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VOICE ARCHIVE

Samantha John

@samj0hn
91 posts
2021-08-30
There's a lot of talk about the 30% tax that Apple takes from every app on the App Store. The time tax on their developers to deal with this unfriendly behemoth of a system is just as bad if not worse.
2021-08-30 View on X
Reuters

Filing in AGs' lawsuit against Google: the Play Store hit revenues of $11.2B in 2019, with $8.5B in gross profit and an operating margin of over 62%

Paresh Dave / Reuters :

View original
2021-08-29
Update: to Apple's credit, they called me last night to apologize and ask for feedback. Who knows if they'll actually implement it, but at least they are listening. What would *you* change about the App Store review process?
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
The people I've met who work at Apple are lovely and have been incredibly supportive of Hopscotch. But there is something rotten in a system that treats developers in this way.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Or some person named Leo continually pressing the reject button without ever bothering to read my message because the automated system said that I was wrong.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Measure success by the time for an app to get approved, not just the time for the developer to get a response.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
It's just the last straw. The combination of fear and the fact that I actually really *like* the people we work with at Apple kept me silent in the past.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
But this time, I needed to get it off my chest. Perhaps another developer will read this story and feel a little less alone. Or even better, maybe someone at Apple will read it and feel bad enough to make some change. Thanks for listening.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
My ideas:
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Fix App Store Connect. I didn't even mention this in my thread, but an additional hurdle was having to accept a new tax agreement before I could resubmit. The ~30 second load time + the number of clicks it takes to accomplish anything is the icing on the cake of despair.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
I don't know what's worse: an automated system with zero human oversight continually telling me (falsely) that our app is out of compliance.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
I don't have a big point in sharing this story, except to shed some light on the horrible absurdities you face as an Apple developer. This was not my first, or even worst, run-in with App Review.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
She paused for a moment while presumably looking at our case. Then said, “oh, I think the automated software must have had a glitch. It just got escalated to me, but I saw that your rejection was a mistake and wanted to call and tell you.”
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
There's a lot of talk about the 30% tax that Apple takes from every app on the App Store. The time tax on their developers to deal with this unfriendly behemoth of a system is just as bad if not worse.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
But then I noticed that I had another email from Apple with the subject: Your app, Hopscotch-Programming for kids, does not follow the App Store Review Guidelines. https://twitter.com/...
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Per the new guidelines: if an app is held up for a reason unrelated to the update, let the app through and ask the developer to fix it in the next release.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
She had first called me at 3:14pm, I had received an email at 3:16 later telling me that Hopscotch was still out of compliance. Now it was almost 4pm. It seemed unlikely that she had figured this out before that very moment.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Finally, they called me back, and I talked to a representative. She asked if I planned to update my app to correct the problem.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
I'm certain that nobody on the app review team wants me or anyone else to have this type of experience. But it feels like a system optimized for the reviewers, rather than the developers publishing their apps. Like, this was an acceptable side-effect of their process.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Hopscotch is a small company, I'm the CEO, AND I write code. And that's how a lot of the best apps work! My time is limited and precious to me. The way that Apple wasted my energy, gaslighted me, and sucked my time away made me furious.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original
Make it easier to leave feedback. Filing a radar sends my blood pressure through the roof. Not to mention the brain damage I get from trying to navigate the system to reply to a months-old issue that I've already worked around by that time.
2021-08-29 View on X
@samj0hn

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team

oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don'...

View original