Apple starts rejecting apps with “hot code push” features

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https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/73640

I am about a day away from submitting my App that I have spent the last 6 months working on to the App Store and I just saw this on HN. Has anyone had any issues submitting recently? It does not look to mention MeteorJS directly but more a service called Rollout.io

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Of particular concern for Meteor (order of phrases changed for conciceness):

Please perform an in-depth review of your app and remove any code, frameworks [that give the] capability to change your app’s behavior or functionality after App Review approval, which is not in compliance with section 3.3.2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement and App Store Review Guideline 2.5.2.

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Based off the comments I’m pretty sure this only is relevant for native calls, not loading in js/html. If you change cordova code you still have to make a new build with meteor.

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Yeh that it what worried me as well. However this being said I am pretty sure Messenger and IG using hot code push technique to change aspects of their apps without updates so it can’t be a blanket ban.

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This comes up once in a while, and it usually doesn’t have anything to do with JavaScript hot code push. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.

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Of note is this line:

capability to change your app’s behavior or functionality

As long as you don’t change the base behavior of the app, you should be fine. They don’t want you deviating from the core reason of your app. Ex. theoretically you can hot code push your productivity app into a game. They don’t want you doing that.

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Ok I read your link in more detail. Looks like rollout is calling private function calls. This has always been frowned upon by Apple and looks like they are finally rejecting apps that do this. I don’t believe Meteor does any of this as it pretty much just compiles down to a standard Cordova app. You should be fine.

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