Anyone who has ever deployed an app to the iOS App Store knows, very well, that Apple slows reviews during the US Holiday season. Additionally, anyone who has done this also knows that Apple review times are extremely variable from 1 day to 1 month.
I agree, the duration of the review is irrelevant to this complaint. I would suggest hiring SWEs/consultants who actually understand the iOS App Review process the next time you want to release an app, since Hey obviously does not understand it.
Correct, but anyone with experience attempting to release during this timeframe knows that review times between Thanksgiving and the new year are always slower than normal.
Additionally, brand new apps, not new versions of existing apps, always take longer.
I constantly recommend to both my project team and other teams asking for advice to have a submission in to the App Store 4 weeks before you want to release. Otherwise you risk exactly what happened here.
Apple preemptively warns developers about longer processing times during the holidays every year. (Until recently, they did no reviews at all during the week of Christmas.) E.g., https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=xpkhwg3l
I agree, the duration of the review is irrelevant to this complaint. I would suggest hiring SWEs/consultants who actually understand the iOS App Review process the next time you want to release an app, since Hey obviously does not understand it.