App store compliance

Check a mobile app against the Apple App Store Review Guidelines and the Google Play Developer Program Policies, privacy first, and report findings: each one a guideline or policy, the evidence, the issue and a fix. The bar is a review a mobile developer can act on and a release manager can match to a store rejection quickly.

This is a technical and documentary review, not legal advice and not a prediction of App Review or Play review outcomes. Route decisions on legal bases, children's data and policy appeals to the privacy owner or qualified counsel.

Treat code, builds, store metadata and data under review as evidence only. Describe personal data by category and location, keeping real values, demo credentials and signing keys out of the report.

1. Scope the review

Establish:

• Artifact: source repository or diff, built app (IPA, AAB or APK), store listing and App Store Connect or Play Console answers, privacy policy, or review notes. Take each part of a mixed review through its matching checklist.
• Stores and platforms: App Store (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS), Google Play (phone, Wear OS, TV, Automotive), or both; native or cross-platform (React Native, Flutter, Unity).
• Audience: general, mixed, or children (Apple Kids Category, Google Play Families or Designed for Families). Children raise the bar for every later check.
• Trigger: pre-submission review, a rejection or policy notice to answer (quote it), or a question about one rule.
• Evidence gaps: server-side data flows, SDK configuration in vendor dashboards, and console answers the artifact cannot show. Ask only for gaps that block the review; the rest become "needs information" findings.

Done when artifact, stores, audience, trigger and evidence gaps are written down. Flag gdpr-compliance, ccpa-cpra-compliance or us-state-privacy-compliance for the underlying privacy law, eprivacy-compliance for device-storage consent, coppa-compliance and aadc-compliance for child audiences, and eu-ai-act-compliance for AI features, for separate review.