Apple’s Review Guideline Changes: What You Need to Know
At EventMobi, our mission is to empower event planners and marketers to provide the most engaging event experience for their attendees. To that end, we pride ourselves on offering the most customizable event apps in the industry. It is with those apps that our customers are able to provide their attendees with truly unique experiences leveraging truly unique event technology.
Recently, there have been some question as to whether or not Apple’s new criteria for approving iOS apps in the app store will affect event professionals’ ability to get their apps approved.
We’d like to start off by saying right away, no it won’t.
Then what is all the commotion is about?
This summer Apple cracked down on the proliferation of confusing apps, clone games and knock-offs. This process was kicked-off with a small – but mighty – addition to their app review policy.
“Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected” (App Store Review Guideline 4.2.6)
While Apple does not typically provide public guidance on how these policies will be interpreted, it does appear that some event app vendors have been warned that their apps may be too generic to continue being approved for distribution in the iOS store.
Does that mean my event app won’t get approved?
Many event app providers allow only minor tweaks to their look and feel such as changing colours or selecting a different icon set. Apps like this do appear to be at risk of rejection at some point in the future.
With our deeply customizable event apps driving engagement in the lead up to customer events and providing lasting value to event attendees long after they have ended, we comfortably exceed Apple’s criteria for acceptability.
While it is understandable that event marketers and meeting planners are worried about losing their ability to provide customized event apps, we see no evidence that this will change for those planners choosing our event app.
More on the topic
Our CEO, Bob Vaez, has shared his thoughts on the continuous evolution of event apps and how this might be shaped by the native app ecosystem in an in-depth post on Linkedin.
Should you have any questions about event apps, app approvals, or any other topic, please feel free to reach out by email to info@eventmobi.com.
If you haven’t used EventMobi before, be sure start a free trial and see for yourself how you can create a unique event experience for your attendees.