Update: I finally got my App Review today. The app was rejected under Guideline 5.1.1(iv) – Privacy / Data Collection and Storage. The issue was related to my custom location permission screen. The CTA said “Allow location” before triggering the native iOS permission prompt, and Apple asked me to use wording such as “Continue” or “Next” instead. I changed the button to “Continue”, uploaded a new build, and resubmitted it today. From my backend logs, I can also see that the reviewer went beyond the onboarding and tested parts of the actual app, so the review was not limited to the first few screens. Now I’m waiting for the re-review. Hopefully such a small compliance fix won’t put the app back into another multi-day queue. I’ll update this thread again once I hear back from Apple.

Quick update: I cancelled my previous review and submitted a new build with additional features, fixes, and improvements. The new submission is now back in the review queue. I’d really like to know if there is any way to get in touch with someone from Apple about this. For a social app, especially one launching iOS-only, it’s extremely difficult to coordinate a launch when the entire timeline depends on an unpredictable review delay. We have users and launch activities waiting on the App Store release, so postponing everything simply because the app hasn’t been reviewed in time is becoming a real problem. If anyone knows the best support channel or a contact path for App Review, I’d really appreciate it.