App Store Review Guideline 2.1 "Information Needed": What I Sent

By Nesim Razon, independent Android developer · 2026-11-16

#Dev notes#iOS

Of my nine recent iPhone submissions (eight new apps and one update), three came back with the status "Rejected" for "Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed - New App Submission" (shown with "2.1.0 Performance: App Completeness"). It sounds alarming, but it was not a bug report: it was a request for information. This post describes what Apple's message asked for in my case and what I sent back. It is a personal experience, not policy advice, and the requirements can change, so always read the message you receive.

What happened

The status said Rejected, but nothing in the message pointed at a crash or a broken screen. One other new app and one update to an older listing were approved without any such message, and four more were still in their first review when I wrote this. So I cannot say what triggers the request; I only know it hit three of my nine submissions.

The message said that app review is intended for apps and metadata that are complete, and asked me to run the build through my own testing on supported physical devices. Then it listed what to add.

What the message asked for

In my case the message asked me to add the following to the Notes field of App Review Information:

• A screen recording captured on a physical device running the latest operating system. It should begin with launching the app and show the typical user flow, including account registration, login and deletion, user-generated content and paid content if the app has them.
• A description of the purpose and target audience, the problem the app solves and its value.
• Instructions for setting up and accessing the main features, including credentials or sample files.
• A list of external services, tools or platforms used for the core functionality, such as data providers, authentication, payment processors or AI services.
• Regional differences, or a confirmation that the app works consistently across regions.
• Documentation for highly regulated industries or protected third-party material.

Replying

For two of the apps the message also asked for a reply in App Store Connect. For the third it only asked me to update the Notes and resubmit. I sent a short reply saying that the requested information was now in Notes, that the screen recording was attached, and that I was available for anything else.

Writing the six answers

I wrote the six answers per app in English, and only from facts I could check in the code: none of these apps has accounts or purchases, so the answers say exactly that. For the external services I listed what each app really uses, such as the ad network and its consent form, the analytics and crash reporting service, the map or data provider, and the device's built-in services. Where an app uses none of something, such as a payment processor or an AI service, I said so.

Each answer is plain text of about two to three thousand characters in total, well under the limit of the Notes field. I kept one template and changed only the facts.

Recording on a real device

I recorded the screen on an iPhone 7 with the built-in screen recording, starting from the Home screen. That phone can run iOS 15.8 at most, so I stated in the Notes that this is the newest iOS version available for the device. Each recording is about 60 to 75 seconds and follows one script: launch the app, go through the typical flow, open the menu pages, finish.

I copied the videos to the PC over USB with pymobiledevice3, using its afc pull from the /DCIM folder, and re-encoded them with ffmpeg into mp4 files of 1 to 5 MB. Then I uploaded each one as the Attachment, replaced the Notes text, replied where asked and pressed Update Review or Resubmit. All three apps went back to Waiting for Review.

A mistake in checking the videos

Before uploading I sampled one frame every 5 seconds to check each video. From that I wrongly concluded that two of them did not begin with launching the app. Sampling every 0.5 seconds over the first 6 seconds showed that they did: there was a Home-screen intro of one or two seconds that the sparse sampling had skipped. So if you check a recording, look at its start densely.

What I do now

I now put this information into Notes before the first submission of every new app, and I record a short screen video on the phone before I submit. It is a small amount of work per app and aims to avoid a round trip in review. If your own message asks for something different, follow your message, not my list.