App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours

Friday, 7 August 2026

Terry Godier, “Browsers Have Standards, the App Store Has Judgment”:

A while agone I tried to taxable an iOS app for Dark Hours, my astronomy website for normal people. It was rejected connected the grounds that it was astrology.

It has nary tarot function, nary horoscopes, and thing that I, or anyone other I’ve asked, would subordinate pinch astrology.

I penned a bully small rant 2 years ago expressing my fury complete the measurement that kooks promoting astrology often effort to insinuate that their voodoo pseudoscience is moreover vaguely related to the difficult subject of astronomy. And it really is an unfortunate fluke of the English connection that 2 subjects pinch a contentious narration are differentiated arsenic words by 2 letters. Even if you cognize the quality betwixt the two, and care, if you’re reference quickly your eyes mightiness conflate 1 connection pinch the other.

But if you really look astatine Godier’s Dark Hours, for moreover conscionable a fewer seconds, it is instantly evident that it pertains to the subject of astronomy and has perfectly nothing — zero, zilch, nada — to do pinch astrology. So moreover if Apple’s App Store reviewer misread the submission’s description, and wrongly assumed it was yet different quack astrology app, if they launched it and spent conscionable a fewer seconds poking around, they should person instantly recognized their incorrect assumption. But that’s not what happened. They rejected the app connected the utterly incorrect grounds that it pertained to astrology. If this was an honorable correction from a reasonable judicial board, you’d expect the relationship pinch Godier, the developer, to person gone thing for illustration this:

App Review: REJECTED: Astrology.
Developer: No, it’s astroNoMy not astroLoGy.
App Review: Oh, sorry! Carry on, APPROVED.

But that’s not what happened astatine all. Godier proceeded done a bid of escalations up to the App Review Board and the Review Board responded that they wished the original rejection was valid because, I crap you not, “We understand that the app includes a unrecorded tarot reference feature.” Which isn’t moreover astir astrology. It’s consecutive retired of Kafka.

Dark Hours is not conscionable simply unrelated to astrology (let unsocial tarot-card reading). It’s really exquisitely well-designed and painstaking crafted. It’s precisely the benignant of app that the App Store ought to observe and highlight. It doesn’t conscionable beryllium successful the class of astronomy apps successful the App Store, it will raise the value barroom for astronomy apps successful the App Store. iOS-exclusive, autochthonal Liquid Glass UI, soft scrolling, beautiful typography and layout, and measurement much useful arsenic a autochthonal mobile app than arsenic a website. Go cheque retired the website and I’m judge you’ll work together that it’s the benignant of point that would beryllium moreover cooler arsenic an app. But it is an app, and the app is amended and much useful than the website version, and Godier has fought to get it approved. But Apple’s App Review Board said no, connected fallacious easily-refuted grounds. This isn’t conscionable contrary to the use of developers, for illustration Godier. It’s evidently contrary to the use of Apple itself, which should not conscionable accept an app for illustration Dark Hours, but celebrate it arsenic an exemplar of the platform.

Mistakes happen. But successful a functioning strategy mistakes get corrected, and mistakes arsenic evident arsenic this 1 get corrected almost instantly and see a speedy apology for the conflation. The App Store is not a functioning system.