inactivity, but this time it still hasn’t moved forward. I’d like to check if there might be any issues on my side that I should address, or if this is just part of the current review timelines. The update includes a critical bug fix, and unfortunately I’m losing users while waiting. Is there anything I can do to help move the review process along, or should I simply continue to wait? The problem is getting more absurd, since it is not a new app submission but an update for already existing one. Thank you in advance.

Our app, submitted on Sept 12, has been stuck in "Waiting for Review" for over 3 days without updates. Please advise or help escalate.

I would like to inquire if there are any issues with the review of version 2.3.31+338. It has been 48 hours since submission, and the status still shows 'Waiting for Review It is necessary for my app to go live within today as scheduled by my company, since we have customers waiting to use it. Thank you for your kind support.

Hello everyone, My app was recently rejected under Guideline 4.1 – Design: Copycats. The review team mentioned that my app or its metadata appears to be misrepresenting itself as another popular app or service, and therefore was not approved. This came as a surprise, because my app is an original trading journal product that I’ve built from scratch. While there are other trading journals in the market, my app has unique features and a different design. I did not intend to copy or impersonate any existing app. I would really appreciate advice from anyone who has gone through a similar rejection: What kind of changes did you make to get past this rejection? Should I focus more on branding (name, logo, color scheme) to differentiate? Is it helpful to write an explanation to the App Review team describing how my app is unique? Any tips or experiences would be very helpful, since I want to make sure my app stands out clearly and avoids any resemblance issues. Thank you in advance!

Since the app was submitted on September 11, it has been stuck in the "in review" status for more than 3 days without being rejected, without further information updates, and without any other feedback. We can't delay any longer, the lack of progress is disrupting our plans. Please inform us immediately on how to proceed or upgrade the review. We contact the Apple review team almost every day (via email), but there is no clear reason for the response. This makes us feel frustrated while waiting for feedback, and at the same time, our users cannot wait any longer. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.