Hi,
I'm planning on launching an app for a specific city and only for users who sign-up for an invitation. Is that possible on iOS in the App Store? What would be the best approach to do so?
Thanks,
Launching an invitation-only app
See the ASRGs 5.1.1 ii Data Collection and Storage
My opinion is that one city, invitation only will face hurdles getting into the store w/such a small user pool. You may want to cater to a broader audience overall, with your limited target as an option.
Hi TheAfadar, If it's invite only via a third party invite system, then you can have an invite code dialog as the first user interaction. What you'd need is a mailing list system that can generate unique invite codes automatically, probably hosted on your own website. I think you can do this using Amazon Lambda. You'd have to have that invite function create a database record on your database that is querieable by your app, so that when the user inputs their code, the app looks up the code in your database and allows them to proceed. With such a system there would be no need to limit the geography in the App Store, but you'd have to limit the webpage access to that region... as far as I know, Amazon web services can limit dns resolution to a country, but not a city.
This would be a violatrion of this guideline:
3.1.4 Content Codes: Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc.
Apple is concerned that your app will be "free" but that the invitation code will be $4.99.