App review is not a technical hurdle so much as an administrative one. The rejections we have seen are almost never about code quality; they are about things nobody wrote down, and each one adds days to your app store review time.

What gets an app rejected

Permissions without explanation. Every permission needs a sentence saying why your app wants it, and "required for app functionality" is not that sentence. Reviewers reject vague ones routinely.

No working test account. A reviewer who cannot get past your sign-in screen rejects the app. If your product needs a phone number, an invitation or a company account, provide credentials that work and say so in the notes.

Features the reviewer cannot reach. If half the app requires a driver, a partner or a paid subscription, explain how to see it. Unreachable functionality reads as broken functionality.

Payment routed around the store. Digital goods must generally use the platform's purchase system. Physical goods and services must not. Getting this backwards is the most expensive app store rejection because it can require redesign.

Placeholder anything. Lorem ipsum, a support link to a page that does not exist, a privacy policy URL returning 404. Each is an instant rejection and each takes ten minutes to prevent.

App store review time is the part you cannot control

The date. How long does app store review take? Usually a day or two, occasionally a week, and both platforms reserve the right to take longer without explanation. Anyone promising you a launch date that depends on review is promising you something they do not own — and if your marketing campaign is booked around it, that is a real risk to plan for, not a detail.

Practical protection

Submit the first build early, even if it is not the one you intend to launch. It costs nothing and it surfaces the paperwork problems while there is time. Keep the store account in your own name so nobody else's compliance history affects yours. And write the review notes as if explaining to a stranger who has thirty seconds and no context, because that is precisely who reads them. App store review time is part of the eight weeks in our release schedule, not an extra afterwards — including the rejection that costs a week and comes to everyone eventually.

The question before this one: the old Android in your customer’s pocket.