I need to vent some real frustration with App Review.
Our app "AlphaOmega" has been live on the App Store since July 6, 2026. We submitted a routine update (version 1.0.4, not a new app) on July 11. It sat untouched in the review queue for 10 full days before anyone even looked at it. For an update to an already-approved, already-live app, that's not acceptable.
And when it finally got reviewed on July 21, we got rejected under Guideline 4.1(a) "Copycats," with this justification:
"Specifically, the app's icons include references to Omegle."
That's it. No screenshot comparison, no explanation of what "reference" means. I put our icon next to Omegle's actual icon myself (attached below):
- Ours: white Greek letters Α/Ω overlapped, purple gradient background
- Omegle's: a blue background with a white comma-shaped swirl
They share nothing — not color, not shape, not any design element. Our app name comes from the Christian phrase "Alpha and Omega," has nothing to do with "Omegle" beyond a partial spelling overlap. This isn't a borderline case that needs interpretation — it's just wrong.
We've already replied to the review message with this clarification and separately submitted a formal appeal to the App Review Board. We also requested an expedited review — it made no difference.
What makes this especially hard is that we built this app so our church community could finally have it. People have been anxiously checking in day after day, hoping to be able to use it together. This is how the cycle usually goes for us: submit, sit in the queue for days waiting for a reviewer to even look at it, sit in "In Review" for days more, then get rejected for a reason that doesn't hold up to two minutes of scrutiny — fix it, resubmit, and start the whole cycle again, with no guarantee the next rejection will even make sense. We've stayed up late more than once just to catch a review update, only for it to end exactly like this. Is this really how Apple treats developers? At this point I'm seriously reconsidering whether I want to keep building for iOS at all.
So right now: 10 days to get a wrong answer, a canned one-line rejection with zero evidence, and I have to spend more time writing replies and appeals just to get a human to actually look at two icons side by side. Meanwhile the update sits blocked with no ETA.
Is this the normal experience now? Anyone else dealing with 10+ day waits for simple updates, followed by rejections that don't hold up under two minutes of scrutiny?
App Information:
- App Name: AlphaOmega
- Apple ID: 6783182206
- Bundle ID: com.zoven.omega
- Platform: iOS
- Version rejected: 1.0.4 (build 26)