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Comment by jonas21 | Hacker News Reader

At least you got a reason from Google. I have an update to an iOS app that's been stuck in review for two weeks now with zero feedback from Apple other than boilerplate responses from support. This is causing me serious stress as I have no idea how long it's going to be in this state and I rely on this and another app for 100% of my income.

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Would you rather have your whole app suspended indefinitely from a random google's bot decision or have a human reviewing your update and possibly rejecting it ? From my last 3 rejections on iOS, they always provided me screenshots and I could discuss with the Apple reviewers. Same story for youtube (bots everywhere...), the only Google service where I could talk to human was Google Ads.

In this case it's not an indefinite suspension. The email said exactly what he needs to do to resolve the issue.

I'd rather be in that situation because there would be something I could do to make progress, even if I didn't agree with the decision.

In my case, I have no idea how long this is going to take - and I've seen horror stories on the Apple Developer forums of people being in review for months. It's also clear that a person hasn't actually been reviewing my app for 2 weeks straight, even though its been in the "In Review" state for that long. There's just not enough functionality in the app -- and previous updates to this app have only spent an hour or two in review. Maybe it's just my personality, but waiting in limbo with no end in sight really drives me nuts.

EDIT: to be clear, neither situation is good, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick the former.

I see and understand your point, but I think most people would rather choose the later. Some business just can't afford to have their app suspended/users acquisitions stopped until their appeal is approved by someone at Google (and it can also takes some time). Then when you appeal, you only have 1 try. If this one appeal is denied you can say goodbye to your application forever (except if you can make enough noise on social medias[1]). Imagine knowing that each update could stop your business because a bot made a mistake. What a nightmare...

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/gkvic1/podcast_add...

Going by another comment, it is not just a suspension, but a removal of the app identifier, which means all existing users are gone.

Does it let you file an appeal?

No, you can only appeal after you've been rejected. This update has neither been approved nor rejected -- it's just stuck "In Review".

You can ask for an expedited review, which I did on day 6. I got a form letter back saying that my request was "escalated for continued handling". But it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

> No, you can only appeal after you've been rejected.

How To Make A Mathematically Perfectly Infuriating Traffic Jam 101 :(

> [...] [M]y request was "escalated for continued handling". But it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Your status was upgraded to "waiting faster" :D

Hides

Google and Apple have inhibited the growth of the mobile app distribution market for over a decade now, and it's developers and users like ourselves that are punished to maintain their monopoly.

I had this happen once, and I finally gave up and removed the app from review.

I re-built it with a newer version of Xcode, bumped the version the number, resubmitted. It was approved the next day.

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