App Store review chaos

At the beginning of this month, many iOS developers discovered that their apps embedded in the Dropbox SDK were completely dismounted by Apple. Conspiracy commentators said this was one of Apple's plans to promote its own iCloud. However, the developer finds that when the app using the Dropbox SDK verifies the user, if the user detects that the local Dropbox app is not installed, the user will jump to the Dropbox webpage for verification, on the Dropbox webpage, a user clicks the link of the paid account. This is deemed by Apple to have skipped the App Store's in-App purchase mechanism. Therefore, Apple has removed all apps using this version of Dropbox SDK from the shelf, in the end, this event ended when Dropbox adjusted its SDK and removed the link.

The implementation of in-APP purchase (IAP) is a complicated process. Wang Fei iBuick, a well-known iOS developer in China, believes that in-App purchase is not like buying an App from the iTunes App Store after all. There is an intuitive process. If the IAP is not strict, it is easy to mislead users, there may even be good developers tempted users to perform fraudulent IAP. In fact, there is indeed a malicious in-app payment phenomenon.

Currently, the in-APP purchase specification is a good third-party specification for users and developers, and apple. Although Apple's policy is tough and sometimes unfriendly, its strict review standards are indeed justified in the Dropbox incident. But why does most media think this is an audit error, or even Apple's intention? There are a series of problems in Apple App Store review, which are worth pondering. Maybe we can see the clues from the chaotic situation of App Store in China.

App Store chaos

Fraudulent applications with inconsistent Functions

Recently, a 6-yuan "Incoming call home + ultra-luxury Address Book Professional Edition" software in App Store has caused a lot of controversy. According to developers, this application is the first on the iPhone to display incoming calls without jailbreak. Since a large number of users bought the product, it has recently jumped to the top of the App Store "paid software rankings". However, from the comments on this application, we can see that user feedback is quite polarized, you can either yell at it or yell at "fake money ". Is this application suspected of fraudulent users?

Through viewing the instructions, we found that most of the call home applications, including the above software, use the form of adding the home location field to the user Address Book contact information, and the curve realizes the power of the incoming call home location. For unfamiliar numbers that are not stored on mobile phones, the "Incoming call home + ultra-luxury Address Book Professional Edition" application also claims that it can display the volume by installing another application. The installation method adopted by enterprises that bypass the App Store to distribute applications. For the moment, it does not mean that the distribution method complies with Apple's standards. In fact, in the API interface of Apple iOS, functions such as incoming call display are not enabled. Even if this application actually implements a call reminder, we have to consider whether it uses a private API that Apple hasn't made public.

Although on the surface, this type of application does implement the call home function, its form is not actually a concept with the call reminder function in people's general consciousness, but like this, app Store also has many types of applications, such as startup optimization, call recording, call blacklist, and even night video devices. These functional interfaces on Apple iOS are also not open, or cannot be implemented on hardware, which means that most of the features they claim to be implemented are not the same as the ones that cheat users.

After reading the Apple App Store review guide, we can find that "2.3 programs that do not match developer promotion will be rejected ." "2.5 programs that use non-public APIs will be rejected ." The applications mentioned above undoubtedly violate these rules, but apple is still releasing them on the App Store in China, allowing them to occupy the top few places in the list for a long time. Contact the strict standards for dismounting the Dropbox SDK, which forces us to question the review of Apple app stores in different regions.

 
Inconsistent application review principles

This issue in Apple App Store review has existed for a long time, which is unavoidable by using a semi-manual review and an opaque black box mechanism. Many developers have said that their applications have encountered inconsistent Apple review standards. IBuick mentioned that a self-submitted application was rejected by Apple because the window was closed in violation of HIG Human Interface Guidelines Human-Computer Interaction specifications, it is said that the official Twitter client also has the same action and provides it as a reference. Apple's reply is that you do not care about the Twitter client, and your application cannot. The problems shown here are obvious: 1. there are double standards in Apple's application review; 2. There are serious uncertainties and inconsistency in manual review checks.

Although Apple clearly stated in its developer-oriented iTunes Connect that it cannot use the App Store as a reason for your application to be shelved, however, Apple's adoption of different standards for different developers makes many developers a headache. Of course, developers do not have much room to discuss with an opaque Review organization. What they can do is to thoroughly understand the Review Guidelines and HIG documents, avoid direct and obvious violations, and hope Apple will not suddenly come up with new standards.

App Store localization Review

We can find that Apple's audit of Non-English apps is particularly serious, and a large number of fake apps in the App Store in the Chinese area are the most obvious evidence. For fraudulent applications such as incoming call display and blacklist, if the App is an English App, it is certainly not available in 100%, because Apple has never provided such an API, and such applications will be rejected easily. Currently, App Store chaos in China shows that Apple's review of Chinese apps is still at a very early stage. In most cases, it may only consider whether the Code violates regulations and uses Private APIs.

In addition to fraudulent apps, we can also find another phenomenon in the App Store market in China: Many apps that obviously do not match the category are represented by Guo Degang's crosstalk and messy e-book series Apps) the ranking of popular applications and multiple categories is very high. Copyright is not taken into consideration. Problems with such applications are also very easy to find. Who would think that "Guo Degang Yu Qianyi" is a financial App? For many domestic application manufacturers, this has actually become a shortcut to improving the App ranking: by setting apps an irrelevant, unpopular, and rarely applied category, this allows you to gain higher exposure and downloads, significantly improving your ranking. However, this is undoubtedly a huge obstacle for users who are too large to find their own applications.

Of course, the dilemma of Apple App Store is also affected by the complicated application environment in China. For example, some time ago, Apple was taking measures to reduce its rankings, just like the relationship between website rankings and malicious SEO, this is a very difficult issue of full control. Even if Apple's algorithms are well adjusted, there will still be new solutions to the huge chain of interests behind them. Even if Apple finds the best ranking algorithm, the cost of ranking by downloading and downloading is quite good because of the low labor cost in China.

For Apple, which is actively expanding the international market, these problems all indicate that it still has a long way to go in the localization of application review. In addition to hiring more employees familiar with the local market language to participate in the review, the review should be localized to a greater extent. In addition, we should consider increasing user engagement, clarifying complaint channels, and fast feedback, it may even be an efficient way to reward the complained users.

Tips:

Due to the special features of App Store in China, how can common users identify malicious apps before Apple's optimization?

• When you see an application claiming that you can achieve incredible functions such as unfamiliar call locations, call blacklists, call recordings, speed optimization, and even night views without jailbreak, you can ignore them directly, because Apple does not open such application interfaces;
• When you see a comment on an application that has increased significantly in a short period of time and received top-down comments, you need to note that this application may be being promoted in malicious rankings;

Before Apple officially launched the report function, we may try to Report Fraud applications and malicious applications by referring to the "How to dismount pirated books on the Apple App Store" method suggested by Apple4.us.