How change the submision from "Spam" to released

App Store Distribution & Marketing App Review
almogon OP
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Hi everyone,

My app was rejected under Guideline 4.3 – Design: Spam, and I'd appreciate some advice on how to get it approved and released.

The idea came from playing in a football team. I thought it would be nice if the team members and the coach could give each other points and feedback, so we could see who the MVP was and get a bit more motivated to play better.

I built this app myself; it's not based on a template or a white-label service. I looked for similar apps on the App Store and couldn't find anything like it, so I don't understand why it was flagged as spam.

I've already submitted an appeal to the App Review Board and also replied again to the rejection message, but I haven't heard back yet.

A few questions:

  • How long does the appeal usually take?
  • While I wait, can I make some changes and submit a new build for review, or could that cause problems with the appeal?

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks!

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Etresoft OP

I built this app myself; it's not based on a template or a white-label service. I looked for similar apps on the App Store and couldn't find anything like it, so I don't understand why it was flagged as spam.

That's just boilerplate text. Apple gets something like 46,000 app submissions a day. So there's a lot of boilerplate messages going out.

While template and white-label jobs can certainly trigger a spam rejections, more often, it's simply too many similar apps.

I looked for similar apps on the App Store and couldn't find anything like it

But when Apple looked for similar apps, they likely found lots of them. As the good book says, there is nothing new under the sun. Chances are, lots of football fans came up with the same app idea and they got there first. When I search for "football coaching" apps, I found plenty. Even the autocomplete on typing "football coaching" suggested there were lots of similar apps.

I've already submitted an appeal to the App Review Board and also replied again to the rejection message, but I haven't heard back yet.

Spam is a policy rejection. That's very unlikely to get overturned. As I said, Apple gets tens of thousands of submissions every day. Is your app really going to stand out as the one that was egregiously miscategorized?

While I wait, can I make some changes and submit a new build for review, or could that cause problems with the appeal?

It could cause problems with your account. If you read further down in the App Review Guidelines, you'll see an entry for repeated submissions of rejected apps. That could potentially get you kicked out of the developer program entirely.

I recommend taking what you learned on this app and building a new app that wouldn't get rejected.