App Store Metadata Rejection: What Triggers It

Interval Gym is a simple timer for strength workouts: sets, rest, and a log. The first submission put “#1 workout” in the subtitle and a well-known competitor’s name in the keyword field. One screenshot showed a heart-rate graph the app does not have. Another printed a monthly price that is not the price of the in-app purchase. App Review rejected the metadata. The binary was fine. The listing was not telling the truth.

The rule is guideline 2.3, accurate metadata. Apple’s App Review Guidelines say customers should know what they are getting, so privacy information, the description, screenshots, and previews have to reflect the app’s core experience and stay current. This post stays on that failure. Spam and copycat rejections are guideline 4.3 and a different article. Do not treat them as the same letter.

What 2.3 is checking

Review compares the page to the build. The name, subtitle, description, keywords, screenshots, and previews are all metadata. A hidden feature, a price that is not the real price, or a promise of something the app does not offer is the misleading-marketing side of the same rule, and Apple treats a false price, inside or outside the store, as grounds for removal. You do not need the full guideline text in a spreadsheet. You need the listing to survive a reviewer who installs the app and looks for the heart-rate graph.

Keywords have their own published don’ts on the product page. Improper keyword use is called out as a common reason for rejection. The list includes trademarked terms and celebrity names you are not allowed to use, words that are irrelevant to the app, competing app names, and terms that are irrelevant, offensive, or otherwise objectionable. The platform field reference says the same thing in shorter form: names of other apps or companies are not allowed, and you should not waste the field repeating the app name and company name, because those are already searchable.

The four ways Interval Gym failed

Interval Gym was rejected because the subtitle, keywords, a screenshot, and a price did not match the app. Each fix is a correction to that field, then a resubmit.

Keywords and the subtitle

The keyword field is 100 characters, comma-separated, with no spaces after the commas. It is indexed. It is also where people hide competitor names because they think nobody sees the field. Review sees it. The keyword field guide is how to spend the characters on workout, interval, rest timer, and the other words the app earns. Remove the other company’s name entirely. Do not move it into the subtitle or the description and call that a fix.

The subtitle is 30 characters and it is on the product page under the name. “#1 workout” spends those characters on a ranking you cannot show. Replace it with something the timer does, and check the count before you attach it to the version. Promotional text is the wrong place to park the competitor name “temporarily.” Apple says promotional text does not affect search ranking and should not be used to display keywords. A false claim there is still metadata.

Screenshots and prices

Screenshots have to be the app. A graph from a design file, a watch that the build does not read, or a social feed you planned for version two will fail the same way as a subtitle lie. The detailed screenshot cases, including splash-only frames, are in the screenshot rejection guide. For Interval Gym, recapture the set, rest, and log screens from the binary you are submitting. If a subscription screenshot shows a paywall, the paywall has to be the real one, which is its own layout problem and not an excuse to print a price.

The product page already shows price. Apple says to keep specific prices out of the description because they can be wrong in some regions. A number baked into a screenshot has the same defect. If a frame must say a feature is paid, say it requires a purchase and do not typeset an amount. The in-app purchase name and description, 35 and 55 characters, have to be publicly appropriate too.

URLs are metadata too

The support URL is required. Apple’s platform version information says it must lead to real contact information, such as a legal address, email, or phone, so people can reach you. A parked domain fails that. The privacy policy URL is required on the privacy side of the product page and has to match the app. The marketing URL is optional. It is the site where people can read more, and the field reference does not mark it required. If you fill it, it has to work. A 404 is not a small detail when the reviewer clicks it.

Privacy details that do not match the binary are part of accurate metadata as well. Interval Gym should not claim it never collects anything if the log syncs to an account. That filing is the privacy article’s job. Here, the point is that a privacy mismatch and a “#1” subtitle can both come back as metadata. Fix each one. Do not delete the privacy policy to make the form shorter.

Fix it and resubmit

Change the field the note names: a new subtitle, keywords with no other company’s name, screenshots from the timer, and no stray price. Do not resubmit the same images with a description that still says “#1.” Repeated dishonesty is how a metadata issue becomes an account problem. One clean resubmit is the path.

AppGrowthKit is for the new screenshot set from the real interval screen. It will not invent a ranking. After approval, promotional text can mention a program you actually shipped, without another binary. Keywords still wait for the next version. Clones are a different letter.