Guideline 4.5.4: Push notification rules

Guideline 4.5.4 - Design - Apple Sites and Services

Your app uses push notifications in a manner that is not compliant with
the App Review Guidelines.

Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and
should not be used to send sensitive personal or confidential
information. Push Notifications should not be used for promotions or
direct marketing purposes unless customers have explicitly opted in to
receive them via consent language displayed in your app's UI, and you
provide a method in your app for a user to opt out from receiving such
messages.

Next Steps

Please revise your app's use of push notifications to comply with this
guideline.

What it actually means

Apple's rule has three parts, and any one of them can trigger the rejection:

1. Notifications must be optional. The app has to work for a user who taps "Don't Allow" on the notification permission prompt. If any content or feature is locked until notifications are enabled, that's a violation.
2. No sensitive information in pushes. Notifications shouldn't carry sensitive personal or confidential information; they appear on lock screens where anyone can read them.
3. Marketing needs explicit opt-in. Promotional pushes (sales, offers, "come back!" nudges, anything that markets rather than informs) require the user to explicitly opt in through consent language shown in your app's own UI, and your app must include a way to opt out of those messages later.

Note the distinction in part three: the iOS system permission prompt ("Allow Notifications?") is not marketing consent. Apple wants a separate, explicit yes to promotional messages, inside your app, plus an in-app switch to turn them off.

Why AI-built apps hit this

Engagement patterns are baked into the templates AI tools learn from. Prompt for "an app with notifications" and you often get re-engagement pushes wired up by default (streak reminders, discount announcements, "we miss you" messages) sent to everyone who allowed notifications, with no separate marketing consent and no in-app toggle to stop them.

The other common shape is the notification gate: an onboarding flow that won't let users past the "Enable notifications" screen, or a template that blocks a feature until permission is granted, because somewhere a growth tactic got encoded as a requirement. The reviewer taps "Don't Allow," hits the wall, and rejects.

How to fix it

1. Run your app with notifications denied. Delete and reinstall it (or use a fresh device), tap "Don't Allow" on the permission prompt, and use every feature. Anything that's blocked or broken needs to work without notifications, so tell your AI tool to remove the gate.
2. Make the permission prompt skippable. If onboarding asks for notification permission, it needs a visible way to decline or skip and continue. "Enable notifications to continue" is exactly the pattern this guideline bans.
3. Separate marketing from function. List every notification your app sends. Functional ones (your order shipped, your timer finished) are fine with normal permission. Promotional ones need their own explicit opt-in: a clearly labeled choice in your app's UI, off by default, that says what kind of promotional messages the user is agreeing to.
4. Add an in-app opt-out. Put a switch in your settings screen that turns promotional notifications off. "Manage it in iOS Settings" doesn't satisfy the guideline; the opt-out has to be in your app.
5. Audit notification content. Check that nothing sensitive (health details, financial specifics, private message content the user didn't ask to preview) is sent in a push where a lock screen displays it.

What to write in Resolution Center

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

Hello,

Thank you for the review. We've revised our use of push notifications:

- The app is now fully functional without notification permission; the
  onboarding prompt can be skipped and no features are gated on it
- Promotional notifications are off by default and only sent to users
  who explicitly opt in via [screen/control name] in the app
- Users can opt out of promotional notifications at any time in
  [Settings screen name]
- [If applicable: we removed (sensitive detail) from notification
  content]

Thank you,
[Your name]

How to avoid it next time

When you prompt for notifications, specify the rules up front: the app must work fully without them, marketing pushes are opt-in via an in-app consent control (off by default), and settings include an opt-out. Then make the "Don't Allow" walkthrough part of your pre-submission routine; it takes two minutes and it's the first thing a reviewer tries.

Related guides: 5.1.1: Data collection & privacy (permission prompts and disclosure around the data your app collects) and 2.1: App completeness (flows that break during review for other reasons).