Guideline 4.0 Design, in plain English
“the following are minimum standards for approval to the App Store”
Guideline 4.0 is the opening of Apple's Design section: Apple expects apps to be simple, refined and easy to use, and treats the rules that follow as the minimum for approval. A rejection cited as 4.0 usually means something in the interface looks broken, unfinished or out of place on an iPhone, like cut-off text, a layout that doesn't fit the screen, or sign-in that opens a web browser. It is fixed in the app, so it needs a new build.
Checked against Apple’s guidelines on (Apple’s version of ). Apple’s reviewers make the final call.
What Guideline 4.0 means
Apple says coming up with a great design is up to you, and that it values products that are simple, refined, innovative and easy to use. It adds that you should keep updating an approved app so it stays functional and engaging, and that apps that stop working or offer a degraded experience may be removed at any time.
Apple's App Review page points to its Human Interface Guidelines and asks for clean, refined, user-friendly interfaces planned with care. Apps that look like a website, that ignore iOS conventions for navigation, or whose controls are too small to tap read as below that bar.
One specific case is in Apple's account deletion guidance: linking out to the default web browser to sign in or register gives a poor experience and isn't appropriate under Guideline 4. Sign-in should happen inside the app.
The numbered rules under 4 cover the rest of design: 4.1 copycats, 4.2 minimum functionality, 4.3 spam and 4.8 login services, among others.
Why apps are turned down under Guideline 4.0
Parts of the app's interface are crowded, cut off or hard to read
Text runs off the screen or overlaps, buttons sit under the notch or the home indicator, or content doesn't fit smaller iPhones or iPad.
The app opens a web browser to sign in or register
Sign-up or sign-in leaves the app for Safari, which Apple's guidance calls a poor experience under Guideline 4.
The app doesn't look or behave like an iPhone app
Web-style menus, controls from another platform, or navigation that doesn't work the way iOS does, so the app feels unfinished.
How to fix it and resubmit
- Open the app on the smallest and largest iPhones you support, and on iPad if it runs there, and fix any text or button that is cut off, overlapping or hidden behind the system's edges.
- Turn on Dark Mode and a large text size and check every screen still reads well.
- Move sign-in and sign-up into the app itself instead of a browser.
- Use iOS's own patterns: a tab bar or navigation stack, standard lists and sheets, buttons big enough to tap.
- Build, test on a real iPhone, upload the new build and resubmit with a note on what changed.
How Borel helps
Every Borel app is SwiftUI, Apple's own interface toolkit, so its tab bars, lists, sheets and controls are iOS's own and come with the system's fonts, Dark Mode, Dynamic Type and accessibility features. Sign-in and sign-up happen inside the app, never in a browser.
You see each screen as you build on a live iPhone Simulator in your browser and, on Pro, on your own iPhone with Borel Companion, so layout problems show up before Apple sees them. When something looks off, you ask for the change in plain words.
Questions people ask
What does a Guideline 4.0 Design rejection mean?
That something in the app's interface falls below Apple's minimum design bar: often a layout that breaks on some screens, an unfinished look, or sign-in that opens a web browser. The reviewer's message usually says which screen.
Do I have to follow Apple's Human Interface Guidelines exactly?
Apple's App Review page points to them and asks for clean, refined, user-friendly interfaces. They're guidance rather than a checklist, but an app that ignores iOS conventions is more likely to be turned down.
Can my app's sign-in open a website?
Apple's guidance says linking out to the default web browser to sign in or register isn't appropriate under Guideline 4. Keep sign-in inside the app.
Related guidelines
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