In 2026 App Store Review, 4.3 and Similarity Disputes Are More Common

The article compares the core differences between Apple's review clauses 4.3 and 5.6: 4.3 targets whether the app itself is repetitive or templated, while 5.6 targets whether the developer account's behavior is trustworthy. It explains how code, UI, and product similarities can escalate from 4.3 to 5.6, and provides different remediation approaches to help developers assess rejection risks.

Apple The fundamental difference between 5.6 and 4.3 is not simply 'different severity levels,' but rather that Apple is judging different subjects:

4.3 mainly determines 'whether this app looks like spam/repetitive app'; 5.6 mainly determines 'whether this developer or account's behavior is trustworthy.'

In Apple's current official guidelines, 4.3 falls under Design → Spam, while 5.6 falls under Developer Code of Conduct.

Why do you feel that many 5.6 cases are 'essentially like 4.3' now?

This feeling has some merit, but let's be more precise.

Now if Apple first discovers:

Similar code + similar UI + similar assets + similar product logic + multiple accounts/packages repeated submissions

Initially, you might get:

Guideline 4.3(a) – Spam

Apple now even directly writes that it detected the app is similar to apps submitted by other developers in binary, metadata, and/or concept, with only minor differences. Such very explicit review text has already appeared in Apple forums.

That is, it doesn't just look at UI.

It may comprehensively judge:

Binary
→ Metadata
→ Concept
→ Assets
→ Historical submission relationships

But if Apple further believes:

You are not 'unintentionally making a similar app,' but rather continuously and systematically evading review or repeatedly submitting,

the issue may no longer stay at 4.3.

At this point, it easily escalates to 5.6.

Because Apple's 5.6 explicitly targets:

repeated manipulative or misleading behavior
and other fraudulent behavior.

In severe cases, it can directly affect the developer program account.

So I would understand it as:

4.3 = Apple thinks your 'package has a problem'

And:

5.6 = Apple starts to think your 'person/account/submission behavior has a problem'

A very typical example

Suppose you have three apps: A, B, C.

The underlying code is the same set, just:

• Changed UI;
• Changed Logo;
• Changed name;
• Changed some images;
• Changed Bundle ID.

After Apple detects this:

First stage:

4.3(a) Spam
Similar binary, metadata, or concept to other apps.

At this point, Apple's focus is still:

'This app is not independent enough.'

But if after rejection you continue:

Account A submits → rejected
↓
Change code details
↓
Account B submits
↓
Rejected again
↓
Continue changing accounts, Bundle IDs, assets to submit

If Apple connects these and determines you are evading the review mechanism, then the nature changes:

It's not just app similarity, but developer behavior issues.

This is where 5.6 risk significantly increases.

So your previous statement '5.6 is essentially 4.3' I would slightly revise

A more accurate statement is:

Many 5.6 cases may indeed originate from 4.3-type code, UI, or product similarity issues, but 5.6 is Apple escalating the problem from the 'app level' to the 'developer behavior and account credibility level.'

It can be understood as:

Highly similar code/UI/product
→ 4.3

If further combined with:

Repeated submissions + multiple package behavior + evading review + abnormal historical associations

→ May escalate to 5.6

So the approaches to handling the two issues cannot be exactly the same.

For 4.3, focus on rectifying the app.

This includes code structure, actual features, page design, content, product positioning, etc., to truly form an independent product, not just a simple reskin.

For 5.6, besides the app itself, you also need to address account-level credibility issues: why these submissions occurred, how to rectify in the future, what is the relationship between products, whether similar apps still exist, and how to ensure it won't happen again.

There is also a very key difference:

Apple states in 4.3(b) that repeatedly submitting low-quality/highly homogenized apps may also lead to removal from the Developer Program; so it's not only 5.6 that can get you banned. But with 5.6, the account itself has become the subject of review, and the risk is usually significantly higher.

One-sentence summary:

4.3 checks 'why your app is so similar to others'; 5.6 checks 'why you keep doing things Apple considers untrustworthy.'

If you recently encountered a 5.6 rejection message, send me the full screenshot or English original text of Apple's 5.6 rejection, and I can directly help you determine whether it is a '4.3-escalated 5.6', or other types of 5.6 such as account behavior, entity, metadata, payment/user deception, etc.