[hightrix]

> After spending 19 days to review our submission, causing us to miss a long-planned January 2nd launch date

If this review time period caused Hey to miss their launch date, this is a major signal that their developers do not have ANY experience with the iOS App Store.

> That is because users are required to login with an existing account to use the functionality.

Again, this is clearly spelled out in the Apple App Store requirements. You MUST provide credential for reviews, and those credentials must work. Additionaly, if you are pushing users to login through an external provider, providing a "Demo Mode" is an easy way around App Store restrictions.

This entire article reaks of inexperience, which is pretty incredible since Hey has gone through similar in the past[0].

My suggestion, hire software engineers with experience releasing to the app store.

[0]-https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1272968382329942017

[1123581321]

I think you're misreading. They are being rejected because the account requires a login to a service that isn't sold via IAP, not because they failed to provide a demo login to reviewers. There's no way they haven't been providing demo logins for Basecamp all these years.

As for review turnaround times, it's been quite awhile since multiple weeks without a response has been normal. In a normal app store submission process, with an app this size, an experienced team can plan to make requested changes with that much lead time before a launch date.

I'm surprised though that they didn't ship this calendar app with a simple calendar you can use without paying. That's how they handled the email app deadlock; there's a temporary random email generator feature that anyone can use, which gives the app the requested out-of-the-box functionality. Seems like the same workaround could have been successful here.

[hightrix]

> They are being rejected because the account requires a login to a service that isn't sold via IAP

I'm extremely skeptical of this claim. I have apps in the app store that behave exactly as you've described and Apple has not rejected any of our submissions. One app uses a third party login, one uses a first party login. One allows for registration within the app, the other requires registration outside of the app.

>it's been quite awhile since multiple weeks without a response has been normal

You are correct that typically reviews are very fast. That said, we recently had a new version of an app take 2 weeks (14 days) to get reviewed and rejected due to a similar, but different, issue. My guiddance is always submit very early (4+ weeks), especially when you have a launch date with marketing or other real-world tie-ins.

There are easy ways to work around Hey Calendar's rejection, but only if you submit early and are prepared to do the work. Similar to your suggestion, providing a "Demo Mode" where a user can see what the app does without login easily solves the rejection issue. I can say this with confidence as I've done it in the past with an app that is still on the app store.

[lawgimenez]

This is correct, I have been rejected multiple times on the App Store too and Basecamp’s app are no different. We all have to abide the rules. Compared that with our Android app of the same app, it got clone to a different Android store and it was very hard to take it down.

We don’t cry over social media, we just do the work.

[1123581321]

Yes, there are apps that sell something from the web and hide it behind a login in their app, and that's the whole functionality. I don't think that's in dispute. There are screenshots of other examples in the dhh article (maybe one is from your company's app.)

If you are saying because such apps exist, Hey can't have been rejected for doing the same thing as those apps do...c'mon, you're an experienced iOS developer, right? :)

Why assume that another developer's experiences are not legitimate when they have a long tenure and multiple apps in the store?

And why mock working 19 days ahead when your guidance is only 11 days longer and your worst case was five days shorter? I could see it if you thought that they should submit extra early because they've been targeted by Apple in the past, but you don't believe that they have been.

[rakoo]

Or

Maybe you don't have all the information because it is not entirely spelled out in the blog post, they have all the engineers they need because they have experience, they already did everything you said but Apple keeps being Apple, and your advice is not needed ?

[hightrix]

They missed their launch date due to Apple Review.

That does not scream "they have the experience they need".

While they may not listen, they absolutely need to hear the advice to submit earlier.

[ricardobeat]

Considering

- the average processing time is 24h

- Apple advises you that things slow down between 22-27 Dec

would you say submitting on December 12th, with the goal of being ready by the second of January, is “submitting early”? Seems already extremely conservative.

In my years working with mobile, I never saw any review take longer than three days, ever. Nineteen days is an eternity and probably indicates some internal commotion going on. Who has ever sent their app for review a full month before release?

[hightrix]

For a brand new app with a hard target release date of 1/2, I would have submitted before thanksgiving with the intention of getting a version of the app approved before the 22nd of December. Then I would have submitted again any fixes required or if there was any additional work done. Again, something an experienced dev would have done because they know that the Apple review process is a black box and you must expect and schedule around rejection.

So no, submitting on the 12th, in the middle of holiday season, is not submitting early. Yes, I know Apple says things only slow down for 22-27, but experience tells me they actually slow down starting the week of Thanksgiving and the slow down lasts until 1/2.

The better option would have been to schedule the release for 1/12 or sometime that is not the day everyone comes back to work. Many mistakes were made in this release planning.

[rakoo]

No, indeed, it sounds more like "the Apple Review is random and unpredictable", which no one can account for.

[cachehit]

This is a quote from DHH from LinkedIn:

>Of course we gave them a login. We’ve been publishing apps on the App Store for over a decade. This was not a low-level mistake. It went all the way to the app review board.

In another response he writes that the reviewers did in fact log in.