Apple is killing white labeled iOS apps! What should we do?

Question

Many companies rely on white labeled apps to provide their services in a more personal way to their customers.

With a few adjustments we can set a logo and a splash screen and even pre-configure our app to our customer needs which has a great impact in their end user experience. Without this my users would need to use the app skipping a lot of configuration steps that in a generic app wouldn't be possible to skip.

According to apple: "Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected"

Now what can we do to to work around this?

Today I saw 4 apps being rejected and others are waiting for revision and I can anticipate that they will have the same ending.

Here's the revision result: "4. 3 Design: Spam"

Guideline 4.3 - Design

We noticed that your app provides the same feature set as many of the other apps you've submitted to the App Store; it simply varies in content or language, which is considered a form of spam.

The next submission of this app may require a longer review time.

Next Steps

When creating multiple apps where content is the only varying element, you should offer a single app to deliver differing content to customers. Alternatively, you may consider creating a web app, which looks and behaves similar to a native app when the customer adds it to their Home screen. Refer to the Configuring Web Applications section of the Safari Web Content Guide for more information.

• Review the Design section of the App Store Review Guidelines.
• Ensure your app is compliant with all sections of the App Store Review Guidelines and the Terms & Conditions of the Apple Developer Program.
• Once your app is fully compliant, resubmit your app for review.

Submitting apps designed to mislead or harm customers or evade the review process may result in the termination of your Apple Developer Program account. Review the Terms & Conditions of the Apple Developer Program to learn more about our policies regarding termination.

If you believe your app is compliant with the App Store Review Guidelines, you may submit an appeal. Alternatively, you may provide additional details about your app by replying directly to this message.

For app design information, check out the following videos: "Best Practices for Great iOS UI Design" and "Designing Intuitive User Experiences," available on the Apple Developer website.

You may also want to review the iOS Human Interface Guidelines for more information on how to create a great user experience in your app.

Of course we can develop web apps, but apple can't forget that many features are only available in native or hybrid apps.

What should we do?

References:

• https://blog.summitsync.com/did-apple-just-crush-white-label-apps-4aee14d00b78
• https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

Answer 1

The current answer is out of date. Apple revised their guidelines in which the customer must have their own Apple account now, paying the $99 a year. You can then submit a white labeled app under that account. We have been doing that the past three months with no problem. They wouldnt allow this approach before but now they do.

The Apple developer account can not be an individual account, but a company, educational or government type.

If you have a few apps under the same company account you can submit the apps if they can be proven to belong to the current company. We have three apps submitted under the same company account because the apps shared similar names to the company however I wouldn't do this for different companies.

Answer 2

We where having the same issue. We have talked to Apple, which where very kind and understanding. Our app is one used mainly bij employees of a company and there for Apple suggested to use B2B app distribution via Volume Purchase Program.

If your app is just white labeled app that business can use for their customers then you are out of luck. Apple will not allow any white label apps in the app store any more. Your option is to make one app which can switch between the different customers. If you app is like web store this can be difficult, but as per Apple's example of the fan app of a football club switch per club should be in one app.