Expo and Apple Store Guideline 2.5.2

[bonchouuur]

Hi mates,

First of all let me thank you for this handsome beast which allows us to save some precious time in mobile app’ development.

Nowadays I’ve developed an application for a customer which is based on the “create-react-native-app” tool (that brings Expo). The app is actually in review state with the Apple Team but my customer worries about the guideline 2.5.2 of the Apple Store. Until now they didn’t notice this point but the validation is still in progress.

Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app, including other apps . Educational apps designed to teach, develop, or allow students to test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the source code provided by the Application completely viewable and editable by the user.

With a quick search over the fabulous internet I found some cases where the app was rejected ( ie : Apple rejected - Guideline 2.3.1 & Guideline 2.5.2 )

In fact I didn’t found anything relevant about this situation so I started this topic to get your point of view. I feel confident that if this feature was an issue it wouldn’t be part of the SDK anymore but have you certainties that Apple will validate an app using the OTA update process ?

Thanks for your time !

[adamjnav]

Hey @bonchouuur,

As long as OTA updates aren’t used for malicious or deceitful changes to an application, they fall within the guidelines. The rejections that we’ve heard of Expo developers getting regarding guideline 2.5.2 often are one-off instances that end up being the result something else. We recently got a report of this happening but haven’t heard back from the reporter about what the rejection stated.

With that said, we have 1000s of iOS apps being built and numerous Expo apps that have successfully been submitted and updated on the App Store that make use of OTA updates.

Cheers,

Adam