Unbelievable: 2 App Store rejections, ZERO uses of our app's main feature. What would you do - appeal or resubmit?

App Store Distribution & Marketing General
Cam_3344 OP
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I'm genuinely at a loss with Apple's App Review process.

Our backend records show that across BOTH reviews, Apple's reviewers did not complete a SINGLE use of our app's core functionality. Not once. ZERO completed generations.

For the latest review, our logs confirm Apple successfully logged in, but recorded ZERO generation requests and ZERO credits consumed.

This isn't some minor feature. It's the entire foundation of our app.

Our app fundamentally changes and becomes personalised as it's used. Without completing that process, you're essentially judging an incomplete product.

Submission ID: 6a126514-9bb6-4d91-923c-bf29aacb1b68

Here's why this is so frustrating.

We spent months deliberately building an app that offers functionality and a user experience fundamentally different from existing competitors. This wasn't another copycat app - avoiding that was central to its design from day one.

We explained these differences extensively in our App Review notes.

Yet Apple has rejected us TWICE under Guideline 4.3(b) — Design Spam.

We even provided a narrated walkthrough demonstrating exactly what makes our app unique. Our video analytics show ZERO views.

So we're being rejected for supposedly lacking originality, despite neither review producing a completed use of our main feature and no recorded views of our demonstration.

After both rejections, we've received nothing but generic responses telling us to improve the app, without identifying a single specific problem.

How are independent developers supposed to fix something when Apple won't explain what's wrong?

We've now filed a formal appeal, which could take a month, with no visible queue position, progress updates or estimated timeframe.

Meanwhile, we've already missed multiple planned marketing opportunities, and waiting could mean missing even more.

We're not asking for guaranteed approval. We're asking for a fair review of what we've actually built.

Has anyone else experienced this? What would you do?

  • Wait for the appeal, hoping the App Review Board properly evaluates the app, even if it takes another month and we miss more deadlines?

  • Withdraw the appeal and resubmit, hoping for a different reviewer, but risking another rejection without proper testing and further warnings against our developer account?

I'd genuinely appreciate advice from anyone who's experienced something similar, especially those who've successfully appealed a 4.3(b) rejection.

At this point, I genuinely don't know whether this is a reviewer misunderstanding, an automated rejection process, or something else entirely.

But how can Apple determine that an app lacks originality when its defining functionality hasn't even been tested?

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Cam_3344 OP

anybody had something similar happen?
Tomato OP

It has happened to many people because Apple, Inc. has been on a peudo-spam-combat crusade based on falsehoods for the past several months. I get a spam call every single time I submit a new app to App Store Connect these days. We are all little people and powerless individually. I encourage you to file a complaint with FTC ( https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/ ).
Cam_3344 OP

Update: Still nothing, no contact from Apple or even anyway to contact them.

I can understand why apple is cracking down on a lot of apps because they must get thousands of spam trash apps submitted every day..

But its pretty clear that currently they haven't figured out the best way to do this and genuine developers/apps unfortunatley are getting caught in the crossfire.

Unfortunately with the amount of apps now submitted daily I would have to guess it will be at least 6 months before they can figure out the best thing to do.

I don't know what to do...
GetResubmit OP

Since you have already filed an appeal, I would add a concise evidence supplement to that appeal rather than withdraw it and immediately resubmit.

Build a timestamped table for each review attempt showing the reviewer’s sign-in, the exact steps available to reach the core feature, generation requests, credit changes, errors, and session end. Include the relevant time zone and make sure the records can be tied to the submitted build and review account without exposing user data.

Also verify that the review account had enough credits, that the feature was enabled for that account and storefront, and that no onboarding, consent, network, or server-side restriction could prevent a generation. Provide a short, uninterrupted recording with numbered reproduction steps and working credentials. If the feature depends on a backend, keep the test environment available and explain what a successful request should look like.

For the 4.3(b) concern, map the app’s distinctive user outcome to the exact workflow the reviewer can test. Ask App Review to identify which existing apps or specific functionality it considers insufficiently differentiated, if it can provide that information.

In your appeal supplement, you could write:

“Our review-account logs for build [build] show a successful sign-in at [time and time zone], but no generation request or credit consumption during the review session. We have checked that the feature was enabled and the account had the required access. Attached are a timestamped event summary, a short recording, and numbered steps that take the reviewer from sign-in to a completed generation. Could you please confirm whether the core workflow was reached and clarify which part of the product you consider insufficiently differentiated under 4.3(b)?”

Keep the logs focused on the review session and redact unrelated account or customer data.
Etresoft OP

I can understand why apple is cracking down on a lot of apps because they must get thousands of spam trash apps submitted every day..

According to the App Store Transparency report for 2025, Apple got 25,000 submissions per day in 2025.

According to one report I've seen on the internet, from an industry journal, not Reedit, AI slop has increased submissions by 84% in 2026.