App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours • Hacker News Board

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#31

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:31 PM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #18

From https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/apples-tigh... > In a sworn deposition in the Epic lawsuit, Phillip Shoemaker, the former head of the App Review team, said employees in his department generally did not have a technical background in computer coding. They needed to know how to use a Mac and an iPhone, he said. > “Qualifications were that they could breathe, they could think,” he said. And they ty…

They're likely just ticking boxes on a checklist - does the app crash, does the app have a privacy policy, does the app permit chat?

Nothing about level one app review should need coding skills. Appeals, maybe, but even there, it's almost never about the code.

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#32

Post by Jtarii » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:32 PM UTC

quentindanjou wrote: post #10

john_strinlai wrote: post #7

as much as i loathe astrology, im not sure why astrology would be blanket banned in the first place. and i am surprised that apps like "Night Sky" (great app, no affiliation) made it past review if the app store reviewers are incapable of telling the difference. https://darkhours.io/ does look really cool, i hope they get this sorted out.

The "Astrology" reason emphasized in the article isn't the main reason, they actually quickly talk about it: > the App Review Board and the Review Board responded that they determined the original rejection was valid because, I shit you not, “We understand that the app includes a live tarot reading feature.” So that's it, they need to remove the live tarot reading. Which to me while not being astrology, isn't much be…

It is impressive that you seemingly read the article and still don't know what it was about.

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#33

Post by par » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:33 PM UTC

Many years ago, like in 2017, my wife and I designed a dating app that was based on astrological matching. We knew it was tongue in cheek and advertised at as such. At that time we got a clear rejection from the App Store that they were no longer going to allow astrology apps. Fair enough, we pivoted the dating app to something else and it has been in the store doing fine for years now. But what we noticed was sometime around 2020, all of a sudden apple allowed a huge influx of new astrology apps into the store. It made no sense to us and seemed like bullshit, but what can you do?

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#34

Post by settsu » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:34 PM UTC

quentindanjou wrote: post #10

john_strinlai wrote: post #7

as much as i loathe astrology, im not sure why astrology would be blanket banned in the first place. and i am surprised that apps like "Night Sky" (great app, no affiliation) made it past review if the app store reviewers are incapable of telling the difference. https://darkhours.io/ does look really cool, i hope they get this sorted out.

The "Astrology" reason emphasized in the article isn't the main reason, they actually quickly talk about it: > the App Review Board and the Review Board responded that they determined the original rejection was valid because, I shit you not, “We understand that the app includes a live tarot reading feature.” So that's it, they need to remove the live tarot reading. Which to me while not being astrology, isn't much be…

Sounds like you'd make a fantastic iOS App Store submission reviewer!

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#35

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:35 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #9

I wonder what the internals of the App Store process are. For most app approval processes you can tell because you'll get connections from the Philippines etc. so I assume what's going on here is that these reviewers have a range of English proficiency with a median below what an American developer is used to. Then the rest is just hallucination from the human, guessing at what they're looking at.

All of my app review submissions come back at like 2-3am, so yeah.

We had a client whose website geoblocked non-US IPs and failed several rounds of review until we gave up and put a copy of their privacy policy on S3.

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#36

Post by Rohansi » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:39 PM UTC

gcampos wrote: post #8

tantalor wrote: post #5

Is astrology not allowed in app store? That's kind of a weird thing to ban.

Probably not directly, but indirect by the anti spam criteria: If there are too many similar apps, from whatever category, they will just reject new apps.

I wouldn't say it applies to all categories. I highly doubt they'll ever do it to games no matter how many clones of clones get published

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#37

Post by SXX » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:41 PM UTC

gcampos wrote: post #8

tantalor wrote: post #5

Is astrology not allowed in app store? That's kind of a weird thing to ban.

Probably not directly, but indirect by the anti spam criteria: If there are too many similar apps, from whatever category, they will just reject new apps.

This doesnt affect casino app spam whatsoever.

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#38

Post by iamnothere » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:43 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #30

iamnothere wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you allow users to have freedom, grandma will get hacked! We should all be told what to do and where to go and rely on gatekeepers for permission, for safety. (And no, of course there’s not any solution that would allow competent individuals to go outside the safe zone.)

There's a saying about how hard it can be to design bear-resistant containers: > There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists. The same is true for computers. Solutions that "allow competent individuals" to do something are also typically solutions scammers can convince Grandma to perform without understanding what they do. (Case in point: I saw a fake captcha…

Exactly, computers should only be allowed to do what expert gatekeepers deem safe. There is no possible way to allow competent users to bypass this. Even if they had to go submit a blood sample and sign a document in front of a judge, grandma would just do it anyway! Lock it all down and make sure that compilers require a government license.

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#39

Post by midtake » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:44 PM UTC

DrJokepu wrote: post #26

> But that’s not what happened at all. Godier proceeded through a series of escalations up to the App Review Board and the Review Board responded that they determined the original rejection was valid because, I shit you not, “We understand that the app includes a live tarot reading feature.” > It has no tarot function, no horoscopes, and nothing that I, or anyone else I’ve asked, would associate with astrology. I hav…

But then you're lying. Why not add the comment "no tarot function" without reference to whether it existed in the past? A bit confusing because it's a trivial and seemingly unrelated statement but at least then you wouldn't be lying.

Re: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

#40

Post by Rohansi » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:45 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #30

iamnothere wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you allow users to have freedom, grandma will get hacked! We should all be told what to do and where to go and rely on gatekeepers for permission, for safety. (And no, of course there’s not any solution that would allow competent individuals to go outside the safe zone.)

There's a saying about how hard it can be to design bear-resistant containers: > There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists. The same is true for computers. Solutions that "allow competent individuals" to do something are also typically solutions scammers can convince Grandma to perform without understanding what they do. (Case in point: I saw a fake captcha…

Scammers will manage to manipulate people into giving away all of their savings just fine no matter what restrictions are put in place. The excuse is just another "think of the children" to maintain control and profit.