Last week, we had reported that iPhone and iPad apps with Dropbox integration were being rejected for violating Apple’s App Store review guidelines.
The integration included an option that allowed users to signup for Dropbox and purchase additional storage. According to Apple’s App Store review guidelines, developers who offer paid subscriptions either have to use Apple’s in-app purchase feature or need to ensure that there is no link pointing users to external purchasing mechanisms.
Following this, Dropbox quickly rolled out a temporary SDK (v1.2.2) that removed both account signups and external paid subscription packages. Dropbox said it was “working with Apple”, but apps with integration of the temporary SDK were still rejected – until now. Since then, Dropbox has been tweaking their SDK to fully comply with Apple’s App Store guidelines.
Although Apple has yet to give the new, updated SDK an official thumbs up, it appears to be satisfying App Store reviewers based on this thread on Dropbox forum.
So we didn’t get an official verdict (imagine the worst game of telephone you’ve ever played), but we do have reason to believe that this build is more likely to get approved than the previous build I posted earlier. […]
[…] What has changed is if the Dropbox app is not installed, it opens a login view directly in your app rather than going to Safari, and there is no option to create an account.
Filip Radelic, developer of Cambox (available here for $0.99) was fast to incorporate the new Dropbox SDK into his app, and he submitted the updated version yesterday. The approval process went without any qualms, and Apple quickly approved it.
As Dropbox has omitted the option to create an account with the updated SDK, we don’t expect developer to have any issue geting their apps with Dropbox integration approved.
Dropbox is hopeful that it can incorporate the feature again as it continues to work alongside Apple to ensure SDK’s compliance. It seems like wishful thinking as they are not the only developers who have been forced to comply with this rather strange requirement. But from a user point of view, we hope that Apple softens its stand.
[Via MacRumors]
