Guideline 2.3 Accurate Metadata, in plain English

What Guideline 2.3 means

The rule covers all of an app's metadata and asks you to keep it current with each new version. Its parts go into detail: new features must be described specifically in the Notes for Review and be reachable (2.3.1), and descriptions, screenshots and previews must say clearly when featured items or levels need extra purchases (2.3.2).

Other parts cover the choices you make in App Store Connect: pick the category that fits (2.3.5), answer the age rating questions honestly (2.3.6), and keep icons, screenshots and previews suitable for a 4+ audience even when the app is rated higher (2.3.8).

Apple is strict about misleading marketing. Promoting content or services the app doesn't offer, or a false price, inside or outside the App Store, can get the app removed and the developer account terminated (2.3.1). Screenshots must use material you have rights to and show fictional account information rather than a real person's data (2.3.9).

The name, screenshots, other platforms and What's New text have their own parts, explained on the pages for screenshots, app names and keywords and other platforms. Guideline 2.3.12 asks that What's New text describes significant changes, not just "bug fixes".

Why apps are turned down under Guideline 2.3

• The description mentions features the app doesn't have

  Copy written before the app was finished, or carried over from an older version, promises things the reviewer can't find.

• Paid content isn't marked as paid

  The description or screenshots show premium features without saying they need a purchase, which Guideline 2.3.2 requires.

• The age rating or category doesn't fit

  The age rating answers understate what the app shows, or the category is far from what the app does.

• The privacy information doesn't match the app

  The App Privacy answers in App Store Connect say the app collects less than it does, or differ from the privacy policy.

How to fix it and resubmit

1. Open the app on a fresh install and read the App Store description line by line next to it; delete or reword anything the app doesn't do today.
2. Say plainly which features, levels or content need a purchase or subscription, in the description and on any screenshot that shows them.
3. Answer the age rating questions again honestly, and check the category against Apple's definitions.
4. Compare your App Privacy answers with what the app collects and with the privacy policy, and make the three agree.
5. Save the changes in App Store Connect, reply to App Review saying what you changed, and resubmit; if only metadata was rejected, the same build can stay.

How Borel helps

Borel's publish flow builds the listing one question at a time, name, icon, category, screenshots and description, and drafts the category from the app itself, which you can change.

When you publish, Borel answers Apple's App Privacy questions from the app's own code, so the privacy part of your metadata starts from what the app actually collects. The privacy policy it hosts for the app names the outside services the app reaches through Borel.

Questions people ask

Related guidelines

• Guideline 2.3.3Screenshots
• Guideline 2.3.7App name, subtitle and keywords
• Guideline 2.3.10Other platforms in metadata
• Guideline 5.1.1Data Collection and Storage