Error fixes / App Store
App Store
App Store: the app was a repackaged website
Review decided the binary does not do more than the website it wraps.
The error
Guideline 4.2 - Design - Minimum Functionality Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or app-like, it does not belong on the App Store.
What it means
Guideline 4.2 is Minimum Functionality. Apple's text says the app should rise above a repackaged website, and that an app which is not useful or app-like does not belong on the store. Guideline 4.2.2 adds that, other than catalogues, apps should not primarily be web clippings or a collection of links. A Capacitor or similar shell that loads a marketing site is the common case. Guideline 4.2.6 is separate: apps from a commercial template or generation service are rejected unless the content provider submits them and the app is actually theirs. Adding a tab bar around the same website does not answer 4.2.
Fix
- Use the rejected build and write down which screens are a web view of the public site.
- Ship a feature that is not the page: offline use, a native capture flow, or notifications the person chose. Do not add a screen that only links back to the site.
- If a generator submitted the app for a client, the content provider has to submit their own app. Read 4.2.6 before you upload again.
- In the review notes, describe only the features in this binary.
- Upload a new build. A note without a new binary rarely changes a 4.2 decision.
Prompt
Fix prompt
App Review cited Guideline 4.2 and described the app as a repackaged website. Inspect the root experience. If it is only a web view of the marketing site, say so and stop. Do not add a fake native screen. If a real device feature already exists, make it reachable in the release build and draft review notes that mention only that feature. Do not claim offline support or push notifications unless the code implements them.
Questions
Will a splash screen and a tab bar fix 4.2?
No. Guideline 4.2 asks for features, content and UI beyond the website. Chrome around a web view is still the website.
We built it in FlutterFlow or a similar tool. Is that an automatic rejection?
No. Guideline 4.2.6 rejects template output when a generation service submits it for a client, or when it is not a distinct product. An app you submit yourself, with its own function, can pass. The binary still has to meet 4.2.
Can I point the reviewer at the website?
The website is not the submission. Review installs the build. If the useful part exists only in Safari, it is not in the app.