Guideline 4.2: Minimum functionality

Guideline 4.2 - Design - Minimum Functionality

We found that the usefulness of your app is limited by the minimal
amount of content or features it includes.

Specifically, your app provided a limited user experience as it was
not sufficiently different from a mobile browsing experience.

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.

What it actually means

Apple believes your app is either a website in an app costume or an app that does too little to be worth installing. The guideline's own words: apps should include "features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website," and an app that isn't "particularly useful, unique, or app-like" doesn't belong on the App Store.

The reviewer opened your app and asked: could I get the same experience by visiting this in Safari? If the answer was yes (same screens, same buttons, nothing the phone itself adds) you got this rejection. It is not a bug report. Everything can work flawlessly and still fail 4.2, because the complaint is about what the app is, not whether it runs.

A related sub-rule, 4.2.2, says apps shouldn't primarily be marketing materials, web clippings, or a collection of links. If your app is mostly a landing page with buttons that open your website, that's the clause you tripped.

Why AI-built apps hit this

The fastest path from "I built a web app in Lovable" to "it's on my phone" is wrapping the website in a native shell, and several tools offer exactly that as a one-click export. The result is technically an iOS app, but the reviewer sees a full-screen browser pointed at your URL, which is precisely what 4.2 was written to keep out.

The second pattern is thinness. AI tools make it so easy to ship a first version that founders submit what is honestly a demo: one screen, one feature, placeholder content. Apple's bar isn't "impressive", it's "adequate utility", but a single-purpose page you built in an afternoon often lands below it.

How to fix it

1. Diagnose which problem you have. Open your app next to your website. If they're identical, you have a wrapper problem. If the app is native but sparse, you have a thinness problem. The fixes differ, so be honest here.
2. Add capabilities a browser doesn't have. This is what "app-like" means in practice. Tell your AI tool to add things only an installed app can do well: push notifications that are genuinely useful, offline access to the user's data, camera or photo integration, a home-screen widget. Two real ones beat five gimmicks.
3. Make the interface native, not embedded. If your app is a web view, ask your tool to rebuild the core screens as native UI: real tab bars, native navigation, system fonts and gestures. Most AI builders can generate true native screens; the wrapper was a shortcut, not a requirement.
4. Deepen the content or feature set. If the app was thin, finish it before resubmitting. Flesh out the screens a real user would need in their first week (settings, history, empty states with guidance) so the reviewer sees a product, not a prototype.
5. Explain the difference when you resubmit. In App Store Connect's review notes, list what the app does that the website can't. Make the reviewer's job easy.

What to write in Resolution Center

Adapt this to what you actually changed; don't send it unmodified:

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback. We've updated the app so that it offers a
native experience beyond our website:

- [Native capability 1, e.g. offline access to saved items]
- [Native capability 2, e.g. reminder notifications for X]
- Core screens rebuilt as native UI rather than web content

The app now provides [specific utility] that isn't available from the
mobile website. We'd appreciate a second review.

Thank you,
[Your name]

How to avoid it next time

Before you submit, ask the question the reviewer will ask: what does this app do that visiting the site in Safari doesn't? Write down the answer. If it takes you more than a moment to think of one, build that feature first; it's cheaper than an appeal. When you prompt an AI tool to create an iOS version of your product, ask for a native app with phone-specific capabilities, not "wrap my website."

Related guides: 4.3: Spam (Apple thinks the app duplicates others, rather than doing too little) and 2.1: App completeness (the app looks unfinished or broken rather than thin).