Notarizing Mac App that uses Private API, is it okay?

If my Mac app is using some private APIs and I can't publish it to the app store, can I still notarize this Mac App? Will Apple reject it?

In general it is not recommended to use private API no matter what context you are distributing or operating in. This is because these APIs are unsupported and can change without notice or warning. So, regardless of the notarization story there are no guarantee's that can be made when using private APIs and I would move away from any private API that you have in your app.

Matt Eaton
DTS Engineering, CoreOS
meaton3@apple.com

I would move away from any private API that you have in your app.

Agreed.

On the notarisation front, I want to stress that notarisation is not App Review and so the notary service does not currently do any sort of quality checks on your product. I can’t predict the future (alas :-), so I can’t say that it’ll never do that, but that was certainly not the motivation for us introducing this feature. If you’re curious about the motivation behind notarisation, watch the WWDC session that introduced it: WWDC 2018 Session 702 Your Apps and the Future of macOS Security.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"