Hi,
We have an app live on the App Store since August 2020. We have made some 50+ updates on the app with minor & major changes throughout these 3+ years.
A few months ago we submitted an update as usual with some minor changes and a new feature but got 'Design Spam, 4.3' rejection saying:
We noticed your app shares a similar binary, metadata, and/or concept as apps submitted to the App Store by other developers, with only minor differences.
1st question, how does an app that has been doing the same things for 3+ years suddenly gets 'Design Spam' ????
Then we sent a message to App Review with some screenshots of our app's update history taken from App Store Connect console and a message stating the same question as above.
We got a reply:
Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
During our review, we found that this app duplicates the content and functionality and icon of other apps submitted to the App Store, which is considered a form of spam and is not appropriate for the App Store.
Now they mentioned 'Icon' as well. So after some searching we found that another App was using our app's icon and it went live in 2023. We have had this app icon since January 2021 and instead of taking action against the other developer Apple rejected our app.
Upon further communication with App Review, their replies got robotic and only copy pasted the previous response of 4.3, 4.3, 4.3...
Anyways we scheduled a call with someone from App Review board and meanwhile we started the process of getting copyrights for our app's icon.
The call was, as expected, unfruitful and the person on the other side of the call stated the same things as in the messages from App Review. This person was not fluent in English which communication even more difficult and hence ended without any progress.
We got copyrights for our app's icon and filed a claim with Apple and their reply was quite shocking and disappointing. Apple basically said that we have contacted the other developer and this process can take a lot time so meanwhile you should try to resolve this issue on your own(I tried but was unable to attach screenshots of this communication). A trillion dollar company and this is their response to a copyrights claim. Highly disappointing.
Anyways, after a few weeks the other developer changed their app icon and Apple told us so.
So we made another update attempt Yesterday and once again got the design spam rejection.
Hello,
The issues we previously identified still need your attention.
If you have any questions, we are here to help. Reply to this message in App Store Connect and let us know.
Guideline 4.3 - Design
We noticed your app shares a similar binary, metadata, and/or concept as apps submitted to the App Store by other developers, with only minor differences.
We have the urge to compile a list of hundreds of apps on the App Store that do not even make an effort to be unique and simply copy exact designs of other app but we know that any further effort is useless.
We have no way forward, so if anyone has any suggestions please do let us know.
This post was to inform and educate on the dictatorial behaviour of a trillion dollar company.
Thank you for reading.