
THE iOS 8 is coming and, with it, new features. Because of this, Apple needed to update the App Store Rating Guidelines, available on its portal dedicated to developers.
Below, the introduction is freely translated by MacMagazine:
We are pleased that you want to invest your talent and time to develop iOS applications. It has been a rewarding experience both professionally and financially for hundreds of thousands of developers and we want to help you join this successful group. We publish our App Store Rating Guidelines in the hope that they will help you stay out of trouble while developing your app and speed up the approval process when you submit it.
We see apps other than books or music, which are not part of our curatorship. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book, a song or create a medical app. This can be tricky, but we decided not to allow certain types of content on the App Store. Perhaps keeping in mind some of our broader themes will help:
- We have a lot of kids downloading a lot of apps. Parental controls work very well to protect children, but you have to do your part too. So know that we are always keeping an eye on (content for) children.
- We have more than 1 million apps on the App Store. If your app doesn’t do something useful, unique, provide some form of lasting entertainment, or if the app is simply scary, it might not be accepted.
- If your app looks like it was created in a few days or if you are trying to create your first app in the store to impress your friends, please prepare to be rejected. We have many serious developers who don't want their quality apps to be surrounded by amateur (content).
- We will reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is polemic. But what defines polemic, you may ask? Well, as a Supreme Court judge once said, "I will know when to see you." And we think you also know when to come across him.
- If your application is rejected, we have a Review Board for you to appeal. If you run to the press and detonate us, that won't help.
- If you try to cheat the system (for example, try to cheat the review process, steal user data, copy another developer’s work or manipulate ratings) your applications will be removed from the store and you will be expelled from the development program.
- This is a living document, and new apps that present new issues can result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your app is responsible for this.
Finally, we love these things too, and we honor what you do. We are really trying our best to create the best platform in the world for you to express your talent and make a living. If that sounds like we're out of control, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users to make sure they have a quality experience with our products. Just like almost all of you are, too.
Lighter than that, it's impossible! If you are a developer, it is essential to read at least the chapters that interest you, they are divided as follows:
- Terms and conditions
- Functionality
- Metadata
- Location
- Notifications push
- Game Center
- publicity
- Brands and trade dress
- Media content
- User interface
- Purchases and coins
- Scraping and aggregation
- Damage or injury
- Personal attacks
- Violence
- Objectionable content
- Privacy
- Pornography
- Religion, culture and ethnicity
- Contests, sweepstakes, lotteries, raffles and gambling
- Charities and contributions
- Legal requirements
- Passbook
- “Children” category
- Extenses
- HomeKit
- HealthKit
- TestFlight
Remembering, of course, that all the material is in English. Good reading!
And be sure to also check out the most frequent reasons for app rejections.
(via The Loop)