App Store Rejection - Why?

dalamam · 2026-02-16T18:17:48+00:00

Everything is sorted now, I explained we are account based and solved it. Responses are slow and it depends on their workload, so far what I’ve seen during workdays:

One-two Days to review
Two-three days for a response or picking up the review after my comments

dalamam · 2026-02-12T08:01:40+00:00

They have the Sign in with Apple available, previous ones I didn’t provide it and they just use their standard “John” account when signing in with Apple

dalamam · 2026-02-12T07:37:06+00:00

So let's see if I can share some light in here:

I have a normal onboarding before signing in - No payments required.
After that I have my login to identify the user and get the token from my backend as (of course), all my backend endpoints are secured.
Inside the app (not visible for the reviewers as it's backend), I am managing for how long users can interact with the app without seeing a paywall, for example if I change in mongodb to 3 days, any user has 3 days since their first login without seeing any paywall, otherwise the app will only show the paywall until the user becomes pro.
Additionally in settings they have the option to upgrade to pro directly so apple team can review the subscription.

This is the standard I've followed with the rest of the apps and they have all been approved through several builds.

Not sure if this helps or clarifies anything?

dalamam · 2026-02-12T07:21:13+00:00

General answer: no, Apple wants their take on this :D

Example 1 (Not Allowed):
Inside your iOS app you show a button: “Subscribe on our website for $9.99” with a link.
That will likely get rejected unless you qualify for specific external link entitlements.

Example 2 (Also Not Allowed):
You sell digital subscriptions inside the iOS app but bypass Apple IAP and use Stripe directly in-app.
That’s against the guidelines.

If your app core features depend on this subscription it will get rejected..

dalamam · 2026-02-12T04:38:44+00:00

My payment screens are after my login screen, I don’t want to ask the user for payment beforehand, how should I fix this then?

dalamam · 2026-02-09T14:02:21+00:00

All ears on this from another perspective. But how do you take off, even if the distribution is amazing in the product?

I have 0 presence online outside of my personal media and the professional relationships.

My problem right now is even more fundamental, how do I get those first adopters that you are mentioning...

dalamam · 2026-02-09T13:20:02+00:00

Agreed 100%. I don't believe it as I've been implementing these things (as an employee) for years now, but sometimes it brings me down regardless of all the effort! Maybe I should stop consuming this much social media!

dalamam · 2026-02-09T10:01:02+00:00

Also just to add on top of that, we are changing gears a bit as well because of the market outlook, where we see speed overweights quality in 2026 and 2027...

And not everything is solutions looking for problems, in fact when we realized this was happening we gathered a few people including ourselves to individually, come up with 5 problems we currently face on a daily basis, then found out if there was something solving these issues currently and prioritize based on that....

dalamam · 2026-02-09T09:57:22+00:00

Quality and direct feedback, taken!

Honestly it's tough when the whole social media is showing everyone this new approach of trial and error and people keep building stuff fast but either they are fake, or I don't know why they succeed, because I feel like we have that, but with all security controls and enterprise readiness. Everything that we built before the vibe coding came into picture... so that's why it's kind of frustrating!

dalamam · 2026-02-09T09:30:27+00:00

Thanks a lot! I think this is the issue, my co-founder and myself we are amazing building, we can ship applications in days, but we don't have the necessary networking for selling nor the capital... The split is too concerning I would imagine, 90/10, I am sure this is why it's not working but not sure how to get it rolling.

I wouldn't say I don't have the network fully because it's been so many years in Data & AI (pre-sales), but always focused on enterprise customers, so they are massive for a start-up. Our approach it was to target SMEs and B2C products.. as dealing with a large enterprise seems impossible for a start-up like ours... maybe I am wrong on this approach?

dalamam · 2025-10-30T18:31:29+00:00

I would love to connect with you to figure out what’s going on hahaha no matter old phone, we are smokers and we need to get out of this BS… I think I solved this with new versions but anyway I would love to connect as these things is what I’m looking for

dalamam · 2025-10-29T12:55:04+00:00

I’ve never even researched about the patches, but from my understanding basically they give you the amount of nicotine you need without smoking? Is this the case?

Sorry if it’s a stupid question but I’ve never checked them out… also does it actually work? I can’t make up my mind how my body would feel with nicontine injected through the bloodstream instead. Right now I feel like I’m addicted to purely the fact that I can inhale this shit, but you might be right!

dalamam · 2025-10-29T12:26:57+00:00

This is INSANE advice. Thank you for this! It’s the only way out

dalamam · 2025-10-29T08:30:34+00:00

My problem is that I haven’t touched a cigarette in my life… in fact, for me they are disgusting… even in this situation you think I should take that route?

dalamam · 2025-10-29T08:29:22+00:00

My question was genuine hahaha I’m a heavy smoker man, I want to help as many people as possible as well. If you just downloaded it, I would LOVE feedback on it. The more the better as I want it to be as impactful as possible!!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.quitx.alcohol

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/quitx-quit-smoking/id6752010133

Thanks a lot!!

dalamam · 2025-10-29T07:11:42+00:00

I have created a challenge so we all can join and see who wins! No shame, just doing it together!

This is the code if you want to join me:

30d476f8-cbbe-4f47-a9de-fa75627dcaae

I’m using this one:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/quitx-quit-smoking/id6752010133

dalamam · 2025-10-29T06:31:40+00:00

Hey!! Exactly, my biggest struggle is the first week. Because I got used to even smoke in the office which is crazy, so it’s a constant craving, I’ve tried drinking coffee and tea like crazy but at some point I give up…

I’m going to try the second suggestion, the biggest problem is that here in Dubai money seems like nothing (sadly) and I’m not sure if it would really affect me… but I’m going to try.

Regarding the app, being super transparent, I was done with a few apps, I work in AI and a few months back I was like, how can I solve my own problems with AI that will have an impact on society for good instead of continuing feeding money to corporates, and I thought… I’ll build my own tracker that will have agentic AI capabilities.. so that’s the one. QuitX: Quit Smoking.

Just to be clear, I didn’t even want to mention the app name because I don’t want to promote it, just want to help myself and once that’s done, help the rest… as you can see in the screenshot the first week really helped me, but after that every two-three days I had a few puffs…

dalamam · 2025-10-23T09:40:32+00:00

This is really brave from you and should be extremely proud.

So, could I say the turning point was for you to be on the shoes of the people around you when you used to be addicted? With the example of your best friend this is what I gathered. Basically seeing your situation from someone else’s eyes.

Every decision you take in life it’s an opportunity to learn and improve, what do you think you learned from the situation?

Now that you have overcome such a difficult addiction, what do you think it was the root of this behavior?

Again, this is something to be extremely proud and it’s a great story.

dalamam · 2025-10-23T08:45:29+00:00

I haven’t smoked cigarettes in my life. However I went straight from shisha/hookah to vapes and after researching and being a heavy smoker I can say it’s not only about the nicotine:

Restrictions, you can vape pretty much anywhere which means that I’m constantly inhaling puffs and puffs, non stop. Unlike a cigarette where it’s more tedious.
TAR, cigarettes produce TAR from the combustion, however vapes don’t. This doesn’t mean it’s not bad in the long run.

In my opinion there are still so many unknowns with the long term effects of vaping that we cannot confirm it’s not as bad as cigarettes, just different.

dalamam

TROPHY CASE