Summary I am seeking clarification regarding an App Store rejection under Guideline 4.2 – Design – Minimum Functionality, specifically around expectations for booking and payment flows in apps that rely on third-party, industry-standard reservation platforms. This app is a production application for a licensed transportation (black car / limo) service. It includes multiple native iOS features implemented via Capacitor and custom Swift plugins. However, the booking and payment flow depends on a third-party transportation platform (RideBits) that does not currently support deep linking with prefilled parameters or programmatic booking APIs. Before committing to a significant architectural change, I am hoping to understand whether Apple’s expectation under Guideline 4.2 is that all transactional booking and payment flows must be fully native and controlled by the app developer, even when third-party systems are operationally required. ⸻ App Context The app is designed for a real transportation business and is not a content, marketing, or browsing application. It is purpose-built for trip booking, pickup coordination, and customer interaction. The third-party platform (RideBits) handles: • Dispatch and driver assignment • Vehicle inventory and pricing rules • Payment processing • Trip lifecycle management This platform is central to business operations and is commonly used in this industry. ⸻ Native Functionality Implemented The app includes meaningful native iOS functionality beyond web content, including: • Native Core Location access (with permission handling) • Native reverse geocoding using CLGeocoder via a custom Swift Capacitor plugin • Native clipboard integration • Native iOS share sheet integration • Apple Maps deep linking • Custom CAPBridgeViewController with explicit plugin registration All native plugins were verified at runtime and tested on physical devices and simulators. ⸻ Booking Flow Constraint The third-party platform does not currently support: • Deep links with prefilled booking parameters • Passing pickup/dropoff data via URL • Native SDK embedding • APIs for programmatic booking creation As a result, even when pickup data is collected natively, users must re-enter details within the booking flow. ⸻ App Review Outcome Despite adding additional native functionality, the app was rejected again under Guideline 4.2, with feedback stating the experience is not sufficiently differentiated from web browsing and that features such as Core Location or sharing alone are not robust enough. ⸻ Clarification Requested I am hoping to better understand Apple’s expectations in this scenario: 1. Is Apple’s expectation that core booking and payment flows must be fully native to satisfy Guideline 4.2, regardless of industry-standard third-party dependencies? 2. Would an app be considered acceptable if the booking UI is native, but final transaction submission occurs through a third-party system? 3. Are there known precedents for service or transportation apps using third-party booking platforms that have successfully passed review? 4. Is the issue primarily technical (missing native features), or conceptual (core value relies on an external flow)? ⸻ Purpose of This Post Before undertaking a major rebuild of pricing, payments, and booking logic in-house, I want to ensure there is no App Store–acceptable architecture that allows: • Meaningful native functionality, and • Continued use of a third-party operational booking platform. Any guidance or shared experience would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Apple Developer Community, We have an enterprise app that was originally developed using Xcode 10 and Objective-C. The app has been running smoothly on previous iOS versions, but with the upcoming release of iOS 26, we are concerned about potential compatibility issues due to the age of our development environment and possible deprecations in the iOS SDK. Our Situation: App Type: Internal enterprise app (distributed via Apple Developer Enterprise Program) Development Environment: Xcode 10, Objective-C Current Status: App works on iOS 18; not yet tested on iOS 26 Distribution: Not on App Store; internal use only Questions: Are there known compatibility issues for apps built with Xcode 10 and Objective-C when running on iOS 26? Are there specific deprecated APIs or changes in iOS 26 that we should be aware of? What are the recommended steps to test and validate enterprise apps on the latest iOS beta? Is it mandatory to rebuild the app using a newer version of Xcode for iOS 26 compatibility, or can we continue using our existing build if it passes testing? Any advice on best practices for enterprise app migration or update planning? Additional Info: We plan to test the app on iOS 26 beta devices soon and will share any specific issues encountered. If there are official Apple resources or documentation addressing these concerns, please point us in the right direction. Thank you in advance for your guidance!

I am working to update a live blog in Apple News. As far as I know there is an update endpoint to update a content in Apple News. Is there any feature in Apple News to trigger an event when the original content updated and pull the updated content?

Hi there, Can anyone tell me how to possibly get approved as an Apple News Publisher in 2025? We attempted in 2024, but received this message from Apple support: "Thank you for your interest in Apple News. At this time, we're not accepting new applications." When I inquired further, I got this second response: "Apple News is no longer accepting unsolicited applications. To learn more about Apple News requirements, visit the Apple News support page. If you have any feedback, please use this form to send us your comments. Keep in mind that while we read all feedback, we are unable to respond to each submission individually." My questions are: Is this still the case? (Especially when you are a legit local news outlet) Is there a link to apply as a news publisher? I don't seem to have that option at all. Thanks for any feedback.

Apologies if this isn't tagged right but dev tools and services seemed the most appropriate since this is related to the workbench Ad Tester tool. I'm seeing a behavior where the preview link is not being generated. Specifically, I am seeing a POST request to the following URL consistently fail: https://iadworkbench.apple.com/adtester/api/v1/ads/previewLink?orgId=1127861 Variations/scenarios I have tried so far: All possible ad format choices on all possible devices All options for the placement type Both third party and uploaded creative sources Uploaded creative sources appear to be failing to upload as well A simple div with a "hello world" content fails as a third party creative source Multiple apple accounts I created a new account specifically to test if my primary apple ID was experiencing issues with this Multiple browsers I have tried multiple versions of Chrome/Firefox/Safari I tested with and without browser extensions to determine whether an extension was interfering or not Clearing session/local storage along with cookies I also created new profiles in browsers to verify that I was getting a fresh browser environment In all of these cases, the API request to generate a preview link is consistently failing with a 500 error code. It's worth noting that the web preview option works, but this isn't a truly accurate test environment and can't be solely relied on when testing ad content. I don't know exactly when this started happening as I have not used it in the last couple of weeks but I have used the workbench ad tester extensively in the past the same way I have been trying with my current test without issue. That coupled with the fact that the request for the preview link consistently fails in all of the test scenarios I've outlined above leads me to believe there is a problem with the API that is responsible for generating the preview links.

Hello, I’m reaching out to gather information regarding the upcoming changes to APNs certificates that are set to be implemented in the beta at the end of January 2025. Specifically, I would like to understand the following: What will be the practical impact of these changes on apes apis ? What actually needed to be done at trust store for this changes, and how will it affect our current setup? What steps do we need to take to update the certificates on our servers? it’s crucial for us to address these changes in advance and keep our customers informed. Thank you for your help!

I work at a well-established university with a business journal that is over 25 years old. We have been waiting now for almost four months to have our Apple News account reviewed. In what world is this OK? No ability to communicate with anyone or have any updates except to log in once a month to see the 'under review' message still there. Seriously?

Please help me clarify the current situation regarding the necessity of a privacy manifest file in 3rd party SDKs. It would be nice to have a reply from someone working at Apple, to have a reliable answer. A quick summery of the events from last year https://developer.apple.com/support/third-party-SDK-requirements/ : "Starting in spring 2024, you must include the privacy manifest for any SDK listed below when you submit new apps in App Store Connect that include those SDKs, or when you submit an app update that adds one of the listed SDKs as part of the update." Last autumn, we started receiving warning emails from Apple after initiating app reviews, even when our apps did not have a newly added SDK: ITMS-91061: Missing privacy manifest - Starting November 12, 2024, if a new app includes a privacy-impacting SDK, or an app update adds a new privacy-impacting SDK, the SDK must include a privacy manifest file. Please contact the provider of the SDK that includes this file to get an updated SDK version with a privacy manifest. According to this warning message, app updates which do not contain any new SDKs are still not affected. Since then, at one point in time the deadline changed, as now we have February 12, 2025 in the privacy manifest documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/adding-a-privacy-manifest-to-your-app-or-third-party-sdk However, this page does not contain any mention of the circumstances, it only states in general that apps you submit for review in App Store Connect must contain a valid privacy manifest file for a certain number of commonly used third-party SDKs. My questions Does the February deadline apply to every app update, even if they do not contain any newly added SDKs? Or does it still affect only the app updates "that adds one of the listed SDKs as part of the update." ? If the former, the 3rd party requirements page should be updated in my opinion. And if the latter, why does the documentation not contain this important piece of information? We have a basic product which then gets customised for the clients so we upload several different apps based on the same code with the same dependencies. How is it possible that during autumn, Apple sent ITMS-91061: Missing privacy manifest warnings for some of our apps, but did not send it for others? Does Apple not validate all the apps but only some of them randomly? Also, the warning still states that it should be relevant if "an app update adds a new privacy-impacting SDK", but that was not the case for us, we did not add anything newly to our apps - why did we even get these warnings then? Just in general: when the deadlines change, is there any channel where Apple communicates these, besides the warning emails? I did not see any posts on the Apple Developer site's News page about this February date, I just found it by accident. I don't even remember seeing a notice about the original November deadline, we just started receiving the email warnings without expecting them. Thank you in advance for anyone sharing an answer.

Hi, I am trying to include an Image in the Apple News template which is clickable, meaning if a user clicks on that image it should be redirected to a different page. I am using action and openURL as below but it seems though the image is loading fine but its not doing anything when I click on the image. { "role": "container", "components": [ { "role": "container", "components": [ { "role": "image", "URL": "https://myImageURL.jpg", "action": { "type": "openURL", "URL": "https://URLToBeRedirected" } } ] } ] } I am using Newspreview to preview my article.json. Please let me know any resolution for this issue.

Looking for a spare phone anyone may have that they aren using that I can use with no strings attached. Thanks in advance for being a blessing f:)

Is there a way to give a default text color to tags in apple news format. I'm testing this in Apple News Preview currently, and I can't figure out what's wrong. According to the documentation, I should be able to style the tag using "default-tag-a" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_news/apple_news_format/components/using_html_with_apple_news_format#2992870 However, this doesn't appear to work. It works perfectly when I do paragraph tags like "default-tag-p" or span tags like "default-tag-span". Maybe, I'm missing something. Here is my code "textStyles": { "default-tag-a": { "textColor": "#1967d2" } } when I add a font like "textStyles": { "default-tag-a": { "fontName": "Georgia", "textColor": "#1967d2" } } This does change the font. So i'm wondering can I change the text color for links in apple news? and if so, how? Thanks for your assistance.

I am looking forward to develop an ecommerce IOS application. When I conducted my research for the same I found that offshore developers are offering solutions in quite less price compare to onshore developers. At the same time I also have some doubts over offshore development such as reliability, quality, collaboration and more.. Anyone can suggest me what would be the best in long term.

What should I do?

Please help me understand the phrasing from Apple's articles about this topic. Of course, I am referring to the SDKs from the official list, as only those are affected by the new regulations. 1, https://developer.apple.com/support/third-party-SDK-requirements/ Starting in spring 2024, you must include the privacy manifest for any SDK listed below when you submit new apps in App Store Connect that include those SDKs, or when you submit an app update that adds one of the listed SDKs as part of the update. That states 2 cases in which fresh SDK versions are needed, containing privacy information: If you submit a completely new app If your app update contains a framework which was not present in the previous version of the app So, according to my understanding, if I create an app update, which does not contain any new SDKs, only the ones that I have been using for a while now, I can keep using these older SKD versions. And it is not mandatory to update them to newer versions. Does Apple state anywhere that we have to update every SDK from the list this spring in every case? Because that would contradict what I quoted from the article. 2, https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=3d8a9yyh And if you add a new third-party SDK that’s on the list of commonly used third-party SDKs, these API, privacy manifest, and signature requirements will apply to that SDK. Again, this states that you have to use a fresh version of an SDK in case you add it newly to your app. This seems to reinforce my point that if a 3rd party SDK was already used in previous app versions, the new requirements do not apply to that SDK and I can keep using its older release which does not have its own privacy manifest file. My main concern here is that there are many 3rd party SDKs from the list that we already use in our projects, and it would be a huge effort if my team had to update all those SDKs in every project by May. But if I'm right, it is not mandatory for us. (Of course, it would be wise to update the SDKs every now and then, but that's not the point here.) Can anybody confirm whether my understanding is correct? Maybe link some proof if I'm not right? It would be nice to have a reply from someone working at Apple, to have a reliable answer.

I'm creating an SDK, the static library doesn't have a target membership check, how do I add it? I'm wondering what should I write in the associated static library(.a) if the user adds occupation privacyinfo. I can't find any examples, so if anyone has solved this, I'd appreciate an example :)

Is it necessary to enroll to Apple devloper program to get into apple news publisher to get my Apple news API credentials. At last. I need a gudance how to publish the articles on the apple News using News API. a detailed explanation till getting Apple News API credentials ( Key, secret key channel id) is much appreciated!

I can't figure it out. the "padding":10 either is ignored or the background extends to the left and right edge. See attached screenshot from the simulator. "role": "heading", "text": "News", "format": "markdown", "textStyle": { "textAlignment": "center", "backgroundColor": "#006FBA", "textColor": "#FFFFFF", "fontSize": 14, "lineHeight": 16, "fontWeight": "bold", "fontScaling": false }, "style": { "backgroundColor": "#006FBA" }, "layout": { "padding":5, "ignoreDocumentMargin": false, "margin": { "bottom": 15, "left":30, "right":30 } } }, { "role": "heading", "text": "News", "format": "markdown", "textStyle": { "textAlignment": "center", "backgroundColor": "#006FBA", "textColor": "#FFFFFF", "fontSize": 14, "lineHeight": 16, "fontWeight": "bold", "fontScaling": false }, "layout": { "padding":5, "ignoreDocumentMargin": false, "margin": { "bottom": 15, "left":30, "right":30 } } }, { "role": "container", "components": [ { "role": "heading", "text": "News", "textStyle": { "textAlignment": "center", "backgroundColor": "#006FBA", "textAbove": "1", "textColor": "#FFFFFF", "fontSize": 14, "lineHeight": 16, "fontWeight": "bold", "fontScaling": false }, "style": { "backgroundColor": "#006FBA" }, "layout": { "padding":5 } } ] },

I have a website that had been publishing to Apple News for a good while via RSS feed. At some point I implemented the Word Press plugin for publishing, created the PAPI file and that was working. I could login to Apple News Publisher and see my most recent articles. The RSS feed also still shows in the ANP dashboard. This appears to have stopped working in September as those are the most recent articles I can see in the Apple News Publisher dashboard. If I attempt to publish an article within the plugin it returns an error about "ONLY_PREVIEW_ALLOWED" So it appears my channel is back in a preview only mode. But nowhere in the News Publisher dashboard can I see anything to resubmit for approval. If I go to All Published Articles I can see where they stopped in September. If I go to Draft Articles and click "Preview these articles" I can see the channel in the Apple News app and it contains the most recent articles published. But back in the APN dashboard I don't have anything that allows me to submit to being published again. Any advice? Thanks!

Hello team, I require your support to resolve doubts regarding the API Listing announcement (https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=z6fu1dcu)... currently we have SDKs from different providers integrated into our app. The question we have is whether each provider must update their SDK indicating the iOS API they use, for example UserDefaults, or if in our project in general we can specify everything that the SDKs use without having to update the SDKs of all providers. What option do we have? A) Our project in general must report eg: UserDefaults and everything that third-party SDKs use. B) Our project in general must inform and in addition all the SDKs must be updated so that they inform the iOS API they use. Option A is the most optimal for us, since we would only have to apply the setting in our app, informing the iOS APIs that we generally use. Option B is critical, since we would have to update all SDKs to contain the requested setting. (Firebase, Medallia, Biocatch among others) Thanks for your help

Hello Team, I have been trying to publish the news on apple news on front page / top stories sections to allow for attribution. But its not coming on front-page any inputs?