Hi HN,
The Apple app store review process is broken for watchOS devs.
I realize this is a niche issue since very few devs focus on watchOS. But I thought I'd share in case anyone is interested in watchOS, or in general, wants Apple to spend more time fixing their broken App Store review process.
The short summary is the reviewers who review watchOS app don't even look at the watchOS app. That may sound unbelievable, but it's true. My app has paying customer ($19.99 In-App Purchases with 5 star review average) who paid to see content on watchOS, but the content is controlled with the companion iOS app. I submit big fix updates, the reviewers only look at iOS, don't see the content they expect ,and reject me.
If this happened once or twice, I wouldnt' mind. If it happened, and then I explained that they needed to look at the watchOS content, I wouldn't mind. Instead, I repeatedly explain it, they repeatedly ignore my messages, and copy-paste rejection reasons that have no applicability to my app, such as telling me to add a demo sign-in credentials even though my app has no sign-in at all.
They communicate very poorly, with copy-paste responses, and the few times they've sent screenshots only highlight how little diligence they're investing into the review because it clarifies they haven't looked at the watchOS app at all.
Every single one of these cycles takes 24-48 hours for Apple to respond meaning bug fixes for paying customers are blocked for over a week.
My app clearly explains what it does in its description which is why I have sales and a 5-star average review. It's only the reviewers who are confused, not customers.
I spent $99.99 to be part of their developers program and I have customers spending $19.99 on In-App Purchases for watchOS and bug fixes are being blocked by reviewers who very clearly never looked at the watchOS app.
I already went through the appeal process once, and got the review overturned. marketed it in a niche subreddit, had users spend $19.99 on IAP, had the users report some bug fixes, I want to get those bugs fixed.
I thought after the initial appeal, that would be the end of this discussion and reviewers would understand my app going forward. Instead I'm getting the exact same feedback that they don't see the IAP content and they are sending me screenshots of my app. Ironically they highlighted an area right above big, bold text I added that says " THE CONTENT IS ON THE WATCHOS APP".
I added that big annoying message, not for any of my paying customers, but for the App Store reviewers.
Of course, I'm considering adding stub iOS content just to assuage the reviewers. But it's annoying that I have to build features out for reviewers rather than paying customers.
There's a /rant asect to this post but I also know that sometimes ranting on social media helps give visibility to issues with bad customer service and bad developer relations so I thought I'd take a shot.
I have a lot of watchOS ideas I was excited for but I'm realizing it's going to be a waste of time and money to invest in watchOS dev if Apple refuses to give Apple Watch apps fair app reviews.
I really hope Apple takes a closer look at their review process and fixes it for paying developer programs members like myself my customers who spent $19.99 on IAP, for which Apple takes 30%.
