How to get an app approved on the App Store

To get an app approved on the App Store you need a developer account, a finished build, an honest listing and a reviewer who can get in and use it. Apple says nine in ten submissions are reviewed within a day. Most rejections come from a short list of mistakes you can avoid.

What do you need before you submit?

• An Apple developer account. It costs $99 a year. To publish under a company name, Apple wants a registered company and a business ID called a D-U-N-S number.
• A build that is finished. No placeholder text, no buttons that go nowhere.
• A privacy policy on a live web page.
• Screenshots, a description and the privacy answers Apple asks for.
• Notes for the reviewer, with a working login.

The company paperwork is the slow part. Start it the day you decide to build, not the week you want to launch.

Why do apps get rejected?

The biggest single reason is that the app isn't finished. It crashes, something is broken, or there's a screen that says coming soon. Apple reads that as not ready and sends it back.

After that, the usual list.

• The reviewer can't log in. No demo account, or the one you gave doesn't work.
• The app asks for a permission, like location or the microphone, without saying clearly why.
• The listing promises something the app doesn't do.
• You sell something digital and don't use Apple's own payment system for it.
• The app declares a capability it doesn't use.

What happened with ours?

That last one got us. Our first submission of SayScope came back.

The app records voice notes on site, and one of the libraries we used had switched on background audio. We didn't use it. Apple noticed that the app claimed something it never did, and said no.

We took the setting out, resubmitted, and it was approved. Now we go through every permission and capability before we send anything. If the app doesn't use it, it comes out.

What should the review notes say?

Write them for a stranger with five minutes. That's who is reading.

Say what the app does in two lines. Give a demo login that works. Explain anything that isn't obvious: why you need the camera, how to reach the paid features, what to tap first.

If the app needs something physical, like a card to scan, include a picture of one they can point the camera at. A reviewer who gets stuck doesn't ring you. He rejects it.

What about Google Play?

Different rules, same idea. A Google developer account is a one-off $25.

The catch is for new personal accounts. Google makes you run a closed test with at least twelve testers for two weeks before you can go public. Company accounts skip that. One more reason to set up the company account early.

What happens after approval?

You choose when it goes live. It can be straight away, or on a date.

Every update goes through review again, so the checks never stop. The stores also change their rules every year, and an app nobody looks after eventually falls foul of them.

What do we check before we submit?

1. 01Every screen has real content.
2. 02The demo account works, on a fresh install.
3. 03Every permission has a plain reason next to it.
4. 04No capability is declared that the app doesn't use.
5. 05The privacy answers match what the app really collects.
6. 06The screenshots show the actual app.

Boring, and it's the difference between live this week and live next month.

We take the apps we build through this ourselves, under the client's own name and accounts. If you want yours handled, tell me what you're building. For the full timeline, see how long it takes to build an app.