Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

world.hey.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 82 posts

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#11

Post by 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

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#12

Post by cma »

rgovostes wrote: post #3

"If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps." — App Store Review Guidelines, 2010 ( https://www.cultofmac.com/58590/heres-the-full-text-of-apple... ) (It often helps.)

That statement seems like it would legally be extortion. I guess by only saying never helps and not that it hurts, it isn't?

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#13

Post by meibo »

cma wrote: post #12
rgovostes wrote: post #3

"If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps." — App Store Review Guidelines, 2010 ( https://www.cultofmac.com/58590/heres-the-full-text-of-apple... ) (It often helps.)

That statement seems like it would legally be extortion. I guess by only saying never helps and not that it hurts, it isn't?

> That statement seems like it would legally be extortion.

Like their entire App Store business?

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#14

Post by cma »

mertbio wrote: post #7

DHH really needs to control his temper. Instead of focusing on the discrimination of his app (while there are other apps similar to HEY Calendar, why theirs rejected), he keeps mentioning about Apple’s 30% commission but this commission only applies to small number of developers. If you don’t earn more than $1 million in a year, you only pay 15%. If you earn more than that but have subscriptions (like HEY) then you p…

No it also hurts small developers that need funding. Publishers and investors work on a hit model, giving advances to lots of small projects in the hopes that they have a hit. If all hits at taxed at 30%, then the available funding for everyone goes down.

If the government added an additional 50% tax on books that sold over a million copies, it would affect funding for many more authors than the ones with books over the threshold.

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#15

Post by keleftheriou »

hightrix wrote: post #8
cp9 wrote: post #6

re: the 19 days issue you're planning around the time where most of the people who review these things are going to be taking PTO. as far as I could tell reading the guidelines the only guarantee apple gives you is that they'll get to it as soon as possible it's also a little funny that DHH is saying that apple exempted them from the rules last time and then a couple paragraphs later is complaining that apple exempts…

Anyone who has ever deployed an app to the iOS App Store knows, very well, that Apple slows reviews during the US Holiday season. Additionally, anyone who has done this also knows that Apple review times are extremely variable from 1 day to 1 month. I agree, the duration of the review is irrelevant to this complaint. I would suggest hiring SWEs/consultants who actually understand the iOS App Review process the next t…

The US holiday season slowdown is only for a handful of days and not sufficient to explain a 19-day review time.

From Apple's announcement[1]:

> On average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. However, reviews may take a bit longer to complete from December 22 to 27.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=uijoypq9

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#16

Post by keleftheriou »

cp9 wrote: post #6

re: the 19 days issue you're planning around the time where most of the people who review these things are going to be taking PTO. as far as I could tell reading the guidelines the only guarantee apple gives you is that they'll get to it as soon as possible it's also a little funny that DHH is saying that apple exempted them from the rules last time and then a couple paragraphs later is complaining that apple exempts…

The US holiday season slowdown is only for a handful of days and not sufficient to explain a 19-day review time.

From Apple's announcement[1]:

> On average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. However, reviews may take a bit longer to complete from December 22 to 27.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=uijoypq9

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#17

Post by hightrix »

keleftheriou wrote: post #15
hightrix wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who has ever deployed an app to the iOS App Store knows, very well, that Apple slows reviews during the US Holiday season. Additionally, anyone who has done this also knows that Apple review times are extremely variable from 1 day to 1 month. I agree, the duration of the review is irrelevant to this complaint. I would suggest hiring SWEs/consultants who actually understand the iOS App Review process the next t…

The US holiday season slowdown is only for a handful of days and not sufficient to explain a 19-day review time. From Apple's announcement[1]: > On average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. However, reviews may take a bit longer to complete from December 22 to 27. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=uijoypq9

Correct, but anyone with experience attempting to release during this timeframe knows that review times between Thanksgiving and the new year are always slower than normal.

Additionally, brand new apps, not new versions of existing apps, always take longer.

I constantly recommend to both my project team and other teams asking for advice to have a submission in to the App Store 4 weeks before you want to release. Otherwise you risk exactly what happened here.

Re: Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store

#18

Post by theolivenbaum »

"Hopefully our example, and the countless others we’ve seen over the years, will finally force competition authorities around the world to act." You would think Apple, in the middle of being investigated from all sides for monopoly, would think twice before rejecting Hey for a second time for a stupid reason
Post reply on HN