An update, since this is where I asked for advice.
The submission was finally reviewed on October 21, after a month in the queue, and rejected again under 4.3(b) with the same words as before: "The issues we previously identified still need your attention." Our server logs show that the reviewer signed in to the demo account, the first screen loaded, and the rejection arrived about three minutes later. The calendar, the journal and the conversation with the astrologer, the parts we had rebuilt the app around, were never opened.
I want to describe how this feels from the developer's side, because I doubt I am the only one.
Over two months we:
answered the 2.1 information request with a screen recording made on a physical iPhone;
after the first 4.3(b) rejection, rewrote the name, subtitle, description, keywords and screenshots;
rebuilt the iOS app itself: it now opens on a personal day planner, a calendar replaced the horoscope tab, and the readings section was removed;
prepared a demo account with real data and put a two-minute path at the top of the review notes;
asked in every reply which specific part looks duplicated, so that we could change the right thing.
Every answer was the same template. Not once did we receive a sentence that referred to something actually in the app.
The same happened with our second app, Fool's Journey, a single-player deck-building card game. It has no readings, no predictions, no horoscopes, no account and no network access; the tarot deck is simply the set of playing cards. It was rejected under the same 4.3(b) text, as an app that "primarily features astrology, horoscopes, palm reading, fortune telling or zodiac reports". We removed every word that could sound like divination, attached a gameplay video and asked which screen was the problem. The reply was the same paragraph again.
I understand that App Review is under real pressure. With AI tools the number of submissions has grown enormously, and many of them probably deserve a short answer. But when you have spent ten months building something, it is hard not to be discouraged by a process in which, once a category label is attached, nothing you change seems to be looked at.
Both apps are now with the App Review Board. I am not asking for an exception. I would be grateful for a real answer: either what specifically needs to change, or a plain statement that apps built on astrology, or games that use a tarot deck, are no longer accepted from new developers. Either answer would let us decide what to do next instead of resubmitting in the dark.
Thank you to everyone who replied here, and I hope your submissions move soon.
Topic:
App Store Distribution & Marketing
SubTopic:
App Review
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