
We made something. We use it. We love it. Apple rejected it - meirish
http://www.huemanapp.com/apple.html
======
crazygringo
First of all, that sounds like a _really_ cool idea for an app. I want it.

But secondly, of all the app rejection stories I've ever heard... this one is
the easiest to fix. Just add some more features, who cares, and resubmit it.

Ideas: annotate/categorize the things that are making you happy/unhappy. Maybe
have categories/icons for them. (Friends, party, loneliness, exercise, ate
well, ate bad, had sex, no sex, fought, made up, my team won, etc. -- there
really aren't _that_ many fundamental things.) Then also produce charts
showing how your happiness correlates with those items.

Heck, you might even be able to produce an amazing academic paper or two with
the dataset you produce. Or at least some really cool and fascinating blog
entries from the data.

(Personally, I'd rather rate my happiness on a 1-10 scale rather than compare
with yesterday, and also maybe be asked 3-4 times a day. Maybe features let
you pick those.)

~~~
zachrose
Have you ever seen a good movie? Think for a second about that movie. What
made it good?

Now imagine if you could make that movie even better for yourself. Imagine
this movie was distributed along with a plastic box with a few knobs and dials
on it. Wouldn't it be a _better_ movie if you could turn the knobs to adjust
the parameters of the movie -- there really aren't _that_ many fundamental
parameters to movies. You could adjust the heights of the actors, or the
amount of furniture in a scene, or the physicality of risk and harm that
characters endured, or even just add more redheads.

What if that box also asked what kind of movie you're in the mood for, or who
your other favorite directors are. Then the movie could switch out some plot
elements and style decisions to become a little bit more like another movie
you wanted to watch.

Or what if instead of watching one particular movie you could just add movies
together. Like say you wanted to watch Terminator 2, but alternating scenes
with Clueless. Or maybe you could just put picture-in-picture, with all your
favorite movies together on the same screen!

How great would that be!

~~~
saurik
What if the movie came with the full set of trailers (preview, theatrical,
etc.) for the movie? And had a director's commentary track? With a second
audio track that had the actors telling jokes? Or even just take all of the
funny moments that happened while filming, where people missed their lines,
and put them on the same DVD? Maybe they could even throw in an entirely
different ending for the movie that was replaced or removed late in the
process?

Seriously: I appreciate the point you are trying to make here, but you chose a
horrible example that I think actually argues that adding random features
isn't a big deal :/. Besides, they already claim to have a bunch of features
planned anyway: it isn't like the developers are seemingly of the "this is the
exact app that should be released, and there should be no random additions or
extra features added, as doing so would ruin the whole experience"...

> The next couple planned releases on our roadmap will heavily rely on native
> iOS functions and code to include things like tagging, additional graph
> views and scrubbing, ability to add media. etc... And by eventually letting
> people combine their data, you will be able to see how their relative
> happiness aligns to other users, a neighborhood and even the world.

(It is also possible, however, that I totally misunderstood your response, and
you are actually saying that having a happiness index that you kept track of
on a moment-to-moment basis while watching a movie would let you optimize the
movie according to your personal tastes. I feel like that's lower probability
--more dots need connecting for that--but if I did actually misunderstand your
comment I'm sorry that my response just adds to the confusion.)

~~~
zachrose
I guess what I'm getting at is that some of the nicest things in this world
are what they are because of spaces not filled in, or aspects that aren't
shoved into tropes, or—if you'll excuse the cliché—notes not played.

I think we're all in agreement that this sounds like a cool app. I'm just
lamenting the lack of creative authority given to its developers, regardless
of whatever their future plans may be.

~~~
saurik
Yet throwing in an instrumental version of the song seems to generally work
out fine (or an alternative version that is a duet with Rihanna); you seem to
be stuck on "there are bad things that can be added to something that make it
worse" when you are simply plucking examples chosen to be uniquely the most
bad, even when there are obvious examples that no one has a problem with for
the exact same cases that no one has a problem with (and are even semi-
expected these days).

I mean, a movie release on DVD with just be movie and nothing more is simply
_not done_ and many people would consider it cheap and disappointing. The
reaction most people who have to a movie that is only 20 minutes long is or a
song that was only 30 seconds long is going to be similar: I doubt many movie
theaters, radio stations, or content distributors, would consider the "short"
sufficient.

In this case, we know the developers have "notes left to play", and could
spend the time to do those now. Clearly, I would be the first to point at
Apple and say "this is not a legitimate selection criteria" (sufficiently so
that even bothering to say it explicitly is kind if redundant ;P), but if I
were those developers... this is just a really self-defeating reaction that is
not likely to sway either Apple or the people who actually like Apple not
wanting to sell things that don't feel "complete enough".

------
asdfologist
With all their patent trolling and absurd tyrannical control over the app
store, I have no idea why so many tech-saavy people still love Apple.

~~~
tomasien
We love what Apple did for the industry, we love using their products, we have
varying levels of problems with them as a company. Some are very high, some
are low, but that's unrelated to what you're perceiving, which is a love of
what they did for the industry and the products that we use.

~~~
GhotiFish
Popularizing walled gardens? Yah I'm never going to forget that.

ever.

~~~
ekianjo
And going "nuclear" on Android because they felt that their iOS was soooo
original it should be protected by all patents, trademarks and laws in place.
Apple is the Disney of IT, seriously.

~~~
mattmanser
It was so original.

I can't believe _anyone_ contests this.

I remember seeing an iPhone for the first time. Compared to all other phones
it was 10 years ahead in vision. All other phones were suddenly ludicrously
laid out, with stupid designs. Even the settings section for the iPhone blew
every single other phone in existence out of the water. Something that simple,
that essential, had been revolutionised by this thoughtful new way at looking
at phone interfaces.

Android, on that very day, looked like _every_ other phone. 10 years behind,
old, tired, pathetic, no vision what so ever.

In less than 6 months the android team lifted every single iPhone design
element, added very little of their own and unveiled what is possibly one of
the biggest design rip-offs in tech history.

I can understand why Jobs was pissed.

~~~
myko
This is complete bollocks.

[http://www.osnews.com/story/25264/Did_Android_Really_Look_Li...](http://www.osnews.com/story/25264/Did_Android_Really_Look_Like_BlackBerry_Before_the_iPhone_)

~~~
snowwrestler
It's not bollocks; we now have Google engineers on record that they had to
substantially rethink Android in the wake of the iPhone announcement.

> Chris DeSalvo’s reaction to the iPhone was immediate and visceral. “As a
> consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google
> engineer, I thought ‘We’re going to have to start over.’”

> On the day Jobs announced the iPhone, the director of the Android team, Andy
> Rubin, was six hundred miles away in Las Vegas, on his way to a meeting with
> one of the myriad handset makers and carriers that descend on the city for
> the Consumer Electronics Show. He reacted exactly as DeSalvo predicted.
> Rubin was so astonished by what Jobs was unveiling that, on his way to a
> meeting, he had his driver pull over so that he could finish watching the
> webcast.

> “Holy crap,” he said to one of his colleagues in the car. “I guess we’re not
> going to ship that phone.”

[http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-
day-...](http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-day-google-
had-to-start-over-on-android/282479/)

This is not one of those Apple vs Google fights; it's straight up well-sourced
journalism.

------
mcv
So how's the Android version doing? Please tell me there is one. Because
complaining about the walled garden and then ignoring the larger and more open
platform, that's rather silly.

~~~
guenard
Larger? It's not that easy. There is more Android smartphones sold than Apple
phones yep, but 1. thanks to telcos a lot of Android users don't even know
what is Android/Google Play (= they'll never download apps) and 2. global app
store revenues are still higher on iOS versus Google Play.

~~~
etler
The downloads stat is no longer true[1]. Revenue is still much higher on iOS,
but the trends have been clear, and cannot be ignored. Before, it was "Android
is open, but there are way more iPhones", then it was "Android has more phones
but iPhones get more downloads", it won't be long until revenue surpases it
too.

[1] [http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/07/31/google-play-passes-
app...](http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/07/31/google-play-passes-apples-app-
store-in-total-downloads/)

EDIT: More stats on revenue:

In nov 2012 the gap was 4x

[http://www.startable.com/2012/11/](http://www.startable.com/2012/11/)

As of Q3 2013 the gap was 2x

[http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-11-03-google-
play...](http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-11-03-google-play-has-
half-the-revenue-of-app-store-with-more-downloads)

They're catching up, and fast.

~~~
mavhc
Plus that ignores ad revenue, more Android apps are ad supported

------
allworknoplay
It's a common enough rejection; I've gotten it before and know other people
who have too. You can respond to them and clarify why this set of
functionality is right, that it's a new app and will have features added in
the future, etc. Worked for me, anyway.

~~~
ctdonath
This.

There is a rejection appeal process. Use it.

Of all big companies, Apple should be amenable to a straightforward
explanation that sometimes simplicity is the right design, and that "adding
features for the sake of adding features" is wrong.

~~~
JimDabell
We've had an application rejected for this reason as well. In our case, they
didn't even describe what they didn't like besides "not enough functionality".
Our application was quite a bit more complex, and we could prove there was
demand for such an application. I get the feeling they guessed at the
application's functionality based on the name and didn't really check it out
(it wasn't a particularly great name).

We went through the appeals process. It was very unhelpful. I got the
impression that until we responded "we have updated the application", any
objections were routed to the same unreasonable person that rejected us
originally who didn't care to look at the same application twice.

We ended up adding a "feature" in a completely superficial way. We took an
existing feature of the application and we exposed it as a top-level menu item
instead of making it appear in the context where it makes sense.

As soon as we told Apple that we'd added a feature and they could verify that
there was a new top-level menu item on the first screen of the application,
they approved it. It was essentially the same application that they thought
didn't have enough functionality, except rearranged slightly to make the
functionality obvious to a reviewer that doesn't look past the first screen.

As far as I can tell, there's a lot of pressure inside Apple to churn through
reviews as quickly as possible, and the review process is getting sloppier.
Things get approved when they have glaring faults, and things get rejected
because they didn't make a good impression in the first few seconds a reviewer
looked at it.

~~~
ctdonath
The first time _South Park_ was submitted to the ratings board 5 times, it got
an NC-17 (to wit: patently adult material, a rating assured to destroy
revenue). Then, with nothing more than a name change (the arguably far more
vulgar _South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut_ ) the rating was changed to a
much more market-pleasing R. Sometimes getting approval just takes a well-
placed phone call amounting to "c'mon, people, don't be stupid about this."

------
ern
When my son was 2, I found a free iPad app called "My Colours". It was a grid
of 12 colors. When a color block was touched, a synthesized female voice read
out the name of the color.

For my son, at least, it worked very well, much better than fancier (and often
garish) apps, and he was even able to identify "turquoise" because of the app.
When I had to reinstall my iPad, I found it was missing from the App Store.
Fortunately, I found a backup copy.

I strongly suspect that the colors app was pulled for having been "too
simple". If that was the case, it would seem that Apple seems to prefer bells
and whistles to functionality.

~~~
chrisBob
I haven't heard of a case where it was removed later by apple for an issue
like that. Perhaps the author pulled it down. If you aren't doing much in the
app store, and just make a simple app for fun one year then it is easy to just
let your $100/yr membership lapse.

------
vellum
Looks like you need to add a duck _. Just keep adding features till they
accept it. Example: simple form that lets you take a picture of yourself, type
a note about your mood, and share it on Twitter or Facebook, as well as link
to the graph.

_[http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/122148](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/122148)

~~~
ricardobeat
I don't think that's the approach Apple is trying to foster. You will turn a
simple app into a shitty app.

~~~
BrandonY
Trying to foster? No. Fostering? Yes. What Apple intends to achieve with their
policies is an interesting but academic discussion. Policies, laws, and
features can have all have plenty of bizarre side effects.

For instance, I'll bet ya that allowing people to share their moods on
Facebook leads to measurably different and likely less accurate mood graphs.

------
RyanMcGreal
This seems like one of those moments when Tim Bray's 2002 sharecropper post
applies:

"What it comes down to is this: if you want to develop software, you can build
for the Web and/or Unix and/or OSS platforms; or alternatively, you can be a
sharecropper."

[https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePl...](https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace)

------
matt_heimer
I'm going to go in the opposite direction of everybody here and tell you your
app sucks (based on what you say about it) and Apple was right. Look at it
this way - A developer creates an app that ask a daily question (maybe with a
reminder) and then plots the answers on a graph. That developer then release
1,000 versions of that app to the app store by simply changing the question.
That app should have been a general purpose app that lets you define your own
questions/frequency/etc. All you've got right now is a question, that when
asked daily creates some interesting data. You need to built an app around
that. You have some actual features outlined in your roadmap, why not
implement at least some of those and resubmit? Oh, and I went looking for
feature listings, videos, philosophy, etc, or anything about your app on your
website and I got nothing. The entire website about your app is a landing page
and one page that is complaining about your rejection. If your app is
currently so simple that it didn't even need a single webpage maybe Apple was
right....

~~~
seizethecheese
I agree Matt. Apple has every right to reject apps that don't add any value to
their ecosystem. There are probably many apps that do what this app does. The
ego of the people making this is incredible, why don't you just use the
existing apps if you aren't going to add value?

~~~
zmmmmm
Which underscores the essential understanding that unlike Android, Windows,
OSX, Linux, the web and others, iOS is not a _platform_ at all in a strict
sense of the word. It is a proprietary technology partnership with Apple with
the one and only goal of making money for Apple. If your interests aren't
first and foremost to make money for Apple, then secondly to make it for
yourself, go somewhere else.

------
micheljansen
Unrelated to the article itself, but a friendly tip for the Hueman guys: the
lack of margins on this page made it very hard to read. Not everyone browses
full-screen on their 27" iMac. On any window under 1100px, the content runs
into the margin on the left, which could easily be avoided with some padding:
[http://cl.ly/image/2V0A021M1t0S](http://cl.ly/image/2V0A021M1t0S)

~~~
danielweber
I had to scroll back down every time I moved forward a page.

------
Amygaz
I honestly don't what is the big deal. It sounds like this is not a full blown
rejection, it is more like a "Oh, nice idea! We could use that. Why don't you
revise it a bit and resubmit": > We encourage you to review your app concept
and evaluate whether you can incorporate additional content and features to
provide a more robust user experience.

And it also sounds like you were already aware of what is missing: > The next
couple planned releases on our roadmap will heavily rely on native iOS
functions and code to include things like tagging, additional graph views and
scrubbing, ability to add media.

It think it will be a great app. I hope you get over the "rejection" notice
and keep working on it. All the best for your resubmission.

------
mattyohe
Why appeal to us? Appeal to Apple, through this channel:
[https://developer.apple.com/appstore/contact/?topic=appeal](https://developer.apple.com/appstore/contact/?topic=appeal)

~~~
skeletonjelly
Apple should rename their appeals process to cutsey human words like they do
"logic board","retina" etc.

The Apple Peal process.

------
jheriko
"If it's just using webviews, why does this need to be an app?"

exactly...

there is no actual reason this couldn't be a cross platform 'web app'. it
would be better that way. why do you want the app on the appstore exactly?

the list of reasons given are of debateable merit the last one is probably the
best, and suggests a fix. develop the app a bit further so you can justify it
not being a web page...

also, why are you storing data on the user's phone? will you be using icloud
or some web service to preserve it across devices? is it just cache?

~~~
kmonsen
I found the reasons not to be a web page very bad. There are perfect good web
API's to store data on the device:
[http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html](http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html)

------
x0054
I would suggest to add a function so you can add a personal note to each day,
and sell it as a mood tracker / diary. First, it would be useful to keep track
of why you were feeling bad or good on a given day by maybe a making a small
not on what happen. Plus, then apple would not be able to reject it, as it
would be a diary app with a graph. There are a ton of diary apps on iOS, and
this one would even have a graph. Let them argue that's not novel and feature
reach :)

~~~
Gracana
They may reject it because there are a number of mood tracking diaries
already.

------
Gracana
So far few people have addressed Apple's argument. Does this app provide
valuable utility? Does it enable people to do something they couldn't do
before or in a way they couldn't do it before?

There are already many mood trackers, just search the app store. This is
certainly not anything new. The one thing that makes this one different from
the others is that it seems to have no extra features. But that can't be their
design vision, because they plan to add a social aspect and more views and
editing functions. So what's special about this app in the way it stands right
now?

------
chrisBob
You even state that

> The next couple planned releases on our roadmap will heavily rely on native
> iOS functions and code to include things like tagging, additional graph
> views and scrubbing, ability to add media. etc... And by eventually letting
> people combine their data, you will be able to see how their relative
> happiness aligns to other users, a neighborhood and even the world.

It sounds like you think it needs more features too. I understand wanting to
release as soon as possible but this might be a good chance to add the other
features YOU want.

------
bjm1904
Given the app consists of two web views and a bit of background code I'm not
surprised. Perhaps if they'd utilised the GUI elements Apple provides to give
a native experience it would actually warrant being an app.

tbh this seems like it would be better implemented as a HTML5 mobile site that
utilises the new local storage APIs. You can still promote web apps through
App Store, and it seems like a more obvious route to me.

~~~
sjwright
> You can still promote web apps through App Store

Really? I haven't heard about this.

~~~
bjm1904
Sorry, my bad. It seems I was thinking of PhoneGap, which packages HTML5 apps
for mobile devices [https://build.phonegap.com/](https://build.phonegap.com/)

I believe on some Android platform (such as Amazon App Store) you can even
charge for HTML5 apps, so it's not unprecedented.

However Apple app submissions requirements state you have to have sufficient
functionality to warrant providing a native application. Not surprised that
this code didn't make the grade, but as mentioned if they were able to make
use of UI framework or put through PhoneGap could resolve the issue.

------
blueskin_
Should have gone with Android.

I really want this app, and now they are having to spend time getting it
accepted by apple, it's just going to delay an Android version.

~~~
gress
Don't be ridiculous. There are multiple android apps that do this already, and
the developers obviously don't care about Android that much otherwise they'd
have gone with android first.

It's just two webviews anyway, so it should be no real effort for them to port
it.

------
Grue3
The whole concept needs work. You compare each day to the previous one, but
the app doesn't know by _how much_. Which leads to ludicrous results when
applied to real life situations. For example you got fired, or your girlfriend
left you, or your friend/relative died. What a terrible day! But then over the
course of several days you slowly get over it, so your mood rises up until you
reach the original level. But what does the graph show? That you're feeling
much better after the traumatic event! What doesn't kill you makes you
stronger, eh? The model is just plain wrong.

------
mrharrison
In all fairness, I'm confused about what the app does. What do the colors
represent? What is the y axis? etc.. Could insert a legend and some labels to
make it more clear. But I could be wrong and the screenshots don't accurately
depict the app. Also the Hueman ID is a bit clinical/sterile and I would say
doesn't represent a good user experience, because it doesn't provide me with
anything useful only a question mark. But again, this is from just seeing the
screenshots. Look forward to downloading the app! Neat idea!

~~~
xerophtye
I am guessing the ID's here are just for testing or maybe changed to numbers
as a matter of privacy?

------
JoeAltmaier
A walled garden can be used to guard against bugs, viruses, spam. But when its
used to curate according to somebody's idea of taste or usefulness, that's
arrogance. Let the market decide.

Absolute power corrupts.

------
bad_user
I wonder - when an app rejection with a good idea happens based on it being
"too simple" (and many great ideas are simple to implement), what if
competition picks up the idea, adds more bloat, gets approved and steals the
original's thunder, shouldn't Apple be held responsible and pay for damages?

There's probably no chance of that happening, because it's their app store,
they can do whatever they want and so on. But this kind of deal is exactly why
some companies feel like protecting their "intellectual property" with
patents. Because the distribution networks are not open, except for the web
and even if your execution is perfect, there's no guarantee you'll be the
first to market, because shit like this happens. And then we've got people
praising app stores, because their grandma can now feel safe, though to me
optimizing for grandmas doesn't make much sense.

I view the app store model as a regression. It is useful, but only when it's
optional. Android is still allowing installs from third-party sources, even
though you have to click a checkbox to enable the capability, but due to
current trends and seeing Android's evolution, I don't have many hopes for
this feature surviving in the long run. In the end, the web is still the most
open distribution platform and these big companies are trying to fix that.

~~~
Gracana
Do you have an example of an app with an original idea being rejected for
being too simple? That sounds like an interesting hypothetical scenario.

------
archenemy
Yeah, well, reject Apple yourself and put it into the Play Store.

I use a Macbook Air and multiple idevices. I don't develop mobile (yet). I'm
sorry, but I find all these 'daddy Apple rejected my app' posts a bit tiring.

------
k-mcgrady
It doesn't sound like you've tried appealing the ruling. This sounds like the
sort of thing that would get through on appeal once you've explained why it
can't have more features.

------
josefresco
"we consider simplicity to be uncomplicated - not limited in features and
functionality"

I cannot believe this is an official position for a company like Apple (or any
company for that matter).

My advice would be to move _away_ from native and towards the web, as opposed
to baking in useless features or planning new features that rely on native
capabilities.

------
alaskamiller
I worked for a mobile apps platform that cobbled together webkitviews and
formed it into a mobile app. Quite often it was rejected because it's really
just various RSS feeds.

Apple didn't reject you because they thought it was simple. They rejected you
because you built it too simply.

At least toss in some Origami flips and folds.

------
RamiK
It's really your typical regulatory committee keeping up appearance and
hitting their quota:

Regardless of quality or compliance with the rules, Apple's App Store review
staff needs to reject a given number of admission a week. Otherwise, they're
out of a job.

Think about end-of-the-day traffic tickets or city's planning and zoning...
Here's a classic explanation:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apdi885ZdBA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apdi885ZdBA)
Or
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Food_and_Drug...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Food_and_Drug_Administration#Alleged_problems_in_the_drug_approval_process)

------
danbmil99
Fuck Apple. I mean really.

------
bentrengrove
I've been there, had an app I used daily in my job. I valued it for how fast
it got me the information I needed (aviation weather) without features that I
didn't need getting in the way. A few friends thought it looked useful so I
put it on the store and got the same rejection. I added a couple of features
that nobody uses (saving weather for later viewing) and got it through. I
always suspected it was that I wanted to charge Tier 3 for it and they didn't
think that was justified.

~~~
lostlogin
This sounds similar but different to something I did. I needed a basic
calculator for work, and colleagues did too. A dead simple app, but it was
free and was accepted.

------
DanBC
That's a shame. Mood trackers are a useful tool to help tackle some mental
health problems. Tacking on a bunch of stuff to get it into the app store
feels sub-optimal. My current mood tracker has some features that I really
don't like.
[https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/moodometer/id404137652?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/moodometer/id404137652?mt=8)

When did "do one thing and do it well" become something to avoid?

------
jimejim
Assuming you haven't already, just respond to them with a well-reasoned
argument why they should let it through as-is. It occasionally works.

I've done it before when they tried to reject my company's app because we were
using a webview in one section and they felt it should be native. We were
doing a bunch of other stuff behind the scenes though and I told them it would
be cost-prohibitive to redo that whole section right then. They let it
through.

------
m0dest
Not everything can be as deep as Flappy Bird.

~~~
smackfu
Or the million Flappy Bird clones that Apple quickly approved.

------
pazimzadeh
By Apple's logic the app Everyday should not have been accepted:
[http://everyday-app.com/](http://everyday-app.com/)

~~~
drawkbox
Apple likes you to integrate platform features though, that is heavily tied to
the camera.

------
cyphunk
I realise many are in the mood to dump all over apple but... really, if apple
or anyone treats their app store as a store-front, it's not hard to understand
how the store manager might find this application to be just adding noise.

if you think all apps should be allowed no matter what, then you are right to
be bothered by their rejection of this app. if you think any store manager has
some reason to filter apps, then you cant really complain.

------
xur17
I wonder if it was partially rejected due to the use of 'webviews'.

~~~
drawkbox
Silly but this could be part of it. Apple directs people that just make an app
that is a phonegap wrapper of a website to just make a website. I have seen
apps be rejected for just being website wrappers or webview apps without other
integration points. The fact that it doesn't tie in any services is also
sometimes a factor. Integration of iCloud, GameCenter, etc always make for an
easier review time.

~~~
tomasien
I've submitted at least 10 apps to the app store that were just a webview
wrapper, no problems. Anecdotal but, there you go.

------
lucian1900
Your mistake was making an iOS app. Experiments must be done on a platform
that allows users to install apps themselves, like Android.

------
csense
This is why Apple is inferior to Android. You spend resources to develop
something, and it's a crapshoot whether or not it gets accepted or stays
accepted.

I can understand ordinary customers being wow'ed by Apple marketing, but why
don't developers jump ship en masse at the way Apple treats them? It's not
like there isn't an alternative.

------
petercooper
Add a flashlight or fart button to it. "Needs more flashlight" should be the
"needs more cowbell" of our age.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Ironic: to satisfy Apple, the mecca for good design, you have to crap up your
application.

~~~
sbuk
Simple has two meanings. You are addressing one of them. I'd argue that the
fact the app consist essentially 2 web views, the simple means 'WTF is this
even an app?'.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
And that is improved by adding unrelated dingles to the app?

~~~
sbuk
Way to miss the point...

The simplicity is the function on the, rather the app itself. To be clear, its
not what it does (or doesn't) do, it's _how_ it does it.

------
WickyNilliams
I like the idea of this. Not only is the historic data interesting, I suspect
just taking time to reflect on your days would likely improve happiness in an
of itself (e.g. if you know anyone who is doing one of those 100 happy days
challenge).

However, the arguments against the web are a bit flimsy IMO. Data on the web
is ephemeral only if you put it in an ephemeral store. Put it in localStorage!
It's highly unlikely you'd exceed some quota (usually 10mb) with the kind of
data you're storing, plus user's are offered chance to expand quota usually.

Or if you want something that goes above and beyond that (or what you have
with a "native app") you could integrate with Dropbox's datastore API [0] and
have data available on any machines I choose to use.

[0]
[https://www.dropbox.com/developers/datastore/docs/js](https://www.dropbox.com/developers/datastore/docs/js)

------
lnanek2
So they had a submission screen and a probably blank graph. It's pretty easy
to go back and add a tutorial with colorful graphics and an example graph, a
few help pages describing the idea and concept, etc.. Honestly they should
have just added some more filler pages rather than writing this blog entry,
both are about as tough.

------
jarsj
Just wondering if you appealed and what was the response ?

------
smackfu
Considering how much crapware is on the Appstore, it's hard to believe Apple
even reviews stuff anymore. You see rejections like this, and you wonder why
those same rules weren't applied to basically _everything_ that comes up in a
search.

------
oneofthose
This seems to be a great idea. I really like everything about it, I would love
to use it (even though I don't own smartphone). Too bad Apple did reject it.
One sentence that made me quite happy in this article is:

"Hueman is free and anonymous, and to create that seamless experience, it
needs to store data on your phone. If it was a web page on mobile safari, that
data is more ephemeral."

If the Hueman developers read this: have you considered something like
unhosted [0] for your application? It should be easy enough to implement.

[0] [https://unhosted.org/](https://unhosted.org/)

------
avaku
A similar app was recently in the top chart in "productivity" section.

It's called feeltracker, and it has historical graphs:
[https://www.feeltracker.com](https://www.feeltracker.com)

------
ChristianMarks
At least they could plot their feelings of rejection on the app Apple
rejected.

------
doodyhead
The times when I'm unhappy, I often have no idea of the cause.

Why not add some optional questions that would drive more useful reporting if
answered:

# Are you in a relationship? For how long?

# Do you have a job? Rate your performance 1-10

# Are you exercising? How often?

# Are you happy with your weight? What is your weight?

# Rate the healthiness of your diet.

# How well are you sleeping? How many hours?

There are so many more useful data points you could collect. If they're
optional, and maybe hidden unless you enable them, it won't do much to over-
complicate the app.

It would then be super useful for those who suffer from depression or other
psychiatric illnesses, and problem solved re app store.

------
captainmuon
Does it cost anything to submit an app (apart from the initial dev account)?
Otherwise you could just submit it again, and hope that it gets a different
reviewer. Reviews seem to be a bit arbitrary sometimes.

------
stevewilhelm
Apple is curating a ten billion dollar marketplace [1].

Apple will error on the side of maintaining the overall quality of the entire
Application selection, even if it means many very worthwhile applications are
rejected.

I sympathize with huemanapp's developers, but they must realize they are
competing for "virtual shelf space." I say to them; keep plugging away and
good luck.

[1] [https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/01/07App-Store-
Sales-T...](https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/01/07App-Store-Sales-
Top-10-Billion-in-2013.html)

~~~
scottdw2
A shelf space analogy doesn't make sense. With a real shelf, there is
scarcity. Only so many shelves can fit in the store, and only so many products
on a shelf.

The marginal cost of a virtual good is zero. Apple's ability to support apps
is effectively infinite.

There are over 1M apps in the App Store.

This is not about "shelf space".

~~~
metafunctor
There is a kind of scarcity in abundance.

When the marginal cost of shelf space approaches zero, another factor comes
into play: time spent by the buyers.

With too many shelves in the store, many products will never be bought, no
matter how good they are.

~~~
scottdw2
There are already 1M apps in the App Store.

There's already too many apps, so preventing "over choice" isn't their goal.

------
OoTLink
The ironic thing is that Apple is asking you to do something very Un-Apple. I
imagine if you loaded the app up with "Share this with your friends!" kind of
junk, they'd accept it.

------
theon144
So... could this by any chance mean an Android port? Pretty please? :)

~~~
Cthulhu_
Given how it's (self-admitted) just two webviews and push notifications, a
port should take just a week (if that) to build.

------
hobolobo
A bit off-topic but is there a name for the tone of the copy on this? It reads
like the current tranche of MS/Apple advertising speak. Would cult-like be
going too far?

------
archagon
"Apple sucks" and "use Android" aren't really productive responses to an
article like this. Consider taking your quips to a site like Reddit.

~~~
durbin
I disagree, you don't need to say anything derogatory about Apple but saying
that it is a blessing in disguise that Apple didn't let you into their walled
garden when you have a much larger and open playground in Android is a very
productive response.

~~~
rimantas
If you want to sell your apps that large Android playground suddenly shrinks.
A lot.

------
loceng
An app like Flappy Birds will pass, but this won't? _sigh_

Reason makes me feel like they don't want you competing with an area they're
going to go into.

------
derFunk
I appreciate people sharing their stories about Apple's rejection motivations.
This helps other developers to avoid doing the same "mistakes". But, isn't it
against the TOS we agree on when joining the Apple Dev Program, to talk about
rejection reasons and even cite the feedback mails? I was under this
impression, can't say that I would be sad if I'm wrong.

------
ahunt09
Maybe not related, but is it possible that Apple does not want this app to
exist because parts of it could be considered prior art for it's patent
application?: [http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/126980-apple-seeks-to-
scan-y...](http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/126980-apple-seeks-to-scan-your-
emotions-with-new-mood-inference-patent)

~~~
drawkbox
Pretty recently filed on Jan 23rd, not saying this has anything to do with the
OP's rejection, but it could be planned future technology.

------
trekky1700
That's odd, I reject Apple for the same reason.

I joke of course, but Apple builds monopolies they have tight control over,
sue for anything and basically tell everyone who doesn't like it to screw off
(and they can because they have the monopoly). As much as I like their design
and hardware, as far as corporate entities go, they're kind of a jerk.

~~~
rimantas
Monopolies? Like there are no Google Play store and Windows Phone store
(whatever it is called), nobody else makes smartphones, nobody else sells
books and music online?

------
nicholassmith
The article was interesting, but it's more interesting seeing that Apple is
Hacker News favourite whipping boy now.

------
RTigger
When I was younger and struggling with issues, I did exactly this - plot my
happiness on a graph. It was one of the few things that helped me get through
a day, seeing that there are ebbs and flows, and for every low point there's
likely a high point coming up.

This app needs to be published.

------
ejain
Best thing that could have happened to you, given all the attention you're
getting now? :-)

------
analog31
I've published apps that were simpler than "Hello World" for iOS, if this is
any indication:

[http://www.appcoda.com/hello-world-app-using-
xcode-5-xib/](http://www.appcoda.com/hello-world-app-using-xcode-5-xib/)

------
hengheng
Make it live on the web. Better yet, make it live on a device. Two buttons,
button presses are valid only once a day, LED confirmation, USB read-out. Make
the case beautiful, done. Standard AAA Battery will live for years, data can
be written to flash.

------
philthesong
I put down a sketch pad and collection view for memo taking app. It didn't get
rejected.

------
_pmf_
> We encourage you to review your app concept and evaluate whether you can
> incorporate additional content and features to provide a more robust user
> experience.

Easy - just add the ability to issue fart sounds, which has always been enough
quality for Apple users.

------
achalkley
My DogeCoin price app was too simple too.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/1wmmk9/my_dogecoin...](http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/1wmmk9/my_dogecoin_price_checking_app_was_rejected_by/)

------
Steko
Seems like the cheapest way to get noticed in the App Store is for your app to
get rejected.

------
willcodeforfoo
I had an idea like this once: [http://lifemetric.com/](http://lifemetric.com/)

I always wanted to make an app for it, but it looks like yours is pretty nice.
Just add some more features and Apple will probably accept it.

------
ptr
Skimmed the article and the comments, thought the app seemed like a cool idea.
It was when the App Store couldn't find any results for 'Hueman' that it
struck me; the whole point of the article! Ha. Damn it.

------
desireco42
This pleadings with Apple make me wanna throw up. I can't make myself even
read how great you are and it is not fair. The only thing not fair is you
submitting it to Apple.

50 hues of gray is what this is.

------
razorshine
Just release it on android

------
parkersweb
There's actually a UK citizen science project running along very similar
lines: [http://www.mappiness.org.uk/](http://www.mappiness.org.uk/)

------
OoTLink
It also reminds me of that episode of King of the Hill where Hank and his
family join another church and they keep getting calls asking how satisfied
they are on a scale of 1-10 XD

------
tostada
How is a once a day mood tracker app not useful? Look at the apps currently in
the App Store... how is this any less useful than a flashlight or any other
single function application?

Fuck Apple.

------
kysol
Been there, had that response. I got the same rejection last year and
basically stopped fine tuning my app as I refused to add stuff that it didn't
need.

------
sl1e
I am absolutely fascinated with this tool. I only with I had the ability to
write something like it myself. I'm really satisfied others have the same
thoughts.

Thank you!

------
avighnay
Anyways it is not wise to pour frustration on rejection publicly. Especially
in this case, as there seems to have been no conversation or further appeal.

------
kevind23
You should get it working on Android -- but only so I can use it. In all
seriousness, it looks like a great app, I'd keep appealing it.

------
paulftw
Don't know whether I should spoil the secret or keep it to myself, but why
don't you submit again? and again. until it gets in.

------
squintychino
This just in - grass has rejected itself for being too green. This is the core
feature of Apple products - their simplicity.

~~~
thesimpsons1022
simplicity to use, not design.

~~~
squintychino
If it's designed simple, it will be simple to use. So it's the same thing.

------
NicoJuicy
Just put it on Android. It looks great though!

------
glenntnorton
Send it to the bloggers that be as "The app Apple doesn't want you to see" and
use it to your advantage.

------
durbin
Forget Apple, make an Android app.

------
joeld42
Add something that uses the new M7 motion tracking chip and they'll approve
it. :)

------
smrtinsert
Waiting for the Android version.

------
bkirkby
this app is perfect the way it is. i'm disappointed that the pioneers of
design in software are requiring you to make things less simple for some
arbitrary reason.

"make things as simple as possible, but no simpler" \--Einstein

------
jamesxwatkins
This is great. I hope it eventually makes the app store. I would 100% use
this.

------
jigneshlg
I really like the idea behind the app but we also need to follow quality
criteria set by Apple team to stop non productive app being listed in
appstore.

As suggested by Crazygringo, they can improve the app by including some
functionality. I am eagerly waiting for this app to get approved !

------
yock
Is there some technical limitation to making this a web app?

------
ps4fanboy
Apple keeps chipping away at that good will.

------
finalight
you can port it over to android then

------
ryeguy_24
Tap to flap.

------
sc90
iWatch territory.

------
stefan_kendall
I fought the same fucking battle. Just keep appealing and cross your fingers
you find a reviewer who isn't a dipshit.

~~~
jbigelow76

        >"cross your fingers you find a reviewer who isn't a dipshit"
    

Now there's the kind of sentiment you can feel comfortable building a business
on!

------
greatsuccess
Its called _android_

------
Fasebook
I'm not surprised since this is pretty similar to what all communication hubs
are trying to do (for obvious marketing reasons). You are serious competition
and they have the power to sweep you under a rug.

------
benched
My heavens. This is in danger of turning all the rhetoric around depression on
its ear! Everyone knows happiness or the lack of it is determined by brain
chemistry, not life events. A well-adjusted person feels the same whether you
run them over with a car or give them a hand job.

------
antidaily
Let me be the first to reject this website for being "too shitty".

