Hello,
I'm an individual developer (Team ID 23TUK9MCR7). I write my apps myself: no template, no app builder, no white-label code. I'm trying to understand whether my account has been flagged and what I should do next.
What happened
- On 6 October, five apps on my account were rejected under 4.3(a), 4.3(b) and 4.2.6 with the same standard message, and all five rejections are timestamped within the same minute (02:16-02:17 UTC). The apps are different products: a physics puzzle game, a children's colouring book, a cooking game, an action puzzle game and a city chat community.
- I answered all nine questions for each app in the Resolution Center. The follow-up replies said only that "the previously identified issues remain unresolved" and that I should "submit a unique app with distinct content and functionality".
- I then made substantial changes rather than resubmitting the same builds:
- The cooking game was redesigned into a different game: a new name, a new story and new core gameplay.
- The chat app was rebuilt as a native SwiftUI app, and a feature that falls in a saturated category was removed.
- The colouring app received a large content and feature update.
- On 16 October, three of them were rejected again with exactly the same 4.3 / 4.2.6 message, again within the same minute (18:14-18:15 UTC), with no detail about what they were matched against.
- Updates to my two apps already on the store were approved during the same period (9 and 10 October).
For reference, the submission IDs of the three rejections on 16 October:
- 8afbafa4-eafc-481b-abea-687e3a060640
- 7775d4d0-1668-4b49-b6ff-1751223adc92
- 26a794d0-4b21-4dc2-8245-e2c8cf3d9f52
My questions
- When unrelated apps get identical rejections in the same minute and a redesigned game gets the same default message, does that mean a flag on the developer account rather than on each app?
- If so, what is the right way to resolve it? Should I wait, request a call, book an App Review appointment, or appeal to the App Review Board?
- Is there a way to learn which existing app, category or template a submission is being matched against, so that the changes actually address the concern?
I'm not resubmitting anything until I understand this, and I'm happy to give any detail App Review needs.
Thank you.