Reference

How stores review an app

Shipping is a pipeline of gates most makers never see until a rejection email. Reading your own submission the way a store will — before you submit — turns a wasted review cycle into a clean upload. Here are the five generic gates and a pre-submit checklist. Open the submission lab →

• Built with a current SDK

  A store sets a yearly cutoff date; after it, new submissions must be built with a recent software-development kit or the UPLOAD is rejected before any human reviews it. The fix is a rebuild, not a redesign.

• The right age rating

  Ratings are set by what an app CAN do, not what it intends. Unrestricted web access, open chat, or simulated gambling raise the minimum age. A rating lower than the content allows is rejected.

• An honest privacy label

  Disclose every kind of data the app — and any bundled kit — collects. Collecting data is fine when it’s opt-in, declared on the label, and deletable; collecting it SILENTLY is not. A bundled kit’s collection is YOUR collection.

• Complete & follows the rules

  The app must be finished — no “lorem ipsum”, no crashes, no half-built screens — do what the description says, and use only public, documented APIs. Most rejections are for something MISSING, not the idea.

• The kids’ section is stricter

  A children’s app must not show third-party behavioral ads, must not send kids to the open web or a store without a parental gate, and must not collect personal data. A walled garden by default.

Check your own submission before you ship

• Rebuild on the current SDKConfirm the build uses this year’s SDK before you upload — the cutoff is a hard gate on the upload itself.
• Rate for the riskiest thingList everything the app CAN do (web, chat, purchases). Pick the rating that matches the riskiest, not the average.
• Make the label match realityAudit every kit you bundled. If any collects data, the privacy label must say so — or remove the kit.
• Open every screenNo placeholder text, no crashes, no dead buttons. Reviewers open everything; finish it before you submit.
• Wall the garden (kids)No third-party ads; gate every external/store link behind a parental gate; collect no personal data.
• Read the current rulesStores change their rubric every year, and none of this is legal advice. Read the store’s OFFICIAL current guidelines before you rely on any checklist — including this one.

These gates are generic store criteria in the spirit of a real submission pipeline — not any one vendor’s official rules, no affiliation implied, and not legal advice. Stores change their rules every year: read the official current guidelines before you rely on any checklist. Nothing you check here leaves your device. Check a submission →