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Lensflare
66d

I give up. It‘s impossible to argue with Apple.

I tried to bring my unofficial iOS devRant app "JoyRant" into the AppStore. It was available via TestFlight for years and it wasn‘t a problem there, apparently. Now for the AppStore, it is a problem.

I talked with the Apple review team for 3 weeks and the discussion went in circles.
They said that my app tries to disguise as or to misrepresent another app on the store (the official devRant app, even though it‘s not available anymore, apparently).

I was asked to remove all of the mentions of devRant from any description or any place in the app. I did. Even though it was stupid because how are people supposed to know that they need a devRant account to use my app? I‘m not allowed to mention devRant.

After that, they said that it can not have the name JoyRant because it sounds too similar to devRant.
I changed it to devJoy everywhere, the app, the meta data for the app store, the github page where the required legal crap is hosted, and in the legal documents themselves.
Did it help? No, it didn‘t.

Apple then proceeded to claim that my app is trying to deceive the users into thinking that this is the official devRant app. Even though I have explicitly stated in the description that it is just an unofficial devRant client.

Now apple says that I should "revise the app content".
Which I assume means that I need to make it something different. Yeah. Great suggestion!

So, I will rename the app back to JoyRant and provide it via TestFlight, as it was before.

Thanks for reading. I needed to vent.

rant

review

apple

joyrant

appstore
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Comments
  • 5
    66d
    @joewilliams007 had it on android in an evening or so 😁

    Really sucks from apple. Revise the app content.. Idiots. But you didn't have to pay smth now?
  • 1
    66d
    @retoor I‘m paying the yearly fees for the Developer account. But that‘s not an issue for me.
  • 7
    66d
    That's just what apple does. What did you expect?
  • 4
    66d
    lmao. They've always sucked, are we just finding out?
  • 3
    66d
    @electrineer it also often depends on the particular reviewer that you get assigned. I might have been unlucky.
    I didn‘t expect anything. In my experience this can happen but it could also have been not an issue at all.
  • 5
    66d
    @dfox since the official app is not in the appstore anymore, could you give me the official permission to put my app into the store?
    The lack of a permission was one major issue for the review.

    Please note that I didn‘t want to maliciously circumvent the permission. In my opinion I don‘t need a permission if I‘m not trying to trick the users and pretend to be the official app. But Apple seems to have a different opinion (or simply fails to understand my point).
  • 7
    65d
    You have to suck Cook’s dick and pray while kneeling in the direction of Jobs’ grave every day 3 times to receive Apple’s blessing. Otherwise you are not proving your faithfulness to the cult.
  • 3
    65d
    Fuck apple store. Went through the shit to get the app on the store in the first place and after long and gruesome communication with their reviewers we got our appon the store.

    We were waiting 2 weeks for the review when we changed a typo on the form label. After that we just did a bunch of the updates at once, so sometimes it was the issue that we changed the app too much, like wtf! So we split the effort in smaller chunks, 6 months later some cocksucker from apple support repeated the whole gruesome process that we had to even get our app on the store as he didn't get off for a week or so...

    It was an e-commerce shop app, like wtf apple, fuck you and your fucking reviewers in the ass with pneumatic drill!

    Funny thing is that I am strongly convinced that this is that kind of the people that like to get fucked int he ass with pneumatic drill!
  • 5
    65d
    @devJs yea, just dont develop for them if you dont have to. by developing for them you support their business practises.
  • 2
    65d
    @dfox
  • 4
    65d
    @joewilliams007 i was dev at startup at the time, not my startup, so not my decision.

    If i ever do some apps of my own, won't bother with those fuckers again!
  • 0
    65d
    Isn’t the original app delisted? Can’t find it
  • 0
    65d
    @kiki it is
  • 0
    62d
    Just noticed that app store removed devrant, and here I am writing this shit on ios. Guess they couldn't remove devrant from already installed devices.
  • 0
    62d
    @MaddScientist yes, apps removed from the store always remain on the device.
  • 2
    61d
    Can you get a written OK from the developers of devrant to pass onto Apple? Not that you should have to…
  • 1
    59d
    @MANICX100 one of them is already tagged (dfox) but it was long ago he was online here. Sad
  • 1
    59d
    This whole situation is so ridiculous.
    The app isn’t in the store anymore. The devs don’t care about it (apparently). And Apple is still trying to defend the app from evil "copycats"!
  • 0
    59d
    @Lensflare I think his email address is here listed somewhere
  • 5
    58d
    @ars1 eat an apple. EAT ANOTHER. Pray to an apple macintosh. Core and sacrifice an apple before a tiny apple-smart-bulb-lit alter in your closet, before a glowering image of steve jobs, and your wish will be granted. This is not a scam I assure you.
  • 2
    51d
    You're doing God's work dude. Thank you for your efforts. I have been thinking of doing something similar, but the legal-adjacent bullshit has scarcely even crossed my tiny mind until reading this. Is it ok to say "inspired by devrant"?
  • 3
    51d
    @nosoup4u

    > Is it ok to say "inspired by devrant"?

    I have no idea but my guess is: no.
  • 2
    51d
    @Lensflare LOL probably a safe bet. Hell, a super mobile friendly PWA might be the way to go. Apple makes good (if horribly overpriced) physical products, but they also love to huff their own farts and yell about how great it smells, so you sort of get what you get with them.
  • 1
    51d
    @nosoup4u yup. Apple has the best DX though, if you don‘t count the app store stuff as DX.
  • 0
    51d
    @Lensflare Forgive me, DX? Developer Experience? I am unfamiliar.
  • 1
    51d
    @nosoup4u yes
  • 1
    51d
    @nosoup4u nice reference to the soup nazi, btw! I like it ^^
  • 1
    51d
    @Lensflare hell yeah, great show, and it holds up
  • 1
    25d
    In my teens (32 now) i was effectively banned from an apple store.

    Back in the early iterations of iphones, i had a client who had an issue between his macbook and iphone. There was essentially a bug that corrupted his apple account, making him unable to reliably use either device.

    I was forced to go to their physical, in-store, support. Technically speaking, i did nothing wrong that could warrant them actually banning me... but i did cause one support person to cry and another had a panic attack. The store's manager ended up calling corporate, which informed her of a little part of their eula that allowed them to refuse any technical assistance to anyone aside from the actual owner of a device and/or the primary account of the device.

    In hindsight, im kinda glad that happened early on so i never got really sucked into their bs.
  • 2
    25d
    @MaddScientist oh... they can remove installed apps from any device. Last time i checked (few yrs ago) their legalese actually specified that they can...and, for things initially from the app store, they dont even need to qualify it with a reason or warn people.
  • 0
    25d
    @Lensflare
    Ooo... maybe you could modify the app to be clearly making fun of devRant... then it should be covered under parody law, which is basically a subset of artistic freedom.

    I feel i should mention that this suggestion may be due to the fact that Alles von der Kunstfreiheit gedeckt (danger dan)... still seems valid.
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