The Short Answer
Guideline 4.2 is Apple's minimum functionality rule. It states that your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website, and App Review rejects apps that provide a limited experience not meaningfully different from a mobile browser tab. This hits fast MVPs hardest: an app that shows a feed, a form, and a settings screen, and nothing a browser could not already do. The fix is not a resubmission with the same screens and a new build number. It is adding real, native functionality before you resubmit.
What Guideline 4.2 Actually Says
Apple's own text for Guideline 4.2 reads: "Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or app-like, it doesn't belong on the App Store." That sentence is the entire test. Everything else in the 4.2 family is a specific case of it.
- 4.2.2 - apps should not primarily be marketing materials, ads, web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links.
- 4.2.3 - your app should work on its own without requiring another app to function, and if it needs to download resources on first launch, it has to disclose the size and prompt the user before doing so.
- 4.2.6 - apps built from a commercialized template or app-generation service get rejected unless the provider of that service submits the app directly, not the client who used the service.
Most 4.2 rejections trace back to the base rule, not the sub-clauses: the reviewer opened the app, tapped through every screen in under a minute, and did not find anything a website could not already do.
Why This Hits Claude Code + Expo Apps Specifically
Claude Code and Expo make it realistic to go from an idea to a working build in a week, which is exactly what puts an app in 4.2's path. A fast build tends to ship the core loop and stop there: a list screen, a detail screen, a settings screen, wired to a database, with no offline handling, no device integration, and no reason to open the app instead of a bookmarked page. That shape is not a Claude Code problem, it is a speed problem, and 4.2 exists specifically to catch it regardless of what wrote the code.
The Repackaged Website Test
Before you submit, run what App Store Launch Club members call the Repackaged Website Test: open your app on a phone, then open the same core screen in mobile Safari side by side. If a stranger could not tell which one was the native app within the first ten seconds, App Review will have the same problem.
- Does the app do anything with the device itself: camera, location, push notifications, offline storage, biometrics, contacts, anything beyond rendering data in a scroll view?
- Does it remember the user between sessions in a way a browser tab without cookies would not: saved state, personalization, progress, history?
- Does it work, even partially, without a live network connection, or does a dropped connection just show a blank screen?
- Is there a reason to open the app tomorrow that isn't "because it's already on my home screen"?
A no on more than one of these is a real gap, not a stylistic nitpick. Polished screenshots and copy do not change the answer. App Review is not asking your marketing to look native, it is asking your app to work like one.
What to Add Before You Resubmit
A new icon, a splash screen, or nicer colors will not clear 4.2, because none of it changes what the app does. The additions that actually move the needle are functional, not visual.
- Push notifications tied to something real in your app, like a reminder, a status update, or a reply, not a generic marketing blast.
- Offline support: cache the last-loaded data locally so the app shows something useful the moment it opens, even before the network responds.
- A device API your core feature actually needs: camera for capture, location for anything place-based, biometrics for a faster unlock.
- Real accounts with saved state: history, favorites, or progress that persists between sessions and across devices, not a stateless view of shared content.
- Native navigation and gestures built with Expo Router, instead of a single screen rendering a remote page inside a WebView.
The Guideline It Travels With: 4.3 Spam
4.2 and 4.3 get checked in the same review pass more often than not, because both are asking a version of the same question: does this app earn its own spot on the store. 4.2 asks whether the app does enough on its own. 4.3 asks whether it is different enough from apps already on the store, including your own other submissions. An app that is thin enough to trip 4.2 is often similar enough to something else to trip 4.3 right behind it. The full breakdown of what counts as spam under 4.3 is in [Guideline 4.3 Rejection: What App Review Actually Means by Spam](/blog/app-store-rejection-guideline-4-3), and the build path that avoids both from the start is in [how to ship your first app in 7 days with Claude Code](/blog/ship-your-first-app-in-7-days-with-claude-code).
How to Answer a 4.2 Rejection in Resolution Center
If the rejection already landed, treat it the same as any other App Review message: fix the specific gap, then reply once with what changed and a new build.
- Do not reply with a promise. App Review reads Resolution Center replies against the binary you submitted, not against a description of a future update.
- State plainly what you added and where to find it in the app, by screen name, so the reviewer does not have to hunt for it.
- If your app is genuinely simple by design, such as a single-purpose utility, say so and point to the specific feature that makes it useful on its own. Simple is not automatically thin, but you have to make the case.
The general pattern for answering any Resolution Center message, including how App Review Information and demo credentials factor in, is covered in [Guideline 2.1 Information Needed](/blog/guideline-2-1-information-needed-rejection).
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Frequently asked questions
What is a Guideline 4.2 rejection?
Guideline 4.2 is Apple's minimum functionality rule. App Review cites it when an app does not include features, content, or UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website, meaning the experience is not meaningfully different from opening the same content in a mobile browser.
Does building an app with Claude Code trigger the 4.2.6 template clause?
No. 4.2.6 targets commercialized app-generation services that build and submit near-identical apps for many clients under one provider account. A developer who writes their own app, whether by hand or with an AI coding tool, and submits it under their own developer account is not in scope for that clause. A 4.2 rejection on a Claude Code build almost always points to the base rule about depth of functionality, not 4.2.6.
Is Guideline 4.2 the same as Guideline 4.3?
No, though they often get cited together. 4.2 asks whether your app does enough on its own to earn a spot on the store. 4.3 asks whether it is different enough from other apps already on the store, including duplicates of your own submissions. A thin app can trip both at once.
What is the fastest way to add functionality to clear a 4.2 rejection?
Add something the app does with the device itself, not just the screen: push notifications tied to a real event, offline caching so the app shows data without a live connection, or a device API your feature genuinely needs, like camera or location. Visual polish alone does not clear 4.2.
Does offline support alone clear a 4.2 rejection?
It helps, but it depends on how thin the rest of the app is. Offline support is one strong signal that the app is more than a browser tab. Pairing it with at least one more native capability, such as notifications or saved user state, gives App Review a clearer case that the app is app-like.
Can a WebView-based Expo app ever pass Guideline 4.2?
Only if the WebView is a small part of a larger native app, not the whole app. A build that is a single WebView pointed at a website, with no native screens, offline handling, or device integration around it, is the exact shape Guideline 4.2 was written to catch.
Last reviewed by David on August 27, 2026
