At this point we probably shouldn’t be too surprised when Apple rejects an app during the App Store review because. Well, it happens all the time. We shouldn’t be too surprised when the reason for that rejection seems a bit on the strange side either because, unfortunately, that too happens all the time. Just look back over the last few months and you’ll see a worrying number of apps being rejected for reasons the average iPhone user might feel are somewhat odd.
When we hear about rejections we don’t even raise an eyebrow at this point, so when we heard about popular news notification app Breaking being rejected we didn’t take too much notice. Until we read about the reason why.
According to the app’s developer Michael Flarup, via Twitter, Breaking’s version 1.3 update was rejected by the App Store review team because it mentioned Apple’s competitor in the mobile space, namely Google’s Android, in a screenshot.
We already know that Apple isn’t keen on Android popping up anywhere on its App Store, but the case with Breaking isn’t quite as clear cut as that. See, the mention of Android that got the App Store reviewers so hot under the collar? It’s in a screenshot. And it’s a legitimate news article. From a legitimate news site.
While we already know that Apple will not allow app developers to mention the Android version of their apps in an App Store app’s description, we can’t help but think that someone in Cupertino, or wherever app review is outsourced to, is being a tad overzealous here. As with so many cases of App Store reviews going awry we expect Breaking to be updated un due course, but we just can’t quite fathom why Apple would feel the need to reject an app for mentioning Android in this way. At this point who’s going to learn about Android for the first time from an app in Apple’s App Store?
Once the screenshot is removed or doctored we expect to see Breaking’s version 1.3 update arrive in an App Store near you. Or maybe Apple wants the developer to go further than that? We’ll know for sure in the days to come.
We’ll keep you updated on this news, so stay tuned.
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