App Store guideline 4.3: Spam

What it means

• (a) Developers are asked not to create several Bundle IDs for the same app. The example is a separate map app for each city in the world rather than one worldwide map in which users can look up any city. The text says this produces unnecessary apps and makes it hard for users to find what they are after. For versions tied to specific locations, sports teams, universities and so on, it suggests one app with the variations offered through in-app purchase.
• (b) Developers are asked not to submit apps that are indistinguishable from what is already widely available. The text says opportunistic variants of existing app categories or popular apps degrade App Store discovery, lower overall app quality and harm both users and developers.
• The guideline names fortune telling, simple timers, wallpaper, sound effects, flashlight and dating apps as kinds that are well established. It says new submissions of these kinds are not accepted unless they bring a meaningfully different or better experience.
• It also names drinking games, Kama Sutra, fart and burp apps as kinds it calls mediocre, low-quality or low-effort, adding no value to the App Store.

What reviewers look at

The guideline says apps of the well-established kinds can be pulled in future if they stay un-updated, un-improved or fail to attract customers.

It says repeated submissions of the low-effort kinds can lead to removal from the Apple Developer Program.

Apple's text

This page is an unofficial explanation in our own words. Unofficial explanation, not affiliated with Apple. Apple's text prevails. Apple's wording is on its page, linked below.

• Apple's App Review Guidelines, guideline 4.3

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