If you’re a new developer trying to get an app submitted to the iOS App Store, then you might want to make sure that you’re not trying to submit to a category that is already too populated. This is according to developer Night Cat Productions who recently shared that their horoscope app, WTFuture, was rejected.The tweet has since been taken down, although we’re not sure why, but it seems that when they tried to submit their app, they were actually rejected twice. According to the developer, “I have some bad news. Apparently, there are too many horoscope apps on the App Store, so WTFuture has been rejected (twice). I’m really sorry. If you have any idea how to make it “not a horoscope app” let me know. I’m the mean time, I’ll continue porting it to Android…”
Apple’s reason for the rejection was simply because there are too many of these types of apps. The rejection letter points to Apple’s developer guidelines, specifically section 4.3 which states, “Also avoid piling on to a category that is already saturated; the App Store has enough fart, burp, flashlight, fortune telling, dating, drinking games, and Kama Sutra apps, etc. already. We will reject these apps unless they provide a unique, high-quality experience.”
Apple also suggests that having too many of a certain type of app could also be considered a form of spam, claiming that while such an app might be “useful, informative or entertaining we simply have enough of these types of apps on the App Store and they are considered a form of spam.”