undefined | Better HN

0 pointsventana2mo ago0 comments

Not trying to defend App Store policies, but writing this just for those who are struggling with Guideline 4.2 trying to publish an app that is only intended for a small group of users. There is a less well-known option called "unlisted app distribution", similar to unlisted YouTube videos: the app is public and can be downloaded using the direct link, but it cannot be found in App Store search. The "small, or niche, set of users" guideline normally does not apply for such apps.

To request unlisted distribution for your app, send it for review as usual, then file a special form [1], and mention that in the review notes.

Source: I struggled with Guideline 4.2 when I tried to publish an app showing the bell schedule and other local information for the neighborhood school. Its audience is, indeed, not of Apple scale: the school parents living nearby. Apple refused it as 4.2 and only agreed to publish it as unlisted, which I was okay with, because sharing the link between the parents was not a big deal. Google had no problems with publishing the Android app normally though.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/support/unlisted-app-distributio...

0 comments

10 comments · 1 top-level

KPGv22mo ago· 9 in thread

> I struggled with Guideline 4.2 when I tried to publish an app showing the bell schedule and other local information for the neighborhood school.

Why would you not just make this a webpage, and then the users could add it to home page as if it were an app? no Apple review necessary then. What does it being an app give you besides bureaucratic headaches?

biztos2mo ago

1. Many people are more comfortable with apps, and don't really "surf the web," and for such people "a webpage" is at best a hassle.

2. Those people and many more besides have no idea what "add it to home page" even means.

It being an app gives those people an experience that matches their normal use of technology, and I think they're probably a majority of users.

Plus, if the parent feels like making an app instead of a web page, who is Apple (or you, or I) to discourage that?

tmpfile2mo ago

> 2. Those people and many more besides have no idea what "add it to home page" even means.

If Apple supported the beforeinstallprompt event (available in Chrome since 2015) then people would have same experience as installing app [0]. Instead, you must create a wrapper around webpage and submit thru App Store.

[0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/befo...

ventanaOP2mo ago

The main driver for making it into an app and not just a web page was the need to send push notifications. Of course, I just needed it for myself: hey, it's time to stop working and start driving to school to pick up the kid – "notify me 30 minutes before the last period ends" given that the schedule is different every day; then I just shared it with other parents.

There is a web version (it's Flutter so it was easy to make one), but parents use the app much more often.

Tepix2mo ago

If you add a web page (a PWA) to the home screen, it can do push messages on iOS since a couple of years.

3 more replies

ZeWaka2mo ago

Users are /very/ not used to how to install PWAs to their home screen.

Also, in the EU it just opens the site up in your browser, no lack of browser UI like you'd expect. Apple is wonderful.

Edit: It seems I never got the news they reversed course on that particular idea of theirs.

sshine2mo ago

I’m in the EU, and adding a website to Home Screen does hide the browser feel. Maybe this experience is different in different European jurisdictions.

Your point about users not being used to this is very real. I didn’t know you could until some app author showed me.

It really is as simple as sharing a link or copy-pasting, but if you don’t know it’s a think, it disappears into obscurity in the menus.

1 more reply

Traubenfuchs2mo ago

I live in the EU and just wrote my first PWA and that‘s not true, there is (almost) NO browser ui/ux.

No url bar, no back/forward, no tabs, nor translation, no menu bar, no loading indicator, just… pressing down on a link shows the target url and offers open, copy link, add to reading list and share -which honestly looks like a weird oversight.

wolvoleo2mo ago

I really hate it when the browser UI gets hidden. It loses me several great features like the ability to open multiple tabs. Or have a bookmark directly to a subpage.

Unfortunately some other features are only available to PWA do it's a tradeoff either way.

suprfnk2mo ago

I also have a small private app that technically could have been a PWA.

It’s not a PWA because the UX is just always inferior. Even though we’ve come really far in browser UIs, the browser is still very clunky compared to the smoothness of a native app.

And I like nice to use software.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse