iOS Question Apple rejected my app - Design Minimum Functionality

[Mike1970]

Guideline 4.2.2 - Design - Minimum Functionality


We noticed that your app only includes links, images, or content aggregated from the Internet with limited or no native iOS functionality. Although this content may be curated from the web specifically for your users, since it does not sufficiently differ from a mobile web browsing experience, it is not appropriate for the App Store.

Next Steps

We encourage you to review your app concept and work towards creating an app that offers customers an engaging and lasting experience that also meets the App Store’s high expectations for quality and functionality.

Apple Developer includes a variety of design and development resources. Download iOS templates from Apple UI Design Resources, learn more about crafting intuitive, well-designed apps with the Design Video collection, and review the iOS Human Interface Guidelines for best practices to follow when designing apps for the App Store.
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This what they told to me..

What my app does?
My app gives to the user (students) a list of files that the teacher uploads on Google Drive, maybe you are thinking: "Why you did such an app, if they can easily go to GD to see the files?", well, imagine this situation:

You are a student here in Italy, that cannot go to school because of the Covid19. Your teachers constantly uploads news files on GoogleDrive without telling you.
When the lessons begin the next time, and you didn't have the documents, you will pass bad times ?.
So what you should do is: check manually into all the folders and subfolders, if a new file was uploaded. Multiple time a day.

So what my app does is providing a list of the files in the Main Google Drive folder, ordered by date. You can sort them by subject, you can share the link to your classmate, you can visualize them in google drive, and more important you will receive a notification when a new file is available thanks to a web service that scan the folder every 5 minutes.

I wanted to share the experience with you, and maybe get some tips.

 

[hatzisn]

If I were you I would try to explain them analytically the procedures of the app and try to make them understand that there are no alternative ways to achieve the same tasks.

Edit - But since you can get the new files isn't there an api you can handle and exploit.

 

[JohnC]

Maybe if you respond with something like this:

My app differs significantly from a mobile web browsing experience because "the user will receive a notification when new files are available" which is simply NOT possible using a typical browser. This notification is critical to make sure user's receive timely information and prevents them from wasting huge amounts of time by constantly having to check for new files.

 

[Mike1970]

If I were you I would try to explain them analytically the procedures of the app and try to make them understand that there are no alternative ways to achieve the same tasks.

yes, infact i answered back trying to explain.. i hope they will understand the difference

 

[Mike1970]

Maybe if you respond with something like this:

My app differs significantly from a mobile web browsing experience because "the user will receive a notification when new files are available" which is simply NOT possible using a typical browser. This notification is critical to make sure user's receive timely information and prevents them from wasting huge amounts of time of constantly having to check for new files.

I can add this text to the message i already wrote, maybe adds a better accuracy
Thanks all for the tips.

I will post what they will answer

 

[Mike1970]

@JohnC @hatzisn , this is the answer ?

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

Regarding 4.2.2, we still noticed the you app only includes links to external resources with limited iOS functionality.

Including iOS features such as push notifications, Core Location, and sharing do not provide a robust enough experience to be appropriate for the App Store.

To resolve this issue, please revise your app to provide a more robust user experience by including additional native iOS functionality.

We look forward to reviewing your resubmitted app.

Best regards,

App Store Review

 

[JohnC]

It looks like you need to add more "stuff" to your app to make it more "robust".

Maybe add a feature that the students can "send" a question to the teacher using Email or iMessage:

Mails and SMS messages

MailComposer and MessageComposer types from the iPhone library allow the user to send mails and SMS messages from your app. The users will see a pre-filled form which they can modify and send. (press on the small gear button and set the quality to HD) Not all devices support these two...

www.b4x.com

And then have the Teacher create a new Q/A document that includes all the questions and the answers from the teacher (and this doc gets updated as new questions come in), and then post that Q/A doc in the googlecloud documents.

Maybe you might need to add even more "stuff" to your app to get it to pass.

 

[Mike1970]

It looks like you need to add more "stuff" to your app to make it more "robust".

Maybe add a feature that the students can "send" a question to the teacher using Email or iMessage:

Mails and SMS messages

MailComposer and MessageComposer types from the iPhone library allow the user to send mails and SMS messages from your app. The users will see a pre-filled form which they can modify and send. (press on the small gear button and set the quality to HD) Not all devices support these two...

www.b4x.com

And then have the Teacher create a new Q/A document that includes all the questions and the answers from the teacher (and this doc gets updated as new questions come in), and then post that Q/A doc in the googlecloud documents.

Maybe you might need to add even more "stuff" to your app to get it to pass.

Actually I put the native Share menu, maybe I can just add the "mail composer" and"message composer" just to add something