Spam or Good UX? — An AppStore Story

FN365 Ltd
FN365 Ltd
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

Football News 365 (FN365) is the brainchild of two friends from the UK, one a developer (me), the other a marketer. It started when I wanted to learn a new programming language and chose Swift. One of my first ideas was for a simple to use app for Everton news. We went through multiple iterations of apps as I got better at programming in Swift to finally end up where we are today. We feel we have a nice, easy to use app that provides easy access to news, fixtures, match stats, videos, league tables and, if we get it through, polls/votes.

We quickly realised that our users loved the app. They told us that easy access to news without multiple clicks, and having stories open in Reader view were why they kept using the app.

So this triggered a thought:

If Everton fans love our app, why wouldn’t other fans love it too?

So we set out to roll out the experience to all the current Premier League teams, and latterly some Championship clubs too.

Users loved the apps, with thousands upon thousands of new downloads flowing in. We kept on developing new features, uploading to Apple and giving our users a great experience that was constantly evolving until:

App Rejection Notice

Boom, like a bullet to the chest Apple decided that all of our football apps (35 in total) were now deemed as spam (yes they have used that word)!

After multiple messages back and forth and multiple phone calls we finally got the updates approved, however now we are adding new features again we are having the same issues.

Spam or Good UX?

Apple, from what I can gather from my engagements with the review team, have the impression that our users would be better served from one application rather than an application created specifically for their team.

We personally feel that this is incorrect and that by having individual apps our users feel more connected with the app ‘brand’ and show better loyalty because of it.

We fully support the initiative by Apple to try and rid the AppStore of spam applications however we would expect some common sense to be applied when looking at what is spam (crappy games aimed at getting kids to mistakenly click on ads) vs. a decent company that is trying to do the right thing (whilst also trying to make a few quid too).

For my business partner and I this is not our full time job. It brings in nowhere near enough cash to sustain even one salary let alone two! But we have invested hundreds and hundreds of hours in to making and marketing these apps, to make them a moderate success and for them to continue growing.

I estimate that our time costs alone on this project have been upwards of £50,000, add to that the infrastructure costs, data provider costs and other monthly outgoings we have made a significant investment in to making a great experience for our users. For Apple to then tell us that these apps are spam and new updates won’t be allowed is a kick in the teeth.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The future is uncertain, however I don’t foresee that Apple will be changing their stance anytime soon, particularly just for two lads from Merseyside. However I will continue to protest our case that we are simply trying to make our (and Apples!) users happy.

This should serve as a warning to developers and small agencies that do rely on Apple income to survive as a business. Apple can, and has before, just taken all that away without a care in the world for you or your users.

Dan Taylor

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