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by d_r 5305 days ago
It's hit or miss. Once I made a free app that displayed a picture of a cartoon cow and made a "Moooo" sound when you turned the phone upside down. I had a toy like that as a kid. Okay, don't judge me -- but I thought I would be a fun quick idea and any kids (and even some adults) to whom I've shown the prototype loved it. I had an artist draw the cow, and bought rights to a sound I really liked.

The app was rejected twice for having "limited functionality." After I resubmitted it with various tweaks, someone actually called me personally to reject it. They were classy, communicated well, and were very polite, but ...

There are plenty of apps in the store, often in Top 100, that do less, or actually do nothing. My favorite is "traffic light changer" that claims to change traffic lights. Or a "fingerprint scanner." Also, there's "lockify your screen" that claims to give you Android-like screen unlock, and yet just displays a wallpaper with dots. Yes, they all have oodles of 1-star reviews from upset buyers, but they did get approved somehow. It seems like I just got unlucky with reviewers.

1 comments

I had a toy sheep like that as a kid, so it seems like a legitimate app to me, sorry to hear it was rejected. I noticed those fake fingerprint scanners -- at least two of which were consistently in the top 100 -- last year when I was creating an app that performs real 3D scanning. I thought "Surely if a fake fingerprint scanner is so popular, something that actually takes a 3D scan of your face would be even more popular." I was incorrect. (Though my app has done just fine -- it's just that those fake fingerprint scanners are disgustingly successful given what they are.)
I just bought your app out of curiosity. That is a very interesting concept -- would love to see how you keep innovating further! Good luck! It took a few tries/a darker room to get just the right effect. I don't actually know much about image processing -- I figured you would try to detect the face/cheeks/nose and "extrude" those when rotated, but it seems like it's doing something more sophisticated.
GrantS - Trimensional is fantastic; unpredictability is fun and inspiring. Thank you. It's also been my go-to wow demo for the uninitiated.