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I'm not sure how to word this correctly, so I'm going to be a little verbose:

I'm tasked with building an app for my company that will just load a mobile website into a barebones browser with no address bar or anything. So basically the app will be just the same as if the user had navigated there in Safari (sans normal browser controls).

My question is: does Apple reject this sort of app because of it just being a wrapper around a mobile site? I'm totally lost on this, as I've never developed for iOS before and have no idea what kinds of roadblocks i might hit.

danh32
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4 Answers4

63

Apple may reject your app if all it does is wrap a web site in a UIWebView. You need to have more functionality in your app than just loading a web page.

From the app review guidelines for iOS:

4.2 Minimum Functionality

Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store. If your App doesn’t provide some sort of lasting entertainment value, it may not be accepted.

You may want to investigate developing your company's app as a mobile web app. There's plenty of information published by Apple (and others) about how to write mobile web apps that function similarly to native iOS apps.

Cœur
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Greg
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  • Yes would people please explain the down votes? This answer seams perfectly valid. – Robert Mar 29 '11 at 21:12
  • Thanks for the info! As I haven't registered as a developer yet, I can't access the guidelines. I'd love to just write the mobile web app, but my company seems very eager to be in the app store. In any case, I will have to bring this up soon. Thanks again! – danh32 Mar 30 '11 at 13:30
  • This line is not in the guidelines anymore as it seems. Does it mean that Apple now allows Websites bundled as an app? https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ – Elvin R. Jul 29 '16 at 16:38
  • @ElvinR., the guidelines in section 4.2 now state: "Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website." While not exactly the same verbiage as before, that's pretty close to "simply web sites bundled as apps". – Greg Aug 12 '16 at 20:41
5

Put some functionality that gives your app look like native application.

Make sure that your description for app is enough for understanding to Apple app tester about you app.

and resend your app to apple store or you can send reply to apple review team about your application.

jayraj m.g.
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3

FWIW a company I worked for put an app through the App Store that was little more than a browser in May 2013.

It probably helped that the website it pointed to had an extremely responsive design, was a media player with play buttons etc. Also played video inline, which you can't do on mobile Safari (because mobile Safari will play the video full screen).

Matt Frear
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2

See section 2.12 in App Store Review Guidelines:

Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected

Caleb
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