Apple requires screen recordings, service lists
- Apple’s App Store review process now leans harder on custom review materials, with developers increasingly told to attach videos, demo access, and detailed notes. - Apple’s own review tools let developers upload review attachments and require full app access, while Guideline 4.3 still bars “spam” apps. - The pressure is landing on AI utility apps and wrappers already crowded by copycat concerns. (developer.apple.com)
Apple has not published a new rule saying every iPhone app must include a screen recording, but App Store review is increasingly asking developers for videos, demo access, and detailed submission notes. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) The official App Review documentation says developers can attach files such as screenshots and supporting documents in Resolution Center, and the App Store Connect API describes “app review attachments” for documentation and demo videos. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) Apple’s guidelines also require developers to give reviewers “full access” to an app, including an active demo account or fully featured demo mode when login is required. Apple highlighted that language in a guideline update on October 24, 2022, and it remains in the current February 2026 guidelines. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) That matters because many of the apps now colliding with review are not simple games or utilities. They are account-based artificial intelligence assistants, coding tools, remote agents, and browser wrappers that depend on outside services, live backends, and hard-to-reproduce flows. (developer.apple.com) (developer.apple.com) Apple’s standing rules already give reviewers broad grounds to reject lookalike software. Guideline 4.3 covers “spam,” while Apple’s App Review forum guidance warns that apps copying existing products or making only minor changes may not pass review. (developer.apple.com) (developer.apple.com) So the practical shift is less a single newly posted mandate than a stricter documentation burden around how an app works, what services it needs, and how a reviewer can verify it. Apple’s own help pages say developers may need to provide notes, attachments, login instructions, sample QR codes, or other resources. (developer.apple.com) (developer.apple.com) Apple also says 90% of apps are reviewed within 48 hours on average, but that figure assumes the submission is complete. Once a build is rejected, developers move into Resolution Center, where they trade messages, upload files, and resubmit. (developer.apple.com) (developer.apple.com) There is one place where Apple explicitly talks about video quality for submissions: Vision Pro apps. Apple tells developers not to use a Control Center screen recording for app previews there because the capture quality is limited. (developer.apple.com) For developers building artificial intelligence wrappers, that means the hard part is no longer only shipping a working app. It is proving to App Review that the app is real, differentiated, fully accessible, and understandable on Apple’s terms. (developer.apple.com) (developer.apple.com)
