Apple's App Review Process Now Takes as Little as Two Days

Thursday May 12, 2016 8:45 AM PDT by Joe Rossignol
xcode-6Apple's app review process has become significantly faster during the first five months of 2016, according to AppReviewTimes.com, a website that tracks average App Store review times for both the iOS and Mac App Store using data crowdsourced from developers on both platforms.

App Store approval times have dropped to an average of two days, compared to between eight and ten days in May 2015, based on 328 reviews submitted in the last 14 days. The shorter process has been well received by the developer community, which had grown accustomed to weeklong waits.
"A lot of the way that we build software for iOS is controlled around the fact that you have a one-week release cycle," Button Inc. founder Chris Maddern, whose team has done work for Uber Technologies Inc. and Foursquare Labs Inc., told Bloomberg. "It can now happen within hours of submitting them, which is really awesome because it speeds up the development cycle."

Last December, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller took over App Store leadership responsibilities from iTunes and services chief Eddy Cue. Schiller now leads nearly all developer-related functions at Apple, and WWDC 2016 next month could serve as a good opportunity for him to announce shorter approval times on stage alongside new versions of iOS, OS X, and other developer updates.

Tags: App Store, App Store Review Guidelines
58 comments


Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
japanime
40 months ago
Now, if they would only allow us to have our app star ratings roll over, rather than start all over every time we put out a 0.1 update.
Rating: 9 Votes
Avatar
ArtOfWarfare
40 months ago
Have the numbers of submissions been dropping off?
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
Mactendo
40 months ago

announce shorter approval times on stage alongside new versions of iOS, OS X

They'd better announce really improved versions of iOS and OS X... Less bugs, more stability, great new features and a nice UI.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
TrueBlou
40 months ago

Exactly people don't use it as much cuz no app has it



Part of the trouble is, from my perspective at least, having the ability to use one less tap to achieve what I want to do just isn't a big deal to me. It's not as far as I'm concerned the best use of the technology. It doesn't excite me.

What the best use may be, well that's another story. It's not something I've written off for inclusion in an app, I just want to find a better use for it than, ooohhh, that took me 1.5 seconds less to achieve the same result. I'll keep experimenting with it but until that breakthrough moment happens it's a novelty.

But again, that's just me, I know there will be those who consider it the best thing since dynamic wallpaper.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
satchmo
40 months ago
Faster approval and more apps that are impossible to find.
There needs to be a better way to list, rank and organize the millions of apps in the store.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
TrueBlou
40 months ago

You know what would REALLY help developers? Stop taking a 30% cut and drop it down to 10%. As an indie developer myself, every $ counts, and if you want me to choose iOS over Android every single time, this is one way to do it.



Isn't Google the same though? According to their developer help pages the transaction fees for applications and in-app products is 30% Amazon are the same according to their documentation.

I've never really had an issue with the 30% though to be honest. To get access to over 1 billion potential customers, 30% seems fair.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
ethanwa79
40 months ago
You know what would REALLY help developers? Stop taking a 30% cut and drop it down to 10%. As an indie developer myself, every $ counts, and if you want me to choose iOS over Android every single time, this is one way to do it.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
TrueBlou
40 months ago

Apple should stop accepting apps with no 3D Touch , **** is disrespectful


Or Apple should make something more interesting than 3D Touch for us to support.

Edit*

Ok, I'll admit that might just be me, but 3D Touch just doesn't float my boat enough to classify it as interesting. Ymmv.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
ovo6
40 months ago
Apple should stop accepting apps with no 3D Touch , **** is disrespectful
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
ArtOfWarfare
40 months ago

You know what would REALLY help developers? Stop taking a 30% cut and drop it down to 10%. As an indie developer myself, every $ counts, and if you want me to choose iOS over Android every single time, this is one way to do it.


A much bigger issue I have than the 30% cut is the $100 annual fee.

I have apps that I've written that I use daily. Some, not many, would find it a little useful. I'm not willing to charge for it, and I'm not willing to pay $100/year out of pocket to have it distributed, either.

Some people would find their phones slightly more useful if they had the app. But Apple is denying them the ability to have the app at all.

I'm fine with Apple charging the $100 annual fee for developers that are looking to make money, but I feel like there should be a free option for people who want to just distribute free stuff. IDK how you would make sure it doesn't get flooded with junk and keep the cost of operating it low.
Rating: 1 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]