I’m waiting anxiously to hear if my app will be approved. Why am I anxious? Because Apple routinely rejects me for tiny things. Getting approved the first time is a cause for celebration! It happens so rarely.

Just got an email from Apple. Let’s see… Rejected. Again. It’s now happened twice. I’ve spent the better part of my day trying to figure out what’s wrong, fixing it, and resubmitting.

I’ve been building iOS apps for nearly 5 years now. According to App Store Connect, I’ve sold $904,000 worth of product and earned about $624,000 for myself. That means I’ve paid Apple over $280,000 in commissions. Hurray for me. I’ve made a living thanks to Apple. I’m still going to complain because Apple’s actions are getting out of hand. Spotify recently complained about similar issues. I wanted to add my voice to that debate because Spotify isn’t wrong and Apple now has an incredible amount of power over companies that do business through the App Store.

As of Q4 2018, 44.8% of all US smartphones run iOS and growing. That means in a few months, it’s possible that Apple will be gatekeeping what software a majority of the United States can have on their phone. I understand where Apple is coming from—they want to make sure that software is safe and the experience is positive. That’s noble and it’s worked pretty well.

But you know what’s not fair? When Apple routinely violates its own rules that it subjects all other companies to. Most recently, I was rejected because of the wording of my subscriptions terms. Apple requires you have a disclosure similar to this on your subscription page:

Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your App Store account settings after purchase.

This is what I had:

Your subscription will be charged through your iTunes account. Your subscription automatically renews unless you turn it off in Account Settings 24+ hours before the end of the billing period. By joining, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

I’ve had this exact text approved in another app at least twice. In fact, I actually chose this wording because I saw how elegant it looked in a top charting app. Apparently, it’s not allowed. Thus, rejection.

These subscription terms are super important to Apple. They’ll reject an entire build if you don’t have the perfect wording. Why? Because they want to make sure consumers fully understand what they are signing up for. The last thing Apple wants is a reputation for having sketchy subscription pages that trick people into subscribing. I admire that.

Except, for some reason, Apple doesn’t feel the need to include these terms in their Apple Music or Apple News subscription pages. I assumed they’d want to lead by example. It must be nice not having to go through App Review.

I fixed my subscription terms to bring them in compliance. I resubmitted … and rejected again. What’s the problem this time? The pricing for my yearly subscription has to be the largest element in the subscription prompt—not the free trial.

The screen on the left got rejected. The screen on the right got accepted.

I kind of understand this—again, Apple errs on the side of caution. Let’s make sure the consumer knows exactly what they are purchasing. Scroll up and check the prompts in Apple News and Apple Music—notice something? Again and again, Apple enforced rules on developers that it itself does not obey. How is this fair?