Guideline 4.2 Minimum Functionality, in plain English
“features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website”
Guideline 4.2 says an app has to be more than a website in a frame: it needs features, content and an interface of its own that make it useful, unique or app-like. Apple turns down web wrappers, apps that are mostly links or marketing, and apps too thin to offer lasting value. The fix is real native features, not a new coat of paint.
Checked against Apple’s guidelines on (Apple’s version of ). Apple’s reviewers make the final call.
What Guideline 4.2 means
Apple's test is whether the app earns a place on the App Store. If it isn't particularly useful, unique or "app-like", or offers no lasting entertainment or real utility, Apple says it may not be accepted. A single song or film belongs in the iTunes Store, and a book or game guide in Apple Books.
Guideline 4.2.2 adds that, other than catalogs, an app shouldn't mainly be marketing material, adverts, web clippings, a content aggregator or a collection of links. Apple's App Review page puts it bluntly: websites served in an iOS app, web content not formatted for iOS and limited web interactions do not make a quality app.
Guideline 4.2.3 asks that an app works on its own, without another app installed, and that if it must download more on first launch, it says how big the download is and asks first. Apple also warns that an app with very little functionality or content, or one that only serves a small niche, may not be approved, and 4.2.6 adds rules for apps made from templates or app builders.
This is the case against web wrappers. A wrapper loads your site in a web view, so it inherits the site's layout, its loading spinners and its need for a connection, and it does nothing Safari couldn't. That is exactly the app 4.2 describes.
Why apps are turned down under Guideline 4.2
The app is mainly a website in an app
The app opens a web view of an existing site. The reviewer sees browser-style pages, web menus and loading delays, and nothing a bookmark wouldn't give them.
The app doesn't offer enough features or content
One static screen, a list that never changes, or a single feature the iPhone's own apps already cover. There is nothing to come back to.
The app is mostly marketing or a list of links
A brochure for a business, a menu of buttons that open web pages, or an aggregator of other sites' content, which Guideline 4.2.2 rules out.
The app needs another app to work
It does nothing until the person installs a companion app, which Guideline 4.2.3 doesn't allow.
How to fix it and resubmit
- Write down what your app does that a website can't. If the list is empty, that is the rejection in one line, and the place to start.
- Rebuild the main screens as native screens: a real tab bar or navigation, native lists and forms, and pages that load instantly instead of web pages behind a spinner.
- Add the features that make it worth installing and that fit the app: saving data on the phone so it works offline, the camera, maps and location, local reminders, charts of what the person has logged, Face ID for private data.
- Make it keep something for next time: history, favourites, progress or settings, so the app is more useful on the tenth day than on the first.
- Describe the native features and where to find them in the review notes, reply to App Review in App Store Connect, and resubmit. If you're sure the reviewer missed them, say exactly where they are before thinking about an appeal.
How Borel helps
Borel doesn't wrap websites. Every app it makes is written in Swift with SwiftUI, Apple's own toolkit, and built with Xcode on Borel's Mac, so the tab bars, lists, sheets and controls are iOS's own.
The features that make an app more than a website are there to ask for in plain words: the camera and document scanning, photos, maps and location, local reminders, Face ID, charts, voice, contacts, the calendar, data that stays on the phone offline, and a cloud with accounts. Each is described on Native iOS features.
Even Borel's website to iPhone app tool reads your site and rebuilds it as a native SwiftUI app, not a web view. What the app does is still up to you, and Apple still decides what counts as useful; Borel makes sure what you build is a real app.
Questions people ask
What is Apple's Guideline 4.2 Minimum Functionality?
It is the rule that an app must offer features, content and an interface beyond a repackaged website, and enough lasting value to belong on the App Store. Apps that are mostly a web view, links, adverts or a single thin feature are turned down under it.
Will Apple reject a WebView app?
An app that mainly shows an existing website in a web view is the case Guideline 4.2 describes, and Apple's App Review page says websites served in an iOS app do not make a quality app. Web content inside an otherwise native app is a different thing; the question is what the app itself does.
How many features does an app need to pass 4.2?
Apple gives no number. It asks whether the app is useful, unique or app-like and offers lasting value, so one feature done well and kept for next time can pass where ten links won't.
Is 4.2 the same as Guideline 4.3 Spam?
No. 4.2 is about an app being too thin on its own; 4.3 is about an app being a duplicate of yours or of apps already widely available. An app can fail one, the other, or both.
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