Frustratingly opaque app submission requirements

Shopify Apps
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Topic summary

Developers are experiencing significant frustration with Shopify’s app submission review process, particularly for subscription apps.

Main Issues:

  • Contradictory requirements: The submission guidelines request “a screencast” (singular), but reviewers are rejecting apps for not providing “multiple screencasts”
  • Suspension after 3 attempts: One developer had their app suspended after failing to meet unclear requirements three times
  • Confusing feedback: Reviewers provided technical guidance about using proper Subscription APIs and Purchase option access scopes, but the rejection centered on screencast formatting rather than functionality

Developer Response:

Submitters have included both video demos and BrowserStack screencasts showing onboarding flow and core functionality, yet still face rejections.

Broader Pattern:

Multiple developers report this problem, with one confirming the review process has deteriorated over the past year. They attribute the decline to Shopify outsourcing reviews to third-party teams lacking experience and providing poor transparency—a stark contrast to previous standards.

Summarized with AI on November 5. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

We’re attempting to submit a subscription app for review, but have received some really confusing and contradictory feedback:

We’ve included the required device types, but the review team is failing us with no context about why. The actual app submission says: Video demo that shows how to use your app, including onboarding flow and core functionality. We’ve included both a video demo, and screencasts from browserstack, but are still failing.

We got this image from the review team, after 3 attempts and getting suspended. Having multiple screencasts wasn’t listed in any requirement, and verbatim the email we received says include a screencast of your app, so apparently we failed because we condensed these into one youtube link.

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The next bit of feedback is a big issue for us:

  • Ensure that your app is using the correct API scopes to reflect functionality. Apps that do not use the Selling Plan and subscription contract APIs properly, are not permitted on the App Store. For additional context, refer to Purchase option access scopes.

We’re building a subscription app, which requires access to the subscription contract APIs… We’re unclear why the review team would fail our application, when we’ve explicitly stated that we’re building a subscription app.

We’ve attempted to contact partner support, but it feels like they have little to no context and can’t provide specific feedback about where our app submission is failing.

We’ve been suspended for two weeks, which is kind of frustrating, since we’re having to blindly submit every time hoping we hit on whatever vague criteria the review team requires!

Edit: reviewing another email we received, we got some clarity on a missing scope, which we could have corrected after our first application… And this feedback send to us from a noreply email address:

  • You haven’t responded promptly to emails from us about requirement issues on multiple occasions
1 Like
2

Same issue here. It seems Shopify Support has offloaded the review team to third party teams outside Shopify that have little to no experience and transparency and feedback in their review process. Having submitted in the past, I can verify that this change has happened in the past 1 year, it did not used to be like this. Quite frustrating for app developers.