Apple Rejecting Apps Which Integrate With Flickr

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It looks like Apple has started rejecting apps which offer Flickr export. More specifically, it is rejecting apps which allow you to authenticate your Flickr account using an in-app browser view.

Why? Because it is possible to navigate away from the authentication page and find a page from which you can buy a Pro Flickr account. This violates rule 11.13, which we last saw when Dropbox-enabled apps were rejected last year.

Rule 11.13 says “thou shalt not offer subscription purchases from your app without Apple getting its cut,” or something to that effect. It’s the same rule which means you can’t tap a link to the Kindle Store when you finish reading a preview in the Kindle app.

Developer “Kyle” made this post over in the Yahoo Groups:

Hi,

I recently submitted an app to Apple for review. This app allows users to authenticate themselves with Flickr using the oAuth flow used by the current Flickr iPhone app and many others. Apple has rejected this app because it appears to violate review guideline 11.13, which may be familiar to you with respect to Dropbox:

11.13 and The Dropbox SDK

Essentially, the issue is that in the browser window provided for the user to grant permissions, the user has the ability to navigate to the page where a pro account can be purchased.

The good news? Flickr is totally on it. Here’s the reply to Kyle’s question, from the same group thread:

We had another report last week about the same problem and we are currently working on a solution on our end, which will be in compliance with Apple guidelines. We are planning on rolling out that change early next week.

Once those changes are live in production you should be able to resubmit your app for review without code changes on your side.

It would be easy to laugh and ask “Who uses Flickr these days anyway?” but with Instagram now being owned by The Evil Empire, and Twitter declaring war on its users, the beleaguered but still-loved photo site might just get relevant again.

Source: Yahoo Groups

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