Thread

The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

374 points · 352 comments · inputmice

abricq · 1789563802 · focus · HN ↗
By the way, the same is happening for the Apple Store.
Their review process is advocated as usually within 24 hours (and heavily advertised by Apple as such, see <a href="https://developer.apple.com/distribute/app-review/" rel="nofollow">https://developer.apple.com/distribute/app-review/) and it is taking now much longer.
In the last month, I had to go through the review process twice, and twice I needed to contact them personally after waiting for 1 week of waiting. It did however helped, after every human contact I was reviewed within a few hours.
I got this explanation from them...
> We are currently experiencing a higher-than-normal amount of inquiries and have been unable to respond in the time frame that we would prefer. During these periods of high volume, the app review time will take longer than average, and we cannot currently provide a concrete timeline for when your specific app(s) will be finished with the process
I'm guessing, AI slots invading the store.
1. busymom0 · 1789565236 · focus · HN ↗
  I've had same experience. Brand new iOS apps are taking weeks. My latest all took 3 weeks to get reviewed and approved. Updates to existing apps are fast though (1-2 days).
  Also, sometimes, apps will go in review and then just stay in that state for 3-4 days before approval. No idea why.
2. techterrier · 1789568151 · focus · HN ↗
  theres's hordes of sloppycats in every vertical. Check out how many birding apps have come out in the last 12 months for example
3. hbn · 1789569865 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm sure submissions have absolutely skyrocketed with model advancements since the beginning of the year. I'd be curious to see the numbers.
  I know Github's commit numbers have been pretty staggering YoY.
  1. trymas · 1789584574 · focus · HN ↗
    Yup, my bets are on this. It’s not only github that gets ~order of magnitude more PRs and commits, but probably app stores too.
    Wonder how it will change app stores for the future.
4. SkiFire13 · 1789581327 · focus · HN ↗
  > usually within 24 hours
  I have never seen Apple approving within 24 hours
  1. georgemcbay · 1789591818 · focus · HN ↗
    I've had Apple approve app submissions within 24 hours. It certainly hasn't been the norm (on average for me it takes more than 1 day, but less than 2), but I've had it happen occasionally over the past couple of years.
5. chrisandchris · 1789587347 · focus · HN ↗
  Or just developer/mansgement slop? I don't understand why every app needs to be updated every second day (at least it feels like that).
  The easiest way to count how many apps you have is to turn off automated updates and wait a week. The number of updates equals the number of apps.
6. JamesSwift · 1789588428 · focus · HN ↗
  > I'm guessing, AI slots invading the store.
  Well, same as my lack of sympathy for github and their "inability" to deal with "unprecedented AI generated traffic", I dont buy it. Seems really simple to setup an algorithm of "existing app from pre-AI is submitting another update gets put in the priority queue while everyone else gets the shared queue".

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.