Are app updates reviewed?

Yes. Every version goes through review, and an update can be rejected for something that was in the original approved build, because a different reviewer looks at it. Approval of version one is not a precedent.

Are feature flags against App Store rules?

Feature flags are not banned. What the guideline is aimed at is using them to conceal functionality from review, or to enable behaviour after approval that would not have been approved. A flag that toggles a documented feature you disclosed is a different thing from one that unlocks an undisclosed one.

Can a dependency cause a 5.2 problem?

Yes. A React Native package that bundles icons, fonts, sounds or datasets can carry a licence you have not read, and shipping it means you are distributing it. The licence obligations travel with the binary.

Can a notification contain health information?

Notifications are visible on a lock screen to anyone holding the phone, and Apple's guidelines address sensitive personal data in notifications. Health-related content belongs behind the unlock, with the notification saying only that something is waiting.

Can a React Native library cause a 2.5.1 rejection?

Yes, and that is the usual cause. You did not call the API, a dependency did, and the check looks at the binary you shipped rather than at the code you wrote.

Can a tool guarantee my app will be approved?

No, and any tool claiming so is overselling. Static checks catch deterministic configuration issues. They cannot predict judgement calls such as whether an app has enough functionality under Guideline 4.2 or reads as spam under 4.3.

Can a tool tell me if I will be rejected under 4.2?

No, and any tool implying otherwise is overselling. 4.2 is a human deciding whether your app does enough to exist. Static analysis catches deterministic configuration problems, not judgement.

Can a WebView app pass App Review?

It can, but the burden is on you to show it does something a browser does not. Native navigation, offline capability, push notifications, device integration and platform-specific interactions all help. A thin wrapper around a responsive site generally does not.

Can an app require location to function?

An app whose core feature genuinely needs location can require it for that feature, but it should degrade gracefully rather than becoming unusable, and it should not demand the permission before the user has seen why. Non-functional-without-location is the specific pattern the guideline targets.

Can an app take payment for a real-world service without IAP?

Yes. Physical goods and real-world services rendered outside the app are outside the in-app purchase requirement. A cleaning business app charging a customer for a clean is not selling digital content.

Can an individual developer submit a health app?

Guideline 5.1.1 addresses apps in highly regulated fields, and health apps handling sensitive data are expected to be submitted by a legal entity rather than an individual developer. Incorporate before submitting rather than after being rejected.

Can I add a privacy manifest for a third-party framework myself?

Not legitimately in the framework's own bundle if it is a binary you do not control. Apple requires the manifest to be in the bundle that includes the executable or dynamic library, and states that a third-party SDK cannot rely on the app's manifest. The real fixes are updating, forking, replacing or removing.

Can I ask for an expedited review after a rejection?

Expedited review exists for genuinely urgent cases such as a critical bug affecting users or a time-sensitive event. Using it because a launch date slipped is how you spend credibility you may want later.

Can I ask users to rate my app?

Yes, through the system rating prompt and within its limits. What is prohibited is manipulating outcomes: incentivising ratings, filtering who is asked based on expected sentiment, or offering anything in exchange for a review.

Can I automate any of this?

The deterministic parts, yes. Privacy manifests, permission strings, background modes, metadata references, manifest contents and link resolution are all findable in the repository before a build. Judgement calls such as minimum functionality cannot be automated by anyone.

Can I build an app in the same category as an existing one?

Yes. Categories are not owned and competing is normal. What draws a 4.1 rejection is resembling one specific app closely enough that a user could mistake yours for it or for an official version of it.

Can I change my app's bundle identifier later?

No. It is fixed once the app record is created, and changing it means a new app record with no reviews, no ranking and no existing users. This is the single most consequential field on the creation screen.

Can I check my app for App Store rejection risk for free?

Most of it, yes. Xcode's own validation, the upload processing checks, TestFlight, and a set of greps over your project cover the majority of the automated failures. What none of them cover is judgement, which is where the expensive rejections live.

Can I download this mapping as data?

Yes. It is published as JSON under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to shipcheck.bakerventuresstudio.com. Apple's list changes, so check the transcription date and verify against Apple's page before relying on it.

Can I fix a bug without submitting a new build?

In a React Native or Expo app, a JavaScript-only fix can ship over the air. That is supported and its limit is that an update must not change what the app fundamentally does, which is a Guideline 2.3.1 question.

Can I hard-code subscription prices in my app?

No. Prices vary by storefront and change, and hard-coded prices go stale or display the wrong currency. Read the localised price from StoreKit and display that, which is also what avoids a mismatch between your UI and the actual charge.

Can I just add a generic purpose string to make it upload?

It will upload, and it moves the problem to App Review. A purpose string describing a feature the app does not have is a data-minimisation question under Guideline 5.1.1, and a reviewer who cannot find the feature will ask about it.

Can I just declare every reason code to be safe?

No. Apple's wording is that you must declare one or more approved reasons that accurately reflect your use, and that you may use the APIs and derived data only for the declared reasons. Over-declaring is a misdeclaration, and several reason codes carry conditions such as not sending data off-device that you would then be bound by.

Can I link to my website to subscribe?

Rules on external purchase links have changed and vary by storefront. Treat in-app purchase as the safe path for your own subscription, and check the current guideline text and any storefront-specific entitlement before relying on an external link.

Can I mention Android in my App Store description?

Generally no. Naming another mobile platform in your description, keywords, screenshots or preview video is what this guideline is about. Referring to non-mobile platforms such as a web app or a desktop version is a different situation and is normally fine.

Can I remove a permission a library adds?

Yes, with a tools:node="remove" entry in your own manifest, provided the library genuinely does not need it for the features you use. Test the affected feature afterwards, because removing something that is used produces a runtime failure rather than a build error.

Can I use a competitor's name in my keywords?

Using another party's trademark in your app name, subtitle or keyword field without authorisation is a common cause of a 5.2 rejection. Editorial comparison on your own website is a different matter from claiming the term in store metadata.

Can I use fake data in screenshots?

Representative sample data is normal and expected. Fabricated social proof is not - invented ratings, made-up user counts, or fake testimonials in a screenshot are a metadata accuracy problem and, in the US, run into the FTC rule on fake reviews.

Can my app say it works with a named platform?

Describing genuine compatibility factually is generally different from implying endorsement or affiliation. What draws attention is prominence, a logo, and phrasing that reads as official rather than descriptive.

Can screenshots be changed without a new build?

No. Name, subtitle, keywords, description, screenshots and preview videos all require a submission and review, even as a metadata-only submission. Promotional text is the only field that changes freely.

Can screenshots show an Android device?

No. Guideline 2.3.10 covers references to other mobile platforms in your metadata, and a device frame with Android navigation buttons or a Material-style status bar is exactly that. It is the most common way cross-platform teams get caught, because the asset pipeline is shared.

Can you appeal an app removal?

Both stores provide appeal routes. What works is a factual submission: what the notice cited, what the app actually does, what you have changed, and evidence. What does not work is arguing that the policy is unfair or that other apps do the same thing.

Can you appeal an App Store rejection?

Yes. You can reply in the Resolution Center, and you can escalate to the App Review Board. Replying with a specific, clause-level explanation of what you changed is far more effective than resubmitting silently, because the reviewer sees your reply attached to the submission.

Can you mention Android in your App Store description?

No. Guideline 2.3.10 covers references to other mobile platforms in your metadata, and it is the most common metadata rejection for cross-platform teams because the copy is usually written once and reused.

Can you name a competitor in your description?

Using another party's trademark in your name, subtitle or keywords without authorisation is a common cause of rejection. Factual comparison on your own website is a different context from claiming the term in store metadata.

Can you say your app is the best?

Superlatives you cannot substantiate are a metadata accuracy problem, and in the US unsubstantiated claims are also an advertising question independent of the store. Describing what the app does specifically is both safer and more persuasive.

Can you send marketing push notifications?

Only with the user's consent obtained through a mechanism in your app, and you must provide a way to opt out. Push used for advertising or promotion without that is one of the clearer cases in the guidelines.

Can you submit a WebView app to the App Store?

Using web technology is not itself a problem, and an app that offers nothing beyond what a browser already provides is what Guideline 4.2 addresses. The distinction is whether the app does something a website cannot, not which technology rendered the screen.

Do App Review notes actually get read?

They are attached to the submission and available to the reviewer. Treat them as the one place you get to pre-empt a question rather than as a guaranteed read - which means the notes should be short enough that reading them is cheap.

Do App Store screenshots have to show the actual app?

Yes. Screenshots should show the app in use rather than being purely marketing images, title art or concept renders. Adding a caption over a real screen is normal and widely done; replacing the screen with an illustration is not.

Do growth tactics from web products transfer?

Several common ones do not. Fake scarcity, engineered social proof, pre-checked upsells and interstitials designed to be mis-tapped are ordinary in some web funnels and are rejection material here, as well as being regulated conduct in several markets.

Do I have to declare data collected by third-party SDKs?

Yes. Google's guidance is that your declaration must cover your app's full behaviour including libraries and SDKs it uses. You are responsible for the data practices of code you ship, whether or not you wrote it.

Do I have to delete everything immediately?

The requirement is about providing the path and being clear about what is deleted, what is retained and for how long. Retention for legal or fraud-prevention reasons is normal and should be stated rather than left implicit.

Do I have to disclose a feature that is turned off?

If the code to run it is in the binary and it can be switched on remotely, disclose it in the review notes and be ready to demonstrate it. Reviewers cannot evaluate what they cannot see, and the guideline puts the burden of visibility on the developer.

Do I have to offer Sign in with Apple?

Only if your app uses a third-party or social login service exclusively or primarily as its account setup, and you do not already offer an equivalent privacy-focused option. An app with only email-and-password, or only its own account system, is not covered by Guideline 4.8.

Do I need a demo account for App Review?

If any part of your app is behind a login, yes. Guideline 2.1 covers app completeness, and a login a reviewer cannot get past means the app cannot be fully reviewed. A broken or expired demo account is one of the most common and most self-inflicted rejections there is.

Do I need a privacy policy before I can submit?

Yes, and the URL has to be live and reachable. A policy that 404s or that describes a different app is a finding a reviewer can make in under a minute without opening the build.

Do I need a restore purchases button?

Yes in practice. An app selling non-consumable or subscription content needs a way for a user to restore an existing entitlement on a new device, and its absence is a routine rejection.

Do I need beta review for every build?

The first external build of a version generally goes through it, and subsequent builds of the same version often do not. Changing what the app does is what tends to trigger it again.

Do I need iPad screenshots?

Only if the app supports iPad. If it does, the iPad screenshots must show the iPad layout rather than a scaled iPhone screen, and an app claiming iPad support with no genuine iPad experience is a separate problem.

Every question this site answers

Updated September 14, 2026 · published by Baker Ventures LLC · sources cited inline

Every question answered on this site, in one place: 320 of them across 61 pages. Each links to the page that answers it in full. This index is generated from the pages themselves, so it cannot drift from them.

All questions

By page

Account deletion on both stores

App privacy labels: what gets checked, and how RN apps get them wrong

App Store rejection checkers compared

Apple's required reason API categories and approved reason codes

Apple's required-manifest SDKs, mapped to npm packages

Auditing the permissions your config plugins added

Catch the rejection before you submit it

Compliance tool comparisons

Is there a free alternative to paid App Store rejection checkers?

First submission checklist

Google Play, for React Native and Expo apps

Guideline 1.1: objectionable content

Guideline 1.2: the four UGC requirements, and why AI apps trip it

Guideline 1.4.1 — medical and health apps

Guideline 2.1, and what reviewers actually test

Guideline 2.3.10 — other platforms in your metadata

Guideline 2.3.1: hidden features, and what counts as one

Guideline 2.5.1: private APIs you did not call

Guideline 2.5.4 — background modes without a feature

Guideline 3.1.1 — in-app purchase

Guideline 3.1.2 — subscriptions

Guideline 3.2.2: business practices Apple will not host

Guideline 4.1: copycats

Guideline 4.2 — minimum functionality

Guideline 4.8: when you must offer Sign in with Apple

Guideline 5.1.5 — location services

Guideline 5.2: intellectual property

Guides

What should I check before submitting a React Native app?

iPad support: claiming it is easy, having it is not

ITMS-90683 — missing purpose string

ITMS-91053 — Missing API declaration

ITMS-91054, ITMS-91055 and ITMS-91056

ITMS-91061 — Missing privacy manifest

Launching on Google Play: the checklist

Play foreground service types

Play target API level, and what it blocks

Play's account deletion requirement

Play's closed testing requirement

Push notifications: the rules and the RN failures

Rejected: the order of operations that gets you approved fastest

Removal and suspension: what to do, in order

Screenshots and app previews

Setting up App Store Connect for the first time

Shipping alone: what to check, what to skip

Submitting an AI app: what applies, all at the same time

Submitting an Expo app with EAS: the checklist

TestFlight beta review: what it actually checks

The annual OS release: what actually changes for a React Native app

The first update: what changes after launch

The Play Data safety form, and why RN apps declare it wrong

The Play permissions declaration

The React Native privacy-manifest census

Universal links: the setup that fails without an error

Web wrappers: when a WebView app is not enough

What an App Store rejection actually costs

What you can check for free before submitting

When a dependency is blocking your release

When a reviewer cannot test your app

Why apps get rejected

Why React Native and Expo apps get rejected differently

Writing App Review notes that work

Writing store copy that survives review

About shipcheck

shipcheck is a pre-submission checker from Baker Ventures LLC that runs inside Claude Code. It reads your React Native or Expo project, finds the things that get apps rejected or blocked at upload, cites the exact App Store Review Guideline or Google Play policy clause, and names the file and line to fix.

It exists because React Native and Expo apps fail for reasons that are invisible in the code you wrote: capability arriving through a dependency, purpose strings added by a config plugin, a privacy manifest missing from an SDK you never chose directly, and a generated ios/ directory that discards your edits on the next prebuild. shipcheck checks what the binary and the config actually declare, not what you intended. The rejection references on this site are free, need no account, and link to the primary Apple or Google document for every claim.